Deriving housing quality indicators to estimate rehabilitation needs an analysis in the Gainesville area /

by 1978- Harris, Matthew A.

DERIVING HOUSING QUALITY INDICATORS FROM HOUSING AUTHORITY DATA FOR MARKETING OPPURTUNITIES IN REHABILITATION: AN ANALYSIS IN THE GAINESVILLE AREA By Matthew Harris December 2003 Chair: Dr. Mark T. Smith Major Department: School of Building Construction The goal of this thesis is to develop a fundamental procedure of identifying substandard housing by comparing survey data to county property appraiser data. Such a procedure will improve the awareness of deteriorating neighborhoods and create a consistent process for maintaining properly funded programs to improve the quality of life in these neighborhoods. The use of the procedure will provide local government and nonprofit organizations the ability to target resources to areas of greatest need as well as create a potential market for contractor opportunity to fulfill the need for housing rehabilitation programs. The objective of this research is to link housing quality measures found in a housing condition survey conducted by the Alachua County Housing Authority with data gathered by the county property appraiser. Contractors will have an easily derived estimate of the number of units below standard housing quality in cities, counties, and viii neighborhoods. To address these issues and provide a method that allows estimates of the number of units in an area that are substandard or in need of rehabilitation, this paper describes a methodology based on the use of parcel data. It provides a standard approach that could be used statewide or nationally to the extent that data are available and consistent. The approach that has been taken in this analysis is to consider the possibility of using housing unit characteristics that are available from the county property appraiser database and the Alachua County housing condition survey to develop proxies for housing condition. ix