Lafayette Campus News (www.lafayette.edu), November 30, 2007 — The College’s Robert B. and Helen S. Meyner Center for the Study of State and Local Government has agreed to evaluate the execution and impact of the Easton housing project at Delaware Terrace over the next four years.
John Kincaid, Meyner Professor of Government and Public Service and director of the Meyner Center, explains that the College agreed to evaluate the project after being approached by the Housing Authority of Easton three years ago. The Housing Authority received the HOPE VI grant in October 2006 and voted on the contract with Lafayette last week. The evaluation will begin early next year and expire April 30, 2011, the same year the project should be completed.
The hiring of a local academic institution to perform the evaluation is a federal preference for the HOPE VI program administered by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The HOPE VI program is a federal community initiative that addresses housing as well as education, crime and public welfare. According to the program guidelines, it has been determined that a portion of the $20 million grant that Easton received last year will go toward replacing 250 apartments in the 54 year-old apartment complex with 144 modern units. These units will consist of 71 twin and single-family homes, 40 senior cottages and 33 townhouses for sale and rent.
“The evaluation will center on HOPE VI’s impact on the displaced and neighboring residents of Delaware Terrace,” says Kincaid. “Those who live in Delaware Terrace obviously must relocate. Some will be back after the project is finished, but others will not.”
The primary evaluators are three faculty members who represent the interdisciplinary areas necessary for an effective evaluation – economics, psychology, and social welfare. Jamila Bookwala, associate professor of psychology, will focus particularly on the psychological impact of the project on displaced elderly residents of the Terrace. Mark Crain, Simon Professor of Political Economy, and David Shulman, associate professor of anthropology and sociology, will evaluate the residents’ economic and social well-being.
Kincaid also says that the research team plans to use at least three student EXCEL scholars each year to assist with the evaluation.
According to Kincaid, there are three key areas of consideration for the evaluation. The first is the project’s impact on current residents of Delaware Terrace from now throughout the next four years. The evaluators will determine if the residents are better or worse off where they are relocated. Secondly, they will evaluate the impact on the neighbors of Delaware Terrace, including those on the South Side and downtown Easton. Finally, evaluators will assess the social services the Housing Authority agreed to provide to new residents of the Terrace.
“The Housing Authority has contracted with various social service agencies and organizations in Easton, such as ProJeCt of Easton, to provide useful services to new residents of the Terrace, including education and counseling” explains Kincaid. “We will look into how well this is being done.”
The faculty will deliver a report to the Housing Authority at the end of every year, which will include recommendations for improvements in the execution of the project. A comprehensive report will be delivered at the end of the four-year period.
“This is a good example of how the College is contributing to a need in the community,” says Kincaid. “Though we don’t know yet what will be said in the evaluation, it is of utmost importance to the faculty to contribute a credible voice to this project, and that is precisely what they intend to do. We also have an agreement with the Housing Authority to approve faculty use of the data they collect during the evaluation for their own academic research, assuming respect for confidentiality, which could produce future publications.”
Kincaid also says that the College is in touch with a network of other institutions that have performed similar HOPE VI evaluations within their communities, which has been very helpful. He looks forward to the research and to the learning opportunities the evaluation will provide to students and faculty.
“Besides producing a solid, credible evaluation,” says Kincaid, “we also hope to provide our faculty with the information generated to be used in their classrooms and research and to create another option for a hands-on learning experience for our students. They will work with data collection, evaluation, human relations, and agency relations, all on an applied research project.”
