Related UI Researchers

Publications on US Cities/Communities

Susan Popkin, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute and an expert on public housing, has been named the director of the Institute’s new Program on Neighborhoods and Youth Development.

Baltimore participated in a 2004 National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) pilot project to enhance local capacity to manage land markets through innovative use of parcel-level information. The city already had a program in place to acquire and re-market abandoned properties. The NNIP project focused on helping officials use the program-generated property information for more effective land management. New information systems were created to manage the complex business rules, to store the property data, and to provide staff with desktop access to information. An integrated disposition system reduced staff time, improved performance, and enhanced the city's service to its business partners.

Presentation at Reentry Housing Forum, "Reducing the Revolving Door of Incarceration and Homelessness in the District of Columbia." Gives information on the number of people using jail only; shelter only; jail and shelter; jail, shelter, and Fire and Emergency Medical Services (FEMS); multiple spells in each, days in each, and a mental illness disability, for people using the D.C. Jail between October 1, 2004 and March 31, 2008, public emergency shelters between October 1, 2005 and September 30, 2007, and FEMS between January 1 and August 31, 2008. It also presents costs to the three systems providing data.

This, the fourth evaluation report for this project, describes extensive developments in Los Angeles during 2007-2008 and how they build on earlier work. The pipeline for permanent supportive housing is expanding, as are activities to improve the health of homeless people, smooth the transition from jail to community, and address the needs of the most vulnerable homeless people. Numerous coordinating and collaborating structures have begun or are expanding as part of these developments. Cautious optimism is in order compared to four years ago, but there is still a long way to go.

A National Academy of Sciences report addresses the science-or lack thereof-in America's crime labs and criminal justice system. John Roman explains why a new era of scientific policing may be at hand.