No abstract

For almost two decades now, cities around the country have been demolishing traditional public housing and relocating residents to subsidized private market rental housing. In this paper, we examine sense of place, consisting of both community and place attachment, among a sample of Atlanta public housing residents prior to relocation (N = 290). We find that 41% of the residents express place attachment, and a large percentage express some level of community attachment, though residents of senior public housing are far more attached than residents of family public housing. Positive neighborhood characteristics, such as collective efficacy and social support, are associated with community attachment, and social support is also associated with place attachment. Negative neighborhood characteristics, such as social disorder and fear of crime, are not consistently associated with sense of place. We argue that embodied in current public housing relocation initiatives is a real sense of loss among the residents. Policy makers may also want to consider the possibilities of drawing upon residents' sense of place as a resource for renovating and revitalizing public housing communities rather than continuing to demolish them and relocating residents to other neighborhoods.

Housing represents an important arena within which racial inequalities continue to manifest-a fact highlighted in housing audit studies and the substantial literature on racial residential segregation. In this article, we extend the insights of prior work by: (1) denoting the wide range of "exclusionary" discriminatory practices that transpire at distinct stages of the rental/sales process and that are too varied to be captured by any singular audit design; (2) analyzing something that audits simply cannot, namely discrimination that occurs within already established housing arrangements (i.e., nonexclusionary discrimination). We draw from qualitative and quantitative data truly unique to the literature, reflecting approximately 750 instances of housing discriminationdiscrimination verified by civil rights investigators following state and federal guidelines. Quantitative patterns denote unique and disparate vulnerability, especially for African American women, and the centrality of powerful institutional (i.e., banks, realtors, insurance companies, etc.) and more proximate actors (i.e., landlords and neighbors) in reifying racial disadvantage. Landlords are clearly on the "front line" with regard to both exclusionary and nonexclusionary forms. Neighbors, realtors, banks, and mortgage companies play a role as well, more or less, depending on the form of discrimination being examined. Qualitative immersion into case materials offers important insight on relevant processes pertaining to victim vulnerability and status, and how discriminatory actions themselves occur. We conclude by discussing the implications of our arguments and findings for future analyses of race and housing inequality, and for understanding stratification and its microinteractional dimensions generally.

Research on sexual harassment in the workplace is extensive, yet research on sexual harassment in housing is extremely limited. In this study, the author qualitatively analyzes 60 cases of sexual harassment in rental housing to expand on recent research addressing this topic by examining the forms and processes of housing-related sexual harassment in more detail, with a particular focus on class and race. This study reveals that sexual coercion is the most common form of sexual harassment for women in housing. It also demonstrates the intersections of race, gender, and class in shaping this harassment. Landlords used their institutional authority in the housing context and racialized gender stereotypes to exploit tenants'economic vulnerabilities and sexually coerce them. Landlords also used these strategies to defend themselves against complaints of harassment.

The literature on the meaning of "home" has generally focused on creating lists without giving much attention to the context that shapes meanings. Recently, scholars have argued that to understand "home" it is important to know the range of meanings that different people in different contexts give it. In this article, we focus on the meaning of "home" for public housing residents and consider how they construct the meaning of "home" and if they find that meaning in public housing. Our findings suggest that respondents consider their public housing residences to be "home," and they construct this meaning using the dimensions of home identified in the literature. However, how respondents used these dimensions were, in some ways, different because of the context of living in public housing. Respondents emphasized the social dimension, and this dimension appeared to organize the other dimensions. As such, our findings support arguments that context matters to the meaning of "home." They also suggest that policymakers need to broaden their understandings of public housing, as places that can be "home," and use this understanding when making decisions about housing transformations.