Papers by Gregory Squires
Journal of Urban Affairs, 2018
Everybody does better when everybody does better" (p. vi) is the appropriate opening epigram, pen... more Everybody does better when everybody does better" (p. vi) is the appropriate opening epigram, penned by Jim Hightower, for this retrospective on the 50th anniversary of the Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, better known as the Kerner Commission report. Fred Harris, the last remaining member of the Kerner Commission, and Alan Curtis, president and CEO of the Eisenhower Foundation, have assembled several assessments over the years of how the United States has changed since this report was released in 1968. This is the most comprehensive. And though the focus is on the evolution of racial disparities, particularly between Blacks and Whites, it explicitly acknowledges the larger context of increasing inequality and the changing life chances of other marginalized groups (e.g., Latinos, Native Americans, women, and the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, and gender). Most readers can probably identify issues they wish had been explored in greater depth (my wish list follows), but this book contains voluminous information on evolving disparities and inequities, what has worked and what has not worked in efforts to ameliorate them, and steps we need to take going forward. The book begins with an introductory chapter that briefly summarizes the major findings of the Kerner Commission report (referencing one of the most frequently cited statements from the report that "White racism is essentially responsible for the explosive mixture which has been accumulating in our cities since the end of World War II"), Lyndon Johnson's lukewarm if not hostile response, and the progress (or lack thereof) that followed. The editors assert that the nation made significant progress in the first decade following the report but has fallen back since then, with some exceptions during the Clinton and Obama administrations. Then the editors offer that the primary reason for this book is to put issues such as racism, poverty, income inequality, women's and children's rights, health, education, police-community relations, and related challenges back on the public agenda. The book certainly provides a lot of ammunition for those who share these objectives. This book is organized around two parts and several chapters in a somewhat eclectic fashion typical of most edited volumes. The introduction is followed by Part I, which includes eight chapters that provide overviews of specific issues, many of which are explored in greater detail later in the book. Topics include economic and employment policy, education, housing and neighborhood investment, criminal justice and mass incarceration, the global impact on domestic policy reform, financing reform, and a chapter entitled "New Will" in reference to the new resolve called for by the Kerner Commission to make the required investments that will address these diverse issues. Part II includes 23 chapters on economic and employment policy, education, housing and neighborhood investment, crime, equality (with individual chapters on African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and women), and the media. Each of these chapters is written by leading scholars, activists, and public intellectuals including, among many others,
Privileged Place: Race, Uneven Development and the Geography of Opportunity in Urban America, Working Paper 002
Public Health, 2020
Objectives: As social determinants of health, mortgage possessions (primarily foreclosures in the... more Objectives: As social determinants of health, mortgage possessions (primarily foreclosures in the US context) and housing instability have been associated with certain mental and physical health outcomes at the individual level. However, individual risks of foreclosure and of poor health are spatially patterned. The objective of this study is to examine the extent to which area-specific social and economic characteristics help explain the relationship between mortgage possessions and obesity prevalence in 75 of the 100 most populous US metropolitan areas. Study design: This is a cross-sectional study. Methods: The study relies on three sources of data: the Selected Metropolitan/Micropolitan Area Risk Trends (SMART) project, RealtyTrac foreclosure data, and the American Community Survey. Focal social and economic characteristics include foreclosure rates, levels of racial residential segregation, and poverty. Obesity prevalence and several control measures for each metropolitan area are also used. Ordinary least squares regression, weighted using the SMART project data, is used, and statistical significance is set at 0.05. Results: The results suggest that mortgage possessions are independently associated with higher obesity prevalence and that foreclosures operate through the specific channel of racial residential segregation and its tie to the racial composition of a metropolitan area. Socio-economic status of an area, and not poverty, is related to foreclosures and obesity prevalence. Conclusion: Mortgage possessions not only are socio-economic but also have negative health consequences, such as obesity. The findings provide an empirical base for other researchers to uncover the relationships between segregation, mortgage possessions, and obesity at the individual level of analysis. The public health community should be engaged in addressing the issue of foreclosures in the US because the failure to engage may have broad financial and health consequences across large cities.
Circulation, 2014
Treatment of dyslipidemia with moderate-dose statins leads to improved outcomes for patients with... more Treatment of dyslipidemia with moderate-dose statins leads to improved outcomes for patients with diabetes mellitus and high to moderate cardiovascular risk.Previous performance measures focused on attainment of low-density lipid levels rather than appropriate treatment with statins. Such performance measures could lead to overtreatment with high-dose statins.Use of a performance measure that credits appropriate clinical treatment rather than only low-density lipoprotein attainment shows that almost 85% of veterans 50 to 75 years of age are receiving appropriate dyslipidemia management.However, nearly 14% of patients with diabetes mellitus but without ischemic heart disease were potentially overtreated with high dose statins. Conclusions-Use of a performance measure that credits appropriate clinical action indicates that almost 85% of diabetic veterans 50 to 75 years of age are receiving appropriate dyslipidemia management. However, many patients are potentially overtreated with highdose statins. 1 Summary-Previous studies involving pharmacist-or nurse-led home blood pressure (BP) monitoring programs have demonstrated improvements in BP control.However, the applicability of previous studies to routine practice may be limited by the exclusion of patients with diabetes mellitus or chronic kidney disease, complex monitoring protocols, or the use of expensive, proprietary software to support telemonitoring.This pragmatic, randomized, controlled trial found that a pharmacist-led, Heart360-supported, home BP monitoring intervention delivered by regular clinical staff to a broadly representative patient population led to greater BP reductions, superior BP control, and higher patient satisfaction than usual care.The impact of the intervention on BP control and degree of BP lowering was even greater among the subset of patients with diabetes mellitus or chronic kidney disease.The proportions of patients with a dose increase for an antihypertensive medication or the addition of at least 1 antihypertensive medication were greater for the home BP monitoring group than for the usual care group. Conclusions-A pharmacist-led, Heart360-supported, home BP monitoring intervention led to greater BP reductions, superior BP control, and higher patient satisfaction than UC. 2 Summary-There is increased public awareness that time is brain. Emergency medical services (EMSs) are recognized as an effective way to transport patients quickly to the hospital. Prior studies based on data collected more than a decade ago involving some particular regions of the United States and only modest numbers of patients indicated that only about half of acute stroke patients are transported
Privileged Places
Lynne Rienner Publishers eBooks, Jun 1, 2006
Foreclosures have become one of the most important urban problems facing cities. Our goal is to b... more Foreclosures have become one of the most important urban problems facing cities. Our goal is to better understand factors that affect variation in neighborhood foreclosures in a typical, mid-sized U.S. city-Louisville, Kentucky. While previous findings indicate that a key explanatory variable positively affecting neighborhood foreclosures is the proportion of minorities, our analysis finds that the effect of percent non-white is impacted by several key intervening variables, including absence of neighborhood walkability, presence of investor foreclosures, and prevalence of high cost loans. In the past, walkability and investor behavior have largely been ignored by social scientists studying neighborhood variation in foreclosures. First, we look at how speculation by investors in majority black neighborhoods partially explains recent increases in foreclosures. An analysis of homeowner foreclosures finds that race loses its explanatory power. Second, we argue that low walkability scores lead to increases in foreclosures because of neighborhood devaluation due to increased fuel costs. Third, in agreement with other observers, we show that the preponderance of high interest rate loans in poor minority neighborhoods also produced higher than average foreclosures. Together, we believe these three factors help to better explain the contemporary causes of greater foreclosures in black neighborhoods.
J. Marshall L. Rev., 1997
In January 1994 President Clinton issued an executive order mandating that the U.S. Department of... more In January 1994 President Clinton issued an executive order mandating that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) promulgate a regulation clarifying the application of the Federal Fair Housing Act to the property insurance industry.' However, in the summer of 1995, the Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at HUD announced the Department would temporarily suspend its rulemaking activity. This temporary hiatus persists, to the detriment of consumers, insurers, state regulators and others seeking solutions to insurance redlining problems.! Consumers in the property insurance market continue to be subject to unfair discrimination. At the same time, many insurers are attempting to respond to urban insurance availability and discrimination problems. In some cases, these insurers have been targets of lawsuits and administrative complaints resulting in costly and time-consuming litigation for all parties involved.!
Privileged Places: Race, Residence, and the Structure of Opportunity by Gregory D. Squires and Charis E. Kubrin:Privileged Places: Race, Residence, and the Structure of Opportunity
American Journal of Sociology, 2008
Journal of Urban Affairs, 2015
Foreclosure rates persist at high levels, segregation remains a central organizing feature of met... more Foreclosure rates persist at high levels, segregation remains a central organizing feature of metropolitan regions, and a variety of health problems continue to plague metropolitan regions across the United States. Each of these issues is the subject of much policy debate and scholarly research. Missing from most of this discussion, however, is the intersection of these social forces. In recent years, a connection between foreclosures and health has been documented. A question that arises and is explored in this research is whether the impact of foreclosures on health is exacerbated by various measures of inequality. This article examines the emerging impact of foreclosures on health and the longstanding effects of racial and socioeconomic inequality (e.g., racial segregation, concentration of poverty, and income inequality) on health in major metropolitan areas. More importantly, multivariate statistical analyses are conducted to determine whether, and the extent to which, these indicators of inequality mediate the impact of foreclosures on health. The findings suggest policy implications for the development, expansion, and allocation of health care and financial services to address challenges posed by the ongoing foreclosure crises facing the nation's metropolitan areas. "Foreclosures are killing us." Pollack and Lynch (2011) According to RealtyTrac, a company with the leading foreclosure database, more than 10.5 million properties went into foreclosure between 2007 and the first half of 2011 (Carr, Anacker, & Mulcahy, 2011). The Center for Responsible Lending recently reported that, among homeowners who received home loans between 2004 and 2008, 2.7 million (6.4%) lost their homes by February 2011 with an additional 3.6 million (8.3%) at serious risk of losing their homes (Bocian, Li, & Ernst, 2010). Equity lost by families entering foreclosure is estimated at $5.6 trillion (New York Times, 2012). The economic spillover from the housing crisis has reduced household wealth by approximately $17 trillion between 2007 and 2009 (Heflin, 2010). Among borrowers who received loans between 2004 and 2008, 11% of blacks and 14% of Hispanics have lost their homes compared to 8% of Asians and 6% of non-Hispanic whites (Bocian, Davis, Garrison, & Sermons, 2012). As a result of the foreclosure crisis and the economic recession that followed, median wealth declined by 66% among Hispanic households and 53% for blacks compared to 16% among whites. The median wealth of
The relationship between inclusionary zoning policies and population health
Housing and Society, 2021
Despite the gradual decline of the poverty rate in the United States in recent years, rising hous... more Despite the gradual decline of the poverty rate in the United States in recent years, rising housing costs have continued to make access to affordable housing a substantial problem across the count...
American Journal of Sociology, 1988
Social Problems, 2005
Recent research has established that the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) has increased mortgage ... more Recent research has established that the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) has increased mortgage lending in low-income and minority communities. This study examines the extent to which the CRA has helped racial minorities purchase homes in predominantly white neighborhoods from which they have traditionally been excluded. Using 2000 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act reports (HMDA) and 2000 decennial census data, we find that in metropolitan areas where a relatively high proportion of loans are made by institutions covered by the CRA, blacks and Latinos are more likely to purchase homes in predominantly white neighborhoods than in areas where relatively fewer loans are made by such lenders. This finding holds after controlling for a range of socioeconomic characteristics. The paper concludes with policy recommendations for revising the CRA and its enforcement mechanisms.
HOUSING POLICY DEBATE- …, 2001
The availability of insurance in urban communities has long been a contested public policy issue.... more The availability of insurance in urban communities has long been a contested public policy issue. One of the central points of contention has been the value of publicly avail-able data on the geographic distribution of property insurance policies. This debate has intensified ...
Comment on Martin D. Abravanel's “Public knowledge of fair housing law: Does it protect against housing discrimination?"—Organize! the limits of public awareness in ensuring fair housing
Housing Policy Debate, 2002
Public awareness may contribute to enforcement of fair housing law. But available resources would... more Public awareness may contribute to enforcement of fair housing law. But available resources would be more productively used if they were invested directly in more aggressive and innovative law enforcement activities. Emerging debates over land use practices, particularly those pertaining to sprawl and affordable housing, may create new avenues for fair housing activity. The overriding challenge for the fair housing
Journal of Urban Affairs
Foreclosure rates persist at high levels, segregation remains a central organizing feature of met... more Foreclosure rates persist at high levels, segregation remains a central organizing feature of metropolitan regions, and a variety of health problems continue to plague metropolitan regions across the United States. Each of these issues is the subject of much policy debate and scholarly research. Missing from most of this discussion, however, is the intersection of these social forces. In recent years, a connection between foreclosures and health has been documented. A question that arises and is explored in this research is whether the impact of foreclosures on health is exacerbated by various measures of inequality. This article examines the emerging impact of foreclosures on health and the longstanding effects of racial and socioeconomic inequality (e.g., racial segregation, concentration of poverty, and income inequality) on health in major metropolitan areas. More importantly, multivariate statistical analyses are conducted to determine whether, and the extent to which, these in...
Insurance Redlining: Disinvestment, Reinvestment and the Evolving Role of Financial Institutions
... DC 20037 Editorial Advisory Board William Gorham Demetra S. Nightingale Craig G. Coelen Georg... more ... DC 20037 Editorial Advisory Board William Gorham Demetra S. Nightingale Craig G. Coelen George E. Peterson Adele V. Harrell Felicity Skidmore ... Robert C. Miller Lucio Noto Hugh B. Price Sol Price Robert M. Solow Dick Thornburgh Judy Woodruff LIFE TRUSTEES Warren E ...
Insurance redlining and the process of discrimination
The Review of Black Political Economy, Dec 1, 1988
Insurance redlining and the racially discriminatory consequences of the sale of property insuranc... more Insurance redlining and the racially discriminatory consequences of the sale of property insurance have been documented in several cities throughout the United States. In this study teams of “testers”—comparably qualified insurance consumers who differed only in the racial composition of the neighborhood of the homes they sought to insure—contacted three Milwaukee area insurance companies regarding the possibility of purchasing insurance for their homes. Though no blatantly discriminatory behavior was exhibited, ...
Challenging Chicago's growth machine: A preliminary report on the …
International Journal of …
It is also possible that your web browser is not configured or not able to display style sheets. ... more It is also possible that your web browser is not configured or not able to display style sheets. In this case, although the visual presentation will be degraded, the site should continue to be functional. We recommend using the latest version of Microsoft or Mozilla web browser to ...
Insurance redlining and the transformation of an urban metropolis
Urban Affairs Review, Sep 1, 1987
Financial institutions play a critical role in determining the viability of urban communities. As... more Financial institutions play a critical role in determining the viability of urban communities. As is the case with the geographic distribution of mortgage and business loans, insurance redlining constitutes a major force in fueling the uneven development of metropolitan areas. This article examines the racial effects of insurance underwriting activity in a large midwestern metropolitan area. In analyzing the distribution of homeowners insurance policies, a strong bias in favor of suburban and white neighborhoods and ...
Insurance redlining, agency location, and the process of urban disinvestment
Urban Affairs Review, Jun 1, 1991
Insurance redlining exacerbates economic decline and impedes revitalization of urban neighborhood... more Insurance redlining exacerbates economic decline and impedes revitalization of urban neighborhoods throughout the United States. One significant barrier to the availability of insurance is the movement of sales representatives from inner-city to suburban locations. In examining the changing pattern of insurance agency locations within the Milwaukee metropolitan area, the authors find that racial composition of neighborhood is associated with agency location even after the effects of family income, condition of housing, and ...
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Papers by Gregory Squires