Optimal stabilization policies for housing activity

The usual approach in econometric modeling is to assume that the behavior of government agencies is exogenous. In this paper we have suggested that the policies of government agencies are not truly exogenous and should be studied in relation to the specific objectives pursued by these agencies.Within this framework, we investigated the implications of optimizing the behavior of two U.S. government agencies, Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) and Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), involved in the housing market. The technique we have utilized is dynamic programming.Based on the assumption that there agencies attempt to stabilize the housing market we have calculated the values for the optimal strategies in the past years and compared them with the historical patterns they have actually followed. Our interpretation of the behavior of these agencies is as follows: FHLB has a significant potential for housing stabilization. However, it has historically put more emphasis on keeping a uniform policy than stabilizing the housing activity. In this way, the role it has played in the housing market may be more destabilizing than stabilizing. On the other hand, FNMA's activity has had a rather uncertain effect on the housing stabilization. The conservative policies that FNMA has followed in the past are consistent with the uncertainties implicit in decision making but, at the same time, can be blamed for failing to create sufficient information regarding their effectiveness on the housing stabilization.     

The Resurgence of Community Centres

Small community centres have mushroomed in numbers during the 1980s. Most State welfare departments have announced policies and funding programs to support these centres. These policies espouse potentially conflicting purposes. They include the community development goal of mobilising the community through self help ventures, the reform of the social service delivery system via a local base for better services, and the devolution of welfare responsibilities from central government agencies to community groups.     

Social Contexts and Coping Strategies of Foreign Wives in Korea: Using a Conceptual Framework of Social Identity Theory

This study aimed to address the social contexts of Korean society in which diverse social interactions of foreign wives take place and to identify coping strategies to construct positive social identities. Social identities are often reconstructed as a result of dynamic interactions with various situations. Using the conceptual framework of social identity theory, this study attempted to uncover the social contexts that shape foreign wives' social identities. This study, using the qualitative approach, selected nine Filipino and Vietnamese participants who were married to Korean men. The data were collected by in‐depth interviews, a focus group with three Vietnamese participants, field notes, participant observation, and photo documents. In the section on study findings, this study addressed Korean social contexts, in which Korean government has been providing a variety of multicultural policies and services for helping foreign wives successfully adapt to Korea. This study also found various forms of stereotypes and discrimination against foreign wives and presented their discrimination experiences. Diverse ways to cope with such negative experiences are presented in the last section. Given the findings, the researcher suggests that policies and programs should promote foreign wives' integration in Korean society.     

Social inclusion under Labor in South Australia

Social inclusion policies were championed by the former Rann Labor government in South Australia from 2002 to 2011. In 2011 the Social Inclusion Unit was dissolved by the South Australian government. It is argued that the relatively narrow focus of the former SIU on ‘problem’ communities limited its capacity to provide more than residual solutions. The diminishing political returns on social inclusion also encouraged the South Australian government to abandon this initiative. In 2014 this government has had to grapple with the end of car making in Australia and a declining manufacturing labour force, traditionally a ‘mainstream’ constituency of the Labor Party. The return to ‘mainstreaming’ social policy in South Australia might offer limited space for realignment of social policy with the concept of social citizenship. It might also represent a move away from the functionalist morality of social inclusion. Social inclusion as practiced in South Australia has limited capacity to address generalised social disadvantage. The latter is likely to concern a re‐elected Labor minority government grappling with significant job losses and a declining local economy.     

农业农村发展中的政府与市场、社会：一个分析框架

统筹城乡发展要求政府承担促进农业农村发展的责任。我国政府以国家干预、政府主导为特征的农业农村政策,在农业发展、农民增收和城乡协调发展等方面都已取得较大进展,但现有农业政策在提高农业生产率方面的限度日益显现。有鉴于此,急需构建一个政府调控和引导农业农村发展的新的分析框架,在其中,政府需要界分与市场、农村社会组织之间的行为边界,在充分尊重市场配置资源的基础性作用、尊重农村社会自主管理的基础上,体现政府职能的＂兜底＂特征;而且,政府在构建市场/社会运行的基本制度、匡正和补充市场/社会失灵、培育市场/社会主体等职能中需要进行逻辑先后排序。应用这一新分析框架,加强和改善政府对农业农村发展的调控和引导,就需要基于农业市场化取向改革农村基本经营制度和农业支持保护体系,注重对农业生产市场主体的培育;需要以政府为主体构建城乡一体化的基本公共服务体系,创新农村社会管理体制,充分调动社会力量参与公共事务治理;需要基于城乡一体化要求重构政府行政管理体制,确保农业农村发展政策的落实。     

Anti‐Poverty Family Policies in China: A Critical Evaluation

Despite its rapid economic growth, China remains a developing country facing serious challenges of poverty and inequality. This article examines the development and effectiveness of China's primary anti‐poverty family policy, the Minimum Living Standard Assurance (MLSA, or Dibao). Using rich administrative data and building on the existing literature, this article provides a critical evaluation of MLSA's benefit generosity, coverage, targeting, and anti‐poverty effectiveness. To help reinforce MLSA's anti‐poverty impacts, local governments in recent years have implemented a series of supplementary policies and programs, including health, education, housing, and work support programs. This article also provides an assessment of these supplementary policies and programs and draws policy implications for the ongoing expansion of the Chinese government's anti‐poverty efforts.     

Conceptualising disability: A critical comparison between Indigenous people in Australia and New South Wales disability service agencies

The lack of culturally appropriate services contributes to the low participation rate of Indigenous people in disability services. Understanding how disability is conceptualised is essential to developing culturally appropriate disability services. This study aimed to critically compare the conceptualisation of disability between Indigenous people and NSW government and non‐government disability service agencies. Indigenous and policy sources were obtained from purposive and snowball sampling. The Indigenous conceptualisation of disability was understood through representations by Indigenous spokespeople in journal and newspaper articles and audiovisual materials. The disability service agency conceptualisation of disability was represented through the annual reports and programme guidelines of the NSW government agency and seven non‐government disability agencies. The occupational justice framework guided critical analysis at the cultural interface. Four themes were identified: power and self‐determination, eligibility, otherness, and identity and labels. Data showed disability agencies promote self‐determination for Indigenous people and conceptualise disability as impairments affecting functioning, when assessing service access eligibility. Most Indigenous people do not self‐identify as disabled and are categorised as culturally different within policies. Indigenous people experience marginalisation due to their cultural identity. Indigenous people are required to conform to the conceptualisation of disability proffered by agencies to access services. To develop culturally appropriate services, agencies must collaborate with Indigenous communities.     

Low-Income Women Speak out About Housing: A High-Stakes Game of Musical Chairs

This review of the social science literature examines correlates of homelessness. The review is supplemented by the voices of 12 low-income women who are temporarily housed or living in public housing. Homelessness for women is associated with teen pregnancy and parenting, domestic violence, working at minimum-wage jobs, and waiting lists of several years for subsidized housing. We conclude with a summary of women's experiences accessing government housing programs. Public policy recommendations regarding housing programs are made. Government housing programs are briefly described in an Appendix to the article.     

Policy approaches to addressing Aboriginal social inclusion in South Australia

The concept of social inclusion has been influential in shaping many aspects of social policy in Australia over the past decade. In SA the Rann Labor government established a Social Inclusion Board in 2002, which made an important contribution to development of the SA Strategic Plan that framed SA policy directions under that government. This article considers the relevance of the concept of social inclusion for addressing the disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal South Australians. It examines the SA Social Inclusion initiative and some national measures such as the Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage and Closing the Gap initiatives and discusses the appropriateness of the methodology adopted. A number of issues are addressed: the extent of Indigenous involvement in setting targets and devising programs to achieve improved social outcomes, the relevance of the targets identified, and the problem of overlapping policy initiatives at state and national level obscuring the measurement of change against specific indicators. A particular concern is that the social inclusion approach embedded in these policies pays too little attention to the priorities and preferences of Aboriginal people and interprets ‘inclusion’ in ways that assert the cultural paradigm of non‐Indigenous Australians.     

Creating High‐Technology Growth: High‐Tech Employment Growth in U.S. Metropolitan Areas, 1988–1998*

Objective. Growth in the share of high‐technology employment is critical to discussions of the postindustrial transition. Do new state and local technology policies create growth in the share of high‐technology employment? This article examines this question along with the effects of location and agglomeration advantages, identifying sources of qualitative growth in the U.S. economy. Methods. We examine change in the share of high‐technology employment in metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the United States between 1988 and 1998. High‐technology employment is measured from the BLS Current Employment Statistics Survey. The scale of state and local technology policies are measured from a comprehensive survey of state and local technology programs. A generalized linear model (GLM) estimates the effects of technology policies along with regional proximity, location, and agglomeration factors. Results. Technology grant and loan programs and research parks have direct effects on the share of high‐technology employment, along with private venture capital firms and military R&D. Research parks also magnify the effects of private venture capital firms, while public venture programs and technology development policies compensate for agglomeration deficits. Rapid population growth provides a more conducive context for these policies but does not directly influence growth in the share of high‐technology jobs. Conclusion. State and local technology policies compensate for and magnify the effects of agglomeration advantages, indicating that state and local government can play a strategic role in high‐technology development.     

Approaches to Homelessness Policy in Europe, the United States, and Australia

Workable and effective policies addressing homelessness need to be based on a clear definition of homelessness. This overview of recent policies in the European Union, the U.S., and Australia shows that, even at the very basic level of being able to define and enumerate the homeless, policy approaches are extremely variable. Research indicates the growing significance of the "new homeless," consisting of families, women, and children. Homelessness also needs to be seen as something dynamic that may involve movement into and out of housing and other supports over time. Older policies that address only limited kinds of homelessness and which do not recognize the dynamics involved are likely to be less effective. "Good practice" policy incorporates these changing understandings of homelessness by addressing the housing, psychological and social needs of the homeless, as well as integrating across programs and increasing independence through capacity building .     

Challenging the exclusion of people with mental illness: the Mental Health Housing and Accommodation Support Initiative (HASI)

Without appropriate support, people with mental illness can be excluded from stable housing and social and community participation. Transitional models of support for people with acute mental illness have addressed clinical symptoms and hospitalisation, but they have not facilitated stable housing and community integration. In contrast, individualised housing models aim to improve mental health, housing and community outcomes. These programs are costly and require collaboration between agencies. This article discusses the evaluation findings of one such program – the NSW Mental Health Housing and Accommodation Support Initiative (HASI). The longitudinal mixed‐method evaluation assessed whether HASI supported people with high levels of psychiatric disability to improve housing, mental health and community participation. We discuss the challenges clients within the program faced prior to joining HASI and the changes experienced while in HASI. We conclude by drawing policy implications for programs supporting people with mental illness to live in the community.     

Child Protection Social Work: Risks of Fears and Fears of Risks – Impossible Tasks from Impossible Goals?

This article examines the relationship between the causes and effects of fear in child protection social workers, and the effects of risk assessment and risk management policies on this area of work. The focus on risk assessment and risk management has become a major area of attention within practice, policy and management of child protection work in the UK in recent years. Concepts of risk as constructed by the media, government and the public are increasingly impacting upon professional practices. This article examines the basis and validity of risk assessments in the social professions field, and particularly within the child protection arena. The article goes on to examine the experiences of fear arising from the risk agenda, which affects frontline workers, managers and child protection agencies. This agenda arises from centrally produced risk assessment frameworks, alongside unrealistic expectations from central government of prediction of risk by the use of current risk assessment tools. Such controlling policies from central government can lead to fear and anxiety in social work professionals of not assessing and eliminating risk, as the government and their employing agencies are expecting them to do. The article also proposes that this risk agenda fails to address a key element in the assessment of risk – how social workers experience threats and stress in their work, and the pressures they can be subject to within it, particularly in relation to violence and threats from parent service users where their children are being investigated for possible child abuse.     

A price worth paying? Accountability,red tape and the regulation of affordable housing

Although it is not a pressing social problem in the same way as, for example, poverty, child abuse, or climate change, red tape causes frustrations for many working in public and private sector organisations, perhaps even more than for the ordinary citizen dealing with large government agencies. This paper will explore some dimensions of this contentious issue. It will consider the positive view of regulation advanced by regulation theorists, and some qualitative researchers associated with this tradition. Drawing on a qualitative research study concerning the regulation of affordable housing in Australia, it examines the nature of administrative burdens. It is suggested that three factors lead to the perception of red tape: whether regulation is seen as making a difference to services beyond accountability; whether the measures used are meaningful; and the resources available for compliance. Qualitative researchers can help those in government seeking to reduce administrative burdens by supplying realistic accounts that address the views and experiences of those subject to regulation.     

COVID‐19 and social work practice for older adults in China

After the spread of COVID‐19, the Chinese central government has issued a series of policies and regulations to guide the prevention and control of the epidemic in the elderly care industry. Social workers provided a series of services for older adults in nursing homes and in the community. All efforts made by government agencies and social workers have helped older adults go through the difficult time.     

The role of local government in migrant and refugee settlement in regional and rural Australia

Government responsibility for the settlement of newly arrived refugees and migrants in Australia is shared between the federal, state and local levels. While Australia's settlement policies are predominantly top‐down and Commonwealth driven with some state involvement, local government has the potential to play a greater role in facilitating the settlement of newly arrived migrants and refugees. A growing body of literature in Australia and overseas highlights the role of local‐level policies in supporting integration and social cohesion, which is arguably even more crucial in the context of migrant and refugee settlement in regional and rural areas. This paper draws on focus groups with 90 local stakeholders in eight local government areas in Victoria to propose a typology of local government involvement that shows the variable but potentially significant role of local government in the regional and rural settlement of recent arrivals. We argue that Australia's over 560 local governments provide crucial but underutilised governance resources for improving the settlement process. This finding has implications for settlement policies and funding, intergovernmental coordination, and the retention of migrants and refugees in regional and rural communities in Australia.     

Government perspectives on housing,technology and support design within Australia's National Disability Strategy

Australia's National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is a significant disability reform and part of a 10‐year National Disability Strategy that aims to build well‐being and inclusion of Australians with disability. Housing is recognised as a key determinant of health. Transition of state‐funded supported accommodation to an NDIS, within the new Specialist Disability Accommodation framework, aims to deliver housing responses that positively influence NDIS participant outcomes. This study aimed to gather perspectives of government disability and housing representatives on current opportunities and issues for Australians with disability. The study investigated four key research questions, relating to built design; integrated technologies; the relationship between housing and support provision; and community precinct design. Nineteen government representatives from seven of the eight Australian states and territories participated in a roundtable focus group in Melbourne, Australia (March 2017). Focus group data were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. Twelve themes were identified in response to the research questions identified. Key policy and practice implications were highlighted. This research offers insights from government that can contribute to strategic housing, technology, support and community design decisions and Australia's National Disability Strategy, to deliver improved outcomes for people with disability.     

Domestic violence, poverty, and social services: does location matter?

Objective. This study investigates whether or not domestic violence agencies are located in areas of need. Recent research indicates that community economic disadvantage is a risk factor for intimate partner violence, but related questions regarding the geographic location of social service agencies have not been investigated.Methods. Using Connecticut as a case study, we analyze the relationship of agency location and police-reported domestic violence incidents and assaults using OLS regression and correcting for spatial autocorrelation.Results. The presence of an agency within a town has no relationship with the rates of domestic violence. However, regional patterns are evident.Conclusion. Findings indicate that programs are not geographically mismatched with need, but neither are programs located in towns with higher rates of incidents or assaults. Future research and planning efforts should consider the geographic location of agencies.     

Housing and the Social Exclusion Agenda in England

In the period immediately following its election in 1997 the current Labour government in the UK declared a commitment to ‘combating social exclusion’ to be at the core of the domestic policy agenda. The interpretation of the term ‘social exclusion’ has been the source of extensive debate. This paper focuses on one aspect of the current debate, exploring the relationship between housing and social exclusion, both in theory and in contemporary central government policy in England. I argue that theoretical imprecision is a very real issue, not least because it allows policy makers to refer to rather vague causal mechanisms or social processes to justify actions and interventions. I identify some of the areas that require further exploration and theoretical development if we are to have a rigorous understanding of the concept of social exclusion and its link to housing. Most fundamentally, I suggest that the question of whether the concept of ‘social exclusion’ contributes anything valuable to our ability to understand social disadvantage needs to be addressed directly.     

Financial self‐sufficiency or return to welfare? A longitudinal study of mothers among the working poor

Cheng T. Financial self‐sufficiency or return to welfare? A longitudinal study of mothers among the working poor Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 162–172 © 2010 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and International Journal of Social Welfare. This study investigated how working‐poor mothers who withdrew from a US government assistance program were affected by the economy, welfare reform policies, and their own human capital, in terms of their likelihood of returning to welfare and their likelihood of becoming nonpoor through work. The study employed longitudinal data (covering 42 months) extracted from a national data set. The sample for the current study, which relied on event history analysis, consisted of 228 working‐poor former welfare mothers. Results showed that the women's return to welfare was correlated to high unemployment, restrictive welfare policies, enrollment in Medicaid and food‐stamp programs, possession of service‐job skills, and being Hispanic. The women were most likely to attain relative financial independence in the presence of generous government assistance program policies, housing assistance, full‐time employment, operative‐job skills, college education, and marriage. African American ethnicity also made achievement of financial independence more likely.