HOPE VI new communities: Neighborhood relationships in mixed-income housing

Abstract

To what extent are people of different incomes and housing tenures engaged in social relationships in new mixed-income, New Urbanist HOPE VI communities? In Seattle's NewHolly Phase I, neighboring relationships are generally more frequent than in other mixed-income situations. Yet systematic differences among housing tenures by language, family composition, and patterns of local facility use and community involvement curtail social interactions. Most important, lack of proximity curtails relations among public housing residents and others on site, implying that the level of physical integration of housing units for the various tenures and incomes in a mixed-income development has repercussions for social interactions.