An Evaluation of the Allegheny County Neighborhood Preservation Program

Abstract

7he Allegheny County Neighborhood Preservation Program has generated over $ve million dollars worth of housing rehabilitation in the three years in which it has been operating. 7his article is an evaluation of Phase I of the program. It compares loan recipients and non-recipients in order to determine which of the program components are the most important, which factors influence a households investment decision, and what effect investment has on the perceptions of residents regarding the quality of both housing and the neighborhood.

Evaluating and redesigning subsidy policies for home rehabilitation

“…Given a block-face consisting of fifteen homes, the above figures suggest an aggregate indirect leveraging of $910 annually per block, or S0.38 per S 1 grant or loan on that block. 19 If one is more conservative and assumes that it takes 'targeting' of three aided homeowners before blockwide confidence is boosted (Swanson and Dukes 1980;Varady 1986), the one obtains an indirect leveraging effect of S0.10 per S1 subsidy; a figure comparable to that estimated by Ginsberg (1983) and McConney (1985). Given our imperfect estimate of the pessimism-nearby subsidy recipient relationship and the aforementioned findings of others, we would assess S0.38 as an upper bound for indirect leveraging.…”

“…It is not surprising that previous evaluations have used proxies for home rehabilitation subsidy benefits which fall well short from those above (see Poister and Magoun 1979, Swanson and Dukes 1980, U.S. Dept. of H.U.D.…”