gentrification

officials there indicated that many current owners appeared uncomfortable with liens on theirproperty, and the program is not well-known and rarely used.Softer housing markets are likely to dampen the magnitude and the burden of displacement,or obviate it all together. In cities like Cleveland, with much vacant land and low-priced abandonedresidential and commercial shells, developers can create attractive housing for newcomers withoutdisplacing existing renters or homeowners. In fact, rather than posing a problem and incitingopposition to community revitalization, the slow influx of newcomers seems a welcome change fromdecades of population loss and concentrated poverty.Renters are clearly most vulnerable to displacement, especially when renters lack legalimmigration status or do not speak English, as is often the case in San Francisco’s Mission District.Lower income renters are ill equipped to afford price increases from owners who want to upgrade,charge market-based rents, or convert their buildings to condominiums. In a dwindling number ofcities (including Washington and San Francisco), rent controls shield renters from dramatic rentincreases, but frequently do not effectively target benefits to low income households who needaffordability protection most.Gentrification pressures often provide existing property owners with better choices. Whilegentrification can increase property values, and thus property tax burdens, many cities haveprotections in place to assist owners who cannot afford such increases, including deferment ofproperty tax increases (sometimes limited to elderly residents). Moreover, existing owners usuallyenjoy appreciation in their property values as gentrification occurs. This allows owners to choosewhether to sell their homes or commercial buildings with substantial profit, to stay and borrowagainst their new equity to improve their property or for other purposes, or to maintain the statusquo.The benefits of appreciation are likely to flow to some of the most vulnerable portions of thelow-income population. National data suggest that nearly 30 percent of low-income homeownershave a single elderly head of household, over 50 percent of all low-income homeowners are femaleheads of household, and 25 percent include a minority household head. 32Whether property owners stay or sell can be a divisive issue in many gentrifyingcommunities. In both the West Oakland and Kirkwood, Atlanta neighborhoods, low-level conflict haserupted among original homeowners, some of whom want to stay in place, and others who want totake their newfound equity and leave. A former Pittsburgh community development corporationdirector argues that individual residents should make decisions that are right for them, and noneshould be deterred from cashing out. He compared this choice for minority residents today to thesame choice that white homeowners faced after riots in the late 1960s. “No one told white city32 Joint Center, p. 29.16