Browsing by Author "Hildebrand, Asher"
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Item Open Access A Town on the Water Map: Lessons from Ivanhoe, NC(2023-04-28) Otero, CatherineIn July 2022, Sampson County was awarded $13.2 million from the State of North Carolina to connect 350 households in Ivanhoe, NC to county water. The grant comes after community organizing efforts for water access and moves Ivanhoe towards fulfilling the community’s 20-year desire of getting connected to county water. The grant money comes from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding for water infrastructure which is administered via the NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)’s Drinking Water Reserve program. The following report combines perspectives from state, county, and community levels surrounding the successful application by Sampson County on behalf of Ivanhoe. Information was gathered through background research on water infrastructure and review of meeting minutes, news coverage, and DEQ documentation. Interviews with community members, an engineer, and county and state officials were also conducted. Federal funds reach local water projects in North Carolina through multiple DEQ loan and grant programs. The American Rescue Plan Act resulted in a large influx of funding into DEQ’s Drinking Water Reserve and Wastewater Reserve with a non-earmarked $191.3 million dedicated to water and wastewater systems at-risk of becoming distressed. The Ivanhoe water project qualified for this grant funding. Sampson County’s water system serves approximately 6,033 customers and Ivanhoe, a predominantly Black, low-income rural community is not included in those numbers. Ivanhoe community members depend on private wells currently and complain of low water quality. Funding issues are the most notable reason why Ivanhoe has had to wait so long for connections. The Ivanhoe community organized to encourage Sampson County to apply for grant funding from the state in Spring 2022. Connections to municipal water will provide a regulated standard of water to Ivanhoe residents and draw further investment to the area, community members hope. The report aims to inform how DEQ loan and grant processes can be made more accessible to communities especially those that are considered at-risk according to DEQ metrics. The report offers: takeaways for other communities hoping to advocate for themselves to get their local governments to apply on their behalf for funding, takeaways for DEQ to improve their loan/grant application processes through increased community engagement, and ideas for how DEQ may be able to boost its outreach resources and increase water access to communities.Item Open Access An Analysis of How Housing Incentives Can Reduce Teacher Attrition in North Carolina(2020-05) Calvert, MatthewBackground North Carolina, and the entire United States, is in the midst of a teacher shortage. The teacher shortage is caused by two main factors: not enough teachers are joining the profession and too many teachers are leaving the classroom. In North Carolina, the pipeline for teachers is drying up. Enrollment in the UNC system’s education programs—which produce more than 35% of NC teachers—is down more than 40%. Superintendents also report that the number of applications per job opening has decreased and some job postings receive no applications at all. Each year about 8% of teachers in North Carolina leave the classroom. Teacher attrition and a glut of inexperienced and underprepared teachers seriously inhibits student achievement. It also costs North Carolina millions each year to recruit, hire, and train new teachers. Teachers leave the classroom for a variety of reasons that are complicated and often interdependent. However, among the main reasons are low pay and rising cost of housing. Adjusted for inflation, NC teacher pay decreased nearly 12% from 1999-2016. Average teacher pay in North Carolina has increased from 46th to 34th in the United States. This increase is not enough to keep pace with rising cost of living and housing (NEA, 2019). During the past decade, the average home price in North Carolina has increased 45% (“North Carolina Home Prices and Values”, 2020). As the cost of living continues to increase, teaching becomes a less appealing profession. Some NC districts have used housing interventions like subsidized apartment complexes specifically to recruit and retain teachers. There is a lack of rigorous academic research, but anecdotal evidence suggests these housing programs have been successful on a small scale. However, the subsidized apartment complexes are unable to meet demand and should be supplemented with other housing interventions. Proposed Policy I am proposing a no-money-down home loan program for teachers modeled after the VA’s program to help retain teachers by addressing the challenge of affordable housing. North Carolina would guarantee 25% of home loans through the program. All public-school teachers in North Carolina would be eligible for the program. Teachers could opt for an option with a 5- year commitment with no fees or a 3-year commitment with 1.5% fees on the value of the loan. Methods To determine whether a no-money-down loan program would help address teacher attrition, I created a questionnaire for teachers in North Carolina and I interviewed district-level leaders. I also built a financial model to analyze the feasibility of the program as well as the cost to the State. Results/Key Takeaways There is interest in the proposed program—the overwhelming majority of teachers want to own a home and lack of funding for a down payment is the second largest barrier. Over 65% of teachers said they would be interested in buying a home with the proposed program. Owning a home increases the likelihood of a teacher staying—75% of teachers said owning a home would make them much more- or slightly more likely to stay in their current school. Hiring and retaining quality teachers is difficult—Superintendents repeatedly said that this is one of, if not, the biggest challenges for them today. They also said that they need policy solutions to help solve these challenges. The financial cost is low, but liability is big—If the program is widely adopted, North Carolina could carry billions on its balance sheet. However, this risk is borne mostly by private lenders. The State could expect to pay only about $1 million in the first year. The proposed policy could benefit North Carolina financially and academically—Each 1% reduction in attrition saves almost $1 million for North Carolina. In addition to financial savings, student achievement should increase as teachers stay in the classroom longer. Recommendation I recommend that North Carolina implement the no-money-down home loan program for a period of at least 10 years. This program would be most effective for “middle-age” teachers between 28-45 who have been teaching for a few years. The commitment will help address teacher retention and the lack of a down payment will help teachers afford a home. For very expensive counties or counties with low housing stock, districts should build more subsidized apartment complexes to supplement the no-money-down program.Item Open Access COVID-19 and Housing Security: Assessing Equity & Efficiency Across North Carolina’s Emergency Rental Assistance Programs(2021-04-19) Foley, EmmaCOVID-19 has exacerbated the nation’s existing affordable crisis, putting approximately 14 million Americans out of work, and leading to widespread housing insecurity nationwide. This hardship has disproportionately affected renters, many of whom are just a paycheck away from being unable to pay their rent. Estimates show that 30-40 million renters could face eviction due to non-payment of rent. COVID-19 has impacted households differently, with low-income households, households of color, and single-parent households bearing the brunt of financial hardship and housing insecurity. This report explores how government agencies in North Carolina have responded to the emerging housing crisis with emergency rental assistance programs. This research aims to answer the policy question: How have state and local policies and program design elements impacted funding distribution across North Carolina’s emergency rental assistance programs? To answer this question, this project employed mixed methods research including document analysis, qualitative interviews with program administrators, and quantitative analysis of participant data. This analysis finds that renters and program administrators alike experienced a series of challenges accessing and administering ERA programs. Renters often faced accessibility barriers, including limited access to online applications, burdensome documentation requirements, and complex referral processes. Administrators faced challenges including limited administrative funds, inadequate staffing capacity, and limited technological infrastructure to keep up with demand. This report offers a series of recommendations to inform policy making and program implementation across five areas: 1) cross-program collaboration; 2) outreach and referrals; 3) application support; 4) assistance distribution, and; 5) program capacity.Item Open Access Investment Principles and Opportunities for the North Carolina Clean Energy Fund(2021-05) Wineburg, RaphaelThis report outlines investment principles for the North Carolina Clean Energy Fund (NCCEF) and evaluates the extent to which selected investment opportunities align with these principles. NCCEF is a not-for-profit financial institution that operates on the “green bank” model successfully pioneered in other states, including Connecticut, New York, and Michigan. Green banks are financial organizations that use market-based approaches to drive investment in clean energy, energy efficiency, and other sustainable sectors.Item Open Access LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE 2022 US BABY FORMULA SHORTAGE(2023-04-20) Butler, AntonioThe baby formula shortage was a challenging experience for everyone in the U.S., yet low-income mothers experienced the worst effects of the baby formula shortage. Through conducting virtual interviews of mothers, I built a theory that uncovered three themes and multiple sub-themes that emerged on how low-income mothers coped with the baby formula shortage. These three themes were: (1) Access to and availability of baby formula during the shortage was difficult. (2) Community support in obtaining baby formula played a prominent role in mother's lives. (3) Social services and the healthcare system, specifically doctors, played a significant role in alleviating the baby formula shortage for mothers. Alongside these interviews, a background analysis of the policy and cultural situations was reviewed to provide context on how a baby formula shortage came to be. The background information provided along with the interviews resulted in the creation of policy implications and recommendations ranging from policymakers changing requirements around WIC to social service officers partnering more with community organizations. These two pieces of information undergird this master's project (MP), which is meant to help guide policymakers and social service officers on how to best support low-income mothers and mothers writ large during their potential baby formula purchasing experience. By learning from their experiences and implementing recommendations that tackle the breadth and depth of the issues that caused the baby formula shortage, we can ensure we are effectively supporting two populations that are extremely important to the current and future success of our communities and the U.S., mothers, and infants.Item Open Access Public land manager decision-making in East Jemez under ecological transformation(2022-04-17) Antonova, GabyClimate-driven ecological transformation characterized by dramatic and irreversible shifts in ecological communities is challenging traditional land management strategies. A growing body of research and technical assistance is emerging to address ecological transformation. One example is the development of the Resist, Accept, Direct (RAD) framework which outlines three distinct land management options in the face of climate change. The resist option allows for managers to resist specific climate impacts and maintain natural and cultural resources within what land managers have historically defined as the “desired conditions.” The accept option allows managers to accept ecosystem changes and alter their strategies to work within a changing environment. The direct option allows park managers to guide “change toward a specific new state because it is feasible to steward change toward a more desirable outcome than what would be achieved with acceptance” (NPS, 2021). Despite the development of this robust framework to address ecological transformation, there has been insufficient focus on social, cultural, and institutional factors that play an important role in shaping managers’ decisions when faced with ecosystem transformation. This project empirically examines decision-making processes that U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and National Park Service (NPS) land managers in East Jemez, New Mexico use to select land management strategies and develop new methods for navigating ecological transformation. East Jemez was selected as a case study site as it is experiencing the firedriven ecological transformation from forests to grassland and shrubland. East Jemez is facing land management challenges associated with the transformation. Through semistructured interviews with 19 state and federal land managers, this study examined two questions: how do natural resource managers make land management decisions and determine future desired conditions during ecological transformation? How does this process vary between different land management agencies, in this case, NPS and USFS? Based on the qualitative analysis of the data collected through interviews with land managers, key findings fall into four categories: • General perceptions of the RAD framework, • Internal factors that influence decision-making, • External factors that influence decision-making, • Barriers to responding to ecological transformation. This report offers recommendations to agencies and agency staff for addressing barriers to responding to ecological transformation, including establishing and communicating agency land management guidelines under ecological transformation, supporting more collaboration through partner groups, and developing protocols to ensure key partner relationships are not affected when there is personnel turnover.