View Research by Author - Leah Hendey

Leah Hendey, a Research Associate at the Urban Institute, has focused on a range of policy issues including the foreclosure crisis, performance measurement, child care, child obesity, and city indicators. Projects that involve contextual analyses using city and metropolitan indicators have allowed her to develop an understanding of major national datasets including Census data, the American Communities Survey, BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics, CDC Natality data, FBI Uniform Crime Reporting data, and Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Data. Recently, Ms. Hendey has conducted research on the subprime and foreclosure crisis, using foreclosure data from the District of Columbia and for the evaluation of the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program and completed survey and report on foreclosure prevention counseling organizations in the Washington, D.C. area. She is also gathering and providing content for a knowledge-sharing website of the spillover effects of the foreclosure crisis on families and neighborhoods. Through her work with the Making Connections Survey, sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, she co-authored a cross-site report on early care and education patterns. Additionally, she has produced cross-site regression analyses on the patterns of asset- and debt-holding for low-income families in Making Connections Neighborhoods and is working on a new study investigating how these families have fared since the recession began. Since 2007, Ms. Hendey has become involved in the Urban Institute's work with the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP); she is a member of its Executive Committee and managed a school readiness and early grade success initiative for eight NNIP sites.

Before joining the Urban Institute, Ms. Hendey was a research fellow for the Center for Research on Children in the US (CROCUS), where she contributed to the evaluation of the universal pre-kindergarten program in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She received her Master of Public Policy from Georgetown University.

LHendey@urban.org

Publications

There is a growing recognition that the influence of residential mobility in shaping urban outcomes has been both seriously undervalued and badly understood. On April 26, Metro Center hosted an all-day symposium to begin to remedy these deficiencies. The day was devoted to the presentation and discussion of seven new papers by leading researchers in this field, with topics ranging from the varied nature of the moves that occur in low-income neighborhoods to their effects on spatial patterns and the well-being of families and neighborhoods.

Our analysis indicates a complex relationship between public housing transformation and crime in Chicago and Atlanta, though the efforts led to small net decreases in crime over a study period where crime declined significantly. In neighborhoods with public housing demolition, crime rates fell substantially, while in destination neighborhoods for households relocated with vouchers, they did not fall as much as expected. On average, neighborhoods with a modest or high density of relocated households saw higher crime rates than areas without relocated households. These findings suggest a need for thoughtful relocation strategies that support both assisted residents and receiving communities.

The Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area Foreclosure Monitor and its accompanying County Profiles are co-published quarterly by NeighborhoodInfo DC and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. The Monitor gives a snapshot of the impact of foreclosures on the region, as well as broader sales market trends. The Washington, D.C. metropolitan area continued to experience historically high rates of foreclosure and mortgage delinquency through the first quarter of 2011, while shares of delinquent loans continued to fall slowly. The region's housing market seems to have bottomed-out, but continuing economic worries could result in a sluggish recovery.

The Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area Foreclosure Monitor is a quarterly publication co-published by NeighborhoodInfo DC and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. The Monitor gives a snapshot of the current impact of foreclosures on the region, as well as the broader sales market context. The technical appendix describes the geography of the data and the methodology used to adjust the data and produce the indicators from the LPS Applied Analytics data on mortgage performance.

Using data from the Making Connections Cross-site Survey, this brief explores movement into and out of homeownership for families with children in selected low-income neighborhoods. We find that poor families and those with less home equity are more likely to move out of homeownership. With the reduction in home prices in many areas, brought on by the housing crisis, there are increasing opportunities for affordable homeownership. However, we find that two-parent and Hispanic families may be relatively more likely, and blacks and single-parent families relatively less likely, to take advantage of these new chances for homeownership.

Using data from the Making Connections Cross-site Survey, this fact finds that, on average, families would save about $276 per month in mortgage payments with a new five percent interest rate, 30-year mortgage. Lower interest rates both increase housing affordability and allow families to accumulate equity in their homes more quickly. This fact highlights the importance of improving financial literacy, information and education around mortgage pricing, and of helping families build good credit. Families included in the data live in selected low-income neighborhoods in six cities and were surveyed as part of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Making Connections initiative.

The Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area Foreclosure Monitor and its accompanying County Profiles are co-published quarterly by NeighborhoodInfo DC and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. The Monitor gives a snapshot of the impact of foreclosures on the region, as well as broader sales market trends. The Washington, D.C. metropolitan area continued to experience historically high rates of foreclosure and mortgage delinquency through 2010. The housing market appears to have stabilized in many parts of the region over the past year.

The Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area Foreclosure Monitor is a quarterly publication co-published by NeighborhoodInfo DC and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. The Monitor gives a snapshot of the current impact of foreclosures on the region, as well as the broader sales market context. The technical appendix describes the geography of the data and the methodology used to adjust the data and produce the indicators from the LPS Applied Analytics data on mortgage performance.

The Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area Foreclosure Monitor is a quarterly publication co-published by NeighborhoodInfo DC and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. The Monitor gives a snapshot of the current impact of foreclosures on the region, as well as the broader sales market context. The technical appendix describes the methodology used to adjust the data and produce the indicators from the LPS Applied Analytics data on mortgage performance.

The Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area Foreclosure Monitor is a quarterly publication co-published by NeighborhoodInfo DC and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. The Monitor gives a snapshot of the current impact of foreclosures on the region, as well as the broader sales market context. The technical appendix describes the methodology used to adjust the data and produce the indicators from the LPS Applied Analytics data on mortgage performance.

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