HOMELESSNESS AND PROPERTY VALUES

A nice piece in today's Inky about a study we did for Project HOME on the effect of their locations on nearby property values: "Project HOME Confounds Property-Value Naysayers." As much as most homeowners would cringe at the thought of a comprehensive treatment facility for homeless people in their neighborhood, it turns out they may have a positive effect on property values: a 6.8 percent annual increase for properties within a quarter-mile of a Project HOME site, versus a 5 percent increase for all properties in the City.

I did not get a chance to work directly on the study, but read a draft a few months back and found it very well done, and eagerly awaited when it would be released, so I could officially talk it up. So much for the naysayers, who are quoted in the article as saying that such facilities would bring "crudeness and evil" to their neighborhoods.