Journal of Sociology and Social Work

Project Access, Inc. Longitudinal Research Study Preliminary Results
Araque, J. C.; McCarthy, E. A.; Arnold, K., Wall, S

Abstract
California’s Tax Credit Allocation Committee awards tax benefits to developers of affordable housing communities based on an accrual of points during a competitive bidding process. Developers and investors who include the service-enriched model of affordable housing amass more points, therefore, are more likely to be awarded the project and tax benefits.This study examines the effectiveness of the serviceenriched affordable housing model in Southern California. Onsite health and educational programs in three affordable housing apartment communities were evaluated. The research design comprised of quantitative and qualitativemethods applied to three sample population groups - experimental, comparison and control. Participating subjects’ quality of life, health, andeducational variables were analyzed. The results suggest that residents receiving full-time health and educational services (experimental group) had higher quality of life, more positive perceptions of their community and greater community engagement than groups receiving part-time services (comparison group) and no services (control group). Thesubsequent implications have possible contributions to affordable housing policy, legislative and practice sectors reforms, service-enriched program improvements and scaled-up national model design forimplementation in other low income communities.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jssw.v2n2a17