Return to search

BEYOND DOLLARS AND CENTS: NON-FINANCIAL IMPACTS AND IMPLICATIONS OF THE FORECLOSURE CRISIS FOR LOW-INCOME MINORITY COMMUNITIES

This paper provides an examination of the foreclosure crisis from the perspective of community-based organizations (CBOs), aspiring low-income homeowners, and very low-income households. It looks backward to examine the long-term success of low-income homeowners who purchased a home from a CBO, comparing foreclosure outcomes with a random community sample. It also explores two current populationsaspiring homeowners and very low-income rentersto understand how neighborhood foreclosures affect psychological and social processes and overall neighborhood confidence. Results indicated that CBO home purchasers were less likely to experience a foreclosure and more likely to still be living in their home. Results of analyses with aspiring homeowners found that sense of community was the strongest predictor of neighborhood confidence. However, perceptions that neighborhood crime and foreclosures were worsening negatively predicted sense of community. Therefore, sense of community was shown to partially mediate the relationship between perceptions about foreclosures and neighborhood confidence. Hierarchical linear models (HLM) also confirmed a negative relationship between the actual neighborhood foreclosure rate and sense of community. Thus, concentrated foreclosures appear to reduce confidence in a neighborhood by negatively impacting sense of community. In addition, analyses of very low-income households found perceptions that crime was worsening to negatively predict general well-being. Overall, findings indicate that neighborhood foreclosures have a negative impact on psycho-social processes associated with healthy, stable neighborhoods. This suggests that future CBO neighborhood stabilization efforts should also include deliberate community-building strategies in addition to property rehabilitation.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-07312012-164259
Date06 August 2012
CreatorsCooper, Daniel Gordon
ContributorsDouglas D. Perkins, Paul W. Speer, Susan C. Saegert, Philip Ashton
PublisherVANDERBILT
Source SetsVanderbilt University Theses
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-07312012-164259/
Rightsunrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

Page generated in 0.0021 seconds