Racial Disparities in Access to Mortgage Credit: Does Governance Matter?*

Objectives. This article examines the effect of community organizing on the likelihood that minority borrowers pursue home mortgage credit from regulated lenders. Methods. Governance perspectives suggest that community organizations exert significant influence on policy outcomes. We use logistic regression with interaction terms to test the effect of community organizing on the lending outcomes of minority borrowers. We use a matched control sample of cities, drawing on 2004 loan data from two midwestern cities similar in racial and economic composition but with different histories of organizing around the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Results. We find differential effects based on an applicant's race or ethnicity. Overall, African‐American applicants are less likely to pursue mortgage credit for home ownership from regulated lenders than their white, non‐Hispanic counterparts. However, African Americans seeking mortgage credit in a city with a history of CRA organizing are more likely to apply to regulated lenders than their racial counterparts in a city without CRA organizing. However, while organizing reduces the disparities between white and African‐American applicants, a gap still remains. Conclusion. African‐American borrowers living in cities with a history of community organizing around CRA appear more likely to pursue mortgage credit from traditional, regulated lenders, suggesting that governance matters.     

Predation of artificial bird nests in suburban gardens of KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa

As urbanization increases, the identification of nest predators becomes important for avian conservation and management of urban wildlife communities. We investigated bird nest predation using artificial nests in urban areas of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province of South Africa. From June 2013 through February 2014 we installed seventy-five artificial nests in 25 suburban gardens in the Ethekwini and Msunduzi municipalities of KZN. Euplectes spp. nests were used and baited with two quail-sized, hand-made, silicon eggs. These were placed in residential gardens and monitored by camera traps for 2-weeks in winter, spring and summer respectively. Generally bird nesting occurs throughout the year in KZN’s subtropical climate, with some avoidance during the autumn season. Therefore, experiments were not conducted during autumn, as fresh nests were not available for use. Overall the rate of predation on artificial nests was 25 % (n = 19), with vervet monkeys Ceropithecus aethiops pygerythrus predating 20 % (n = 17) of the nests while domestic cats Felis catus predated 3 % (n = 2) of nests. Nest predation was significantly higher in the winter season, with 79 % of depredations occurring in winter (n = 15), 16 % in spring (n = 3) and 5 % in summer (n = 1), and in areas with less canopy cover. Our results suggest that vervet monkeys may have a negative impact on nesting birds in urban environments, however, in order to assess the rate of predation experiments on natural nests coupled with information on fledgling success is deemed necessary to investigate avian population declines.     

Hadeda Ibis (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Bostrychia hagedash</Emphasis>) urban nesting and roosting sites

Hadeda Ibis (Bostrychia hagedash) have increased in population size and expanded in range in South Africa possibly as a result of increased use of exotic trees for nesting and roosting in urban areas. We investigated the urban nesting and roosting sites of the Hadeda Ibis by measuring tree height and species used by Hadeda Ibis for nesting and roosting in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. We expected Hadeda Ibis nests and roosts to have habitats, like wetlands, to be within 10 km of the roost or nest tree. Hadeda Ibis nest and roost locations were mapped using ArcGIS and available resources (grasslands, wetlands, plantations, other natural water sources) 10 km around each roost and nest tree were determined. Results showed that Hadeda Ibis use exotic trees for nesting and roosting in urban areas more than indigenous trees. This may be because exotic trees are more available in urban environments, particularly those trees that have ornamental value. Hadeda Ibis did not nest and roost closer to expected resources. Although previously associated with wetlands, Hadeda Ibis in urban environments were not close to natural water sources. This can be explained by swimming pools providing accessible drinking water and well watered lawns providing suitable foraging habitat therefore allowing them to roost and nest in this urban habitat.     

The essence of being connected: the lived experience of mothers with young children in newer residential areas

Parenthood is a significant life transition and a time of increased social support need. In newer residential areas, a lag in social infrastructure and family relocation can influence potential isolation of families with young children. This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of being connected to local communities for mothers with children aged 0–5 years. Family insights were obtained through in-depth interviews with 12 mothers who were primary caregivers, homeowners and living in newer residential areas in outer suburban Perth, Western Australia. For mothers with young children, being connected to the local community appears to be shaped from their past and present lived experience as well as future aspirations. Connectedness evolves and may develop more slowly in newer communities where social relationships and networks are often recently formed. ‘Interaction’, ‘knowing what's going on’ and ‘help is nearby if you need it’ were identified as the essential themes of connectedness for mothers and families in this study. Belonging was identified as an incidental theme as not all mothers who felt connected felt like they belonged. The findings provide insight for professionals and agencies working with families with young children as well as planners of newer residential areas.     

Comparison of Adolescents' Reports of Sexual Behavior on a Survey and Sexual Health History Calendar

Assessing sexual risk is critical for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention with adolescents. This article compares sexual risk reports from two self-administered instruments, a standard survey and a sexual health history calendar (SHHC), among racially diverse youth (n = 232) ages 14 to 21 seeking services at a public health clinic. Agreement between methods was assessed using Lin's concordance correlation coefficients (CCC) and Bland-Altman plots. Lin's CCC showed poor to moderate agreement between instruments on reports of sexual partners in the past 3 (0.47), 6 (0.55), and 12 (0.49) months. While individual sexual partner questions were refused a total of 179 times on the survey, youth reported having sexual partners during the same time period on the SHHC in most (77.1%) of these instances. Poor agreement was also found for condom use frequency (CCC = 0.17), with youth's frequency of condom use on the SHHC differing from that reported on the survey for more than half (55.6%) of the months they were sexually active. While lack of objective sexual behavior measures limits conclusions about the accuracy of reports, the ways in which youth's responses varied across instruments may offer insight into the complexity of adolescent sexual risk taking as well as have important implications for development of HIV/STI preventive interventions.     

Provider Preparedness for Treatment of Co-occurring Disorders: Comparison of Social Workers and Alcohol and Drug Counselors

Substance use and mental health disorders remain significant behavioral health concerns in the United States and other Western nations. Nearly half of the 20.3 million adults with substance use disorders in the US have a co-occurring mental illness . Despite growing research support, integrated treatment by providers with expertise in both mental health and substance use is critically lacking. As part of a co-occurring disorders (COD) training initiative in the USA, this study investigated providers' (n = 438) past training, current COD service provision, and future training needs. Specifically, we examined the extent to which social workers were prepared to treat individuals with COD compared to alcohol and drug counselors. Unsurprisingly, social workers reported receiving significantly more mental health related training, while alcohol and drug counselors reported more substance use related training. Alcohol and drug counselors reported significantly more COD-specific training including general COD, psychopharmacology, COD treatment, and relapse prevention. Social workers were significantly more likely than alcohol and drug counselors to report wanting more training in substance use disorders and culturally-specific intervention techniques. These findings suggest that tailored training and licensure changes are needed to enhance social workers' capacity for competent COD treatment.     

A toolkit for accessible and respectful engagement in research

Social, scientific, and ethical factors underscore the value of respectfully including people with intellectual/developmental disabilities in research despite significant barriers to their research participation. In pursuit of this goal, we worked with two research advisors with intellectual/developmental disabilities to develop a qualitative study toolkit emphasizing accessibility, flexibility, variety, and responsiveness. The toolkit includes procedures and materials for recruitment, consent, interview locations and questions, breaks, and incentives. We recommend that future research utilizes insights of individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities in research that impacts their lives, and that researchers systematically improve the use of procedures and toolkits.     

Materializing Strategy in Mundane Tools: the Key to Coupling Global Strategy and Local Strategy Practice?

While much of the literature on strategy and strategy as practice (SaP) focuses on traditional strategic tools, technologies and discursive practices of managers, this paper extends the understanding of strategic change implementation by proposing that mundane material tools, understood as text, translate global strategic discourse in ways that make sense to workers and orchestrate successful global strategy implementation at the local level. Based on a rich case study within one branch of a national bank, this paper demonstrates how a middle manager's materializing practices developed local strategy practice while simultaneously transforming work and producing strategic figures or indicators that satisfied senior management's global strategic change objectives. The contributions of this paper are threefold: (i) it advances the understanding of the multimodality of materiality by identifying the influence of three types of mundane tools produced locally by a middle manager as he performed his sense of the senior managers’ strategic discourse; (ii) it reveals how these three types of physical texts materialized the manager's sense of this discourse, facilitating frontline workers’ engagement and coupling materiality and orality in a coherent way that allowed workers to embody the company's global strategy in their ‘sayings and doings’; and (iii) it highlights the importance of managers’ ability to materialize a strategic discourse.     

Diet of the crowned eagle (Stephanoaetus coronatus) in an urban landscape: potential for human-wildlife conflict?

Urban Ecosystems - The study of diet is pivotal in understanding a species, particularly for quantifying a predatory raptors’ economic niche and potential for human-wildlife conflict. The...