ECONOMICS UNIQUENESS

136 ■ THE ECONOMICS OF UNIQUENESS
Th at leverage can be used to encourage or mandate requirements to hire from
the available labor pool found in the low-income community.
• Low-income housing ownership programs. One of the most eff ective means
of integrating long-term tenants into a secure and lasting habitation of a
neighborhood is to assist them in becoming homeowners. Th is is a strategy
that is necessarily limited to the working citizenry, in that any homeownership
program will require proof of employment and regular payments for the
mortgage, insurance, taxes, and utilities. However, transforming renters into
owners accomplishes two things: (1) households are no longer at risk of being
displaced because of rising rents, and (2) households may experience fi nancial
benefi t from the long-term appreciation of the neighborhood. 7
• Long-term rental subsidies. Another way to keep low-income tenants in a gentrifying
neighborhood is to subsidize rents in private-sector housing developments.
While this requires a long-term commitment to funding from the
public sector, it is possible that the enhanced tax revenues from the district
could be used as a cross-subsidy to support the rent expenditures of the lowerincome
households.
• New construction of aff ordable housing. In most heritage areas that have
deteriorated—both residential and commercial—there is vacant land.
Th ese empty parcels might have resulted from the demolition of a structure
deemed no longer safe, from land clearance for a speculative development
project that was never built, or from fi re or other disaster. Oft en these
vacant parcels end up in public hands or can be cost-eff ectively acquired
by the public sector. As part of a comprehensive strategy, these parcels can
be allocated for redevelopment for low-income or mixed-income housing.
However, it should be a prerequisite that there be design guidelines to assure
that any new construction on these parcels is compatible with the historic
character of the district.
• Job training programs. Ultimately individuals and families get out of poverty
because they have secured productive employment. Within commercial and
residential heritage neighborhoods that are experiencing revitalization, there
will be job opportunities. Some of these openings will be for highly skilled
artisans for the restoration of heritage buildings; others will be for maintenance
jobs for buildings and public spaces. Additionally, new businesses established
in the area will seek to hire employees. All of these represent opportunities
to provide job training for existing residents so that they become direct and
long-term benefi ciaries of the regeneration process.
All of the above strategies aim to keep existing residents in the heritage
area rather than simply creating new housing projects for them elsewhere.
(See box 5.6.)