74-003 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

tenants, at the same time as supply is decreasing. Relocation payments may enable the displacees to obtain housing that meets the "decent, safe and sanitary" standards assured by the URA. But the submarket's reduced supply and inflated prices ~lace extra burdens on the non-displacee who must compete for housing in a tighter market without a federal subsidy. For displaced tenants, the impact of inflation is often merely delayed. Tenant relocation payments end after four years. At the end of this period, those tenants who have enjoyed the subsidy must choose between cutting the quality of their housing, devoting a larger portion of their budget to housing, or moving out of the locality entirely. The relocation payment merely post- pones the day of reckoning to a time when tenants are less able to mobilize opposition to the highway. Displacements in the moderate-income portion of the market may affect low- income households as well. In a tight market, reduction of the moderate- income housing supply can choke off the "trickle do~rn" of older units to low- income persons. It is clear that in a tight housing market, highway displacements can have serious inflationary effects on the low-income submarket. If the reloca- tion acts are to have their full effect--minimizing the impact of highway con- struction in urban areas--inflationary results must be avoided. Yet in many instances, state and federal highway agencies have ignored such market effects. Their neglect has inspired litigation and subsequent judicial involvement in the relocation process. III. Satisfactory Relocation Assurances Under the URA, state highway agencies must provide "satisfactory assur- ances'' that adequate relocation housing will be available to all those dis- placed. The implementing regulations require that these assurances be sub- mitted to the FHWA. But, in addition to "assuring" the FHWA, these documents should have the effect of "assuring" all those in a tight housing market that highway displacements will not contribute to the housing shortage. Such assurances must be satisfactory both in substance and in timing. Two kinds of relocation assurances are presently required by FHWA regula- tions: "statewide assurances" and "project assurances." Statewide assurances are simply general assertions that the state will comply with applicable FHWA regulations on all of its federal highway projects, and as such, have little relevance to the impact of highway relocation on a particular housing market. Project assurances are intended as guarantees that all those displaced by a particular highway project will be adequately rehoused. A. "Satisfactoriness" in Substance Current FffJA Practice. "Project assurances" must be submitted to the FHWA before relocation occurs and must demonstrate that relocation will conform to the federal statutes. The URA requires "that within a reasonable period of time prior to displacement" there must be available: 1. Decent, safe and sanitary dwellings. 2. Equal in number to the number of displaced families and individuals and available to such persons. III-4