Racial Differences on Well-Being among Aged and Disabled Public Housing Residents

This research examined racial differences in well-being among aged and disabled public housing residents. Predictors of interest to this research included health and functional status, income and income adequacy, social integration, and residential preference and perception of environmental quality. Participants in this research included a random sample of 427 (186 white and 241 black) aged and disabled public housing residents. Findings from this research indicate that environmental perception and preference along with health are of greater importance among white residents while among blacks health and income adequacy are more critical in determining moral among aged and disabled public housing residents.     

Racial Differences in Sexual and Fertility Attitudes in an Urban Setting

Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (neighborhood N= 77; individual N= 951), we consider the extent to which African American youth maintain sexual and fertility‐related norms that support early sexual activity and childbearing and examine the robustness of racial differences in sexual attitudes to controls for neighborhood, family, and individual characteristics. At a minimum, neighborhood economic disadvantage accounts for 26% of the baseline increased likelihood of holding attitudes that encourage early sexual activity among African American youth when compared with Whites. Neighborhood‐, family‐, and individual‐level factors account for 67% of the race difference in sexual attitudes. Implications for contextual and race‐based theories of sexual and fertility norms are discussed.     

Urban/Rural Elderly Health Status Differences

Health policy research analyzes urban/rural differences as a simple dichotomy. Research characterizes the rural elderly as having a higher incidence of sickness, dysfunction, disability, restricted mobility, and acute and chronic conditions than their urban counterparts. However, population density as a dichotomy may obscure urban, rural, or urban/rural differences. Interviews measuring health status were conducted with a representative sample of 2,300 elderly people in six Northeastern Ohio counties constituting an urban/rural continuum. On medical condition, use of medical aids, and symptoms, health status improved significantly when moving from rural to urban, but correlations were small. Using dichotomies, urban elderly reported fewer medical conditions and symptoms than rural elderly, but four other health-status variables revealed no significant association and results differed depending on how dichotomies were defined. When individual communities were compared few urban/ rural patterns emerged. Controlling for demographics did not change interpretations. Findings question blanket assertions about urban/rural health-status differences. Medical resources may be misallocated. Rather than assuming poor health status among the rural elderly, researchers must verify differences through community-based research.     

Shelter Poverty and the Elderly

The conventional percent-of-income standard of housing affordability is challenged as arbitrary and logically inconsistent. An alternative, sliding scale of affordability is conceptualized; households paying more than they can afford on this standard are called "shelter poor." The shelter-pover scale is operationalized for elderly households of one person an two or more persons and applied to data from the 1985 American Housing Survey. It is found that 31% of all elderly households were shelter poor in 1985, compared with 45% paying 25% or more of their incomes for housing. The shelter-poverty approach suggests that the housing affordability problem is less severe among middle-income elders than the conventional standard implies, but more severe among low-income elderly. Some of the policy implications of the findings are briefly sketched, in terms of income supports as well as housing provision.     

Stability in the Social Support Networks of Homeless Families in Shelter: Findings From a Study of Families in a Faith-Based Shelter Program

The following article outlines a longitudinal study tracking changes of the social support networks of 28 homeless families in shelter. Weekly changes in support networks of homeless mothers were tracked including 482 dyadic ties between mothers and supportive persons. Findings suggested that informal social support and persons who provided emotional support were significantly more stable forms of support in the mothers' lives throughout their shelter stay. Time was found to be a significant predictor of financial well-being and housing stability at shelter exit, but characteristics of the supportive ties were not. Implications for family social work and research practice are presented.     

Street as Metaphor in Housing for the Homeless

This article examines the multivalenced meaning of “street” in a nonprofit shared housing project for chronically homeless street people in Toronto. Findings suggest the importance of the design of the built environment in facilitating a sense of empowerment for residents. The street becomes a marker of identity, a boundary where public and private meet, where marginality is reconfigured, where a sense of community thrives, and where the performance of arrivals and departures is spatially, aurally, and visually mapped.     

Racial Differences in Perceptions of Affluence

Abstract

This study examines perceptions held by inner-city blacks and whites of the extent of affluence in America. Blacks generally tend to believe that affluence is more widespread than do whites, although substantial variation in racial differences occurs across sex and age categories. Controls for socio-economic characteristics have little effect on racial differences in perceptions of affluence. The analysis suggests that race has an effect on perceptions of affluence that is independent of the effects of social class.     

Housing Policy and the Elderly

Subsidized senior high-rise apartments have tended to neglect the needs of an increasingly aged and frail resident population. Research demonstrates that this population has greater unmet needs than elderly who reside in traditional community housing. This paper makes the case for enriched senior high-rise apartments as a viable alternative for elders who need assistance in order to maintain an independent lifestyle.     

The Contribution of Sheltered Accommodation to the Housing of the Elderly in a Rural and an Urban Area of Wales

The primary objective of Government policy for the care of the elderly is to enable old people to live independent lives in the community for as long as possible. To facilitate this, recent policies have switched the emphasis away from long-term institutional care to the provision of care within the community. An integral aspect of this has been the provision of sheltered housing, with or without additional facilities and backed up by domiciliary and community services. This paper examines the contribution made by sheltered dwellings to the accomodation of the elderly in two areas of Wales, by comparing the characteristics of those resident in sheltered schemes with those residing in non-specialist accommodation.     

Housing Preferences of Suburban Elderly in Minnesota

This article reports on a study of older people's interest in relocating to retirement housing and their preferences for various housing features. It is based on data from a 1984 survey of 908 households with at least one member over age 55 in Minnetonka, Minnesota, an affluent suburb of Minneapolis. The purpose was to determine what subgroups are most likely to be interested in relocating to elderly housing and what types of housing they prefer. Age, income, marital status, and gender were found to be significantly related to interest in relocation.     

Racial and Ethnic Differences in Family Caregiving in California

Abstract

Family caregivers are the main source of long-term care for older persons in the United States. At the same time, cultural values and beliefs shape decisions surrounding who provides care and whether families use formal support interventions to assist the caregiver. The current article examines how the family caregiving experience differs among racial and ethnic groups in terms of caregiver characteristics, service utilization, caregiver strain, and coping mechanisms. Telephone interviews were conducted in English and Spanish with a random sample of 1,643 respondents in California who provide care to someone age 50 or over. Bivariate analyses showed evidence of ethnic differences in the demographic characteristics of caregivers, intensity of care provided, caregiver health, level of financial strain, religious service attendance, formal service utilization and barriers to formal services. Odds ratios showed that White and African American caregivers were about two times as likely to use formal caregiver services as were Asian/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and Latina American caregivers. Implied by these findings is the need for further understanding of caregiver service needs among diverse racial and ethnic groups.     

Racial Residential Segregation in Urban America

There are numerous causes and consequences of racial residential segregation in American metropolitan areas, and a long-standing literature is filled with debates about them. We provide an overview of the trends and patterns regarding racial residential segregation, focusing primarily on blacks and whites. We pay special attention to the competing arguments about race and class in the context of residential stratification. We then discuss the many causes of residential segregation, and its social and economic consequences. After the overview, we identify key gaps in the literature. We discuss three broad substantive areas of research that expand the study of racial residential segregation: (i) the everyday experiences of race, class, and gender disadvantage as they are related to segregation; (ii) contemporary immigration streams and their impact on black-white residential dynamics; and (iii) the power of political-economic forces to transform residentially segregated spaces, with a particular emphasis on processes related to gentrification and home mortgage lending.     

Matching Congregate Housing Settings with a Diverse Elderly Population

No abstract available for this article.     

Political Correctness and the Study of Racial Differences

I tabulate international data showing Africans and Asians scoring at opposite ends of a continuum with Europeans falling in the middle. This Asian-European-African gradient occurs in mean scores on a long list of characteristics including brain size, crime, sex hormones, sexual behavior, personality, family stability, speed of physical maturation, twinning rate, and social organization. It seems to me that only evolutionary theories are able to fully explain the consistency of the pattern across so many variables. Theories about social inequalities and social problems may need to be revised in the light of this new in/onnation. This challenge to the social science orthodoxy brought political correctness out in force against me, some examples of which I document here. However, numerous benefits derive from studying race particularly in the field of medicine which I illustrate with special emphasis on AIDS. I conclude that if more scientists would speak openly about the views they now voice only in private, our world would become not only a safer place, but a more enlightened one as well.     

Pension Funds and Housing for the Elderly

No abstract available for this article.