Informality and Inequality in the Global North: Regulation, Non-Compliance, and Enforcement in US Land Use and Housing Law

在过去的十年里，学者们已经证明，非正式住房--违反法律法规或被剥夺其保护的住房--在美国既普遍，也被社会广泛接受。例如，房主经常将车库、地下室或阁楼改建为住房单元--或者在他们的后院建造新的住宅单元--而不寻求许可，也不遵守当地的法规，如建筑法规和分区条例。最近的估计表明，在一些大都市地区，多达一半的新住房单元是未经许可建造的。虽然这些非正规单位在高成本的大都市地区提供了急需的住房供应，这些地区对负担得起的住房的需求严重未得到满足，但它们也可能对居民的健康和安全构成重大风险，并加剧在获得适当和安全的住房和基础设施方面的不平等。该项目通过记录土地使用条例本身或其酌情执行的方式导致非正规住房激增的方式，审查了地方政府为解决不遵守土地使用和住房法律的问题所作的努力。它将通过对研究不足的非正规住房形式进行社会和法律研究，解决社会弱势社区的需要，有证据表明，低收入和种族/少数民族居民居住的非正规住房比例不成比例。它将通过项目出版物和报告为更公平的决策和规划提供信息，并将通过培训研究生对非正规住房进行定性和定量分析来改善法律和社会科学教育。最后，它将通过开发和分发案例研究来促进对非正规住房的重要性和影响的更广泛的理解，以便纳入本科生和研究生的社会学、法学、城市规划和公共政策课程。这项研究促进了科学，并建立在两个重要的社会法律传统--书本上的法律与实际法律之间的脱节和法律意识--的基础上，通过审查土地使用和住房法的效力和挑战；在普遍不遵守的情况下询问国家的做法和执法能力；确定非正规住房泛滥对治理的无数挑战和对不平等的影响；以及审查权力和合法性在土地使用和住房方面的法律实施和执法中的作用。为此，它使用国家和地方两级的量化数据来审查非正规住房单位的生产、地方监管环境和地方执行守则支出之间的关系。它还考察了普遍存在的住房非正规性背景下的法律、执法、自由裁量权和合法性的动态。为此，它记录了规划者、法规执行官员或分区上诉委员会等公职人员如何通过酌情决定就公共服务的需求和困境进行谈判；住房的生产者和使用者如何遵守或违反法律；以及他们如何理解非正规住房的合法性。在这样做的过程中，该项目将阐明住房法律的翻译(在行动中)产生非正式住房单元的机制，以及对住房法律和规范的文化解释如何赋予其合法性，从而有助于其持续存在。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Over the past decade, scholars have illustrated that informal housing – housing that violates laws and regulations or is denied their protection – is both common and broadly socially acceptable in the U.S. For example, homeowners frequently convert garages, basements, or attics into housing units – or build new dwelling units in their backyards – without seeking permits or adhering to local regulations such as building codes and zoning ordinances. Recent estimates suggest that in some metropolitan areas as many as half of new housing units are built without permits. Although these informal units provide a much-needed supply of housing in high-cost metropolitan areas where there is a severe unmet demand for affordable housing, they can also pose important health and safety risks to residents and exacerbate inequalities regarding access to adequate and safe housing and infrastructure. This project examines local governments’ efforts to address non-compliance with land use and housing laws by documenting the ways in which land use regulation itself or its discretionary enforcement contributes to the proliferation of informal housing. It will address the needs of socially vulnerable communities by conducting social and legal research on understudied forms of informal housing where evidence suggests a disproportionate share of low-income and racial/ethnic minority residents live. It will inform more equitable policymaking and planning through project publications and reports and will improve legal and social science education by training graduate students in qualitative and quantitative analysis of informal housing. Lastly, it will advance broader understandings of the importance and implications of informal housing by developing and distributing case studies for inclusion in undergraduate and graduate sociology, law, urban planning, and public policy courses.This study advances science and builds on two important socio-legal traditions – the disconnection between law-on-the-books and law-in-action, and legal consciousness – by examining the efficacy of and challenges to land use and housing law; interrogating the state’s approach to and capacity for enforcement in the context of widespread non-compliance; identifying myriad challenges to governance and implications for inequality posed by the proliferation of informal housing; and examining the role of power and legitimacy in the implementation and enforcement of law in the context of land use and housing. To do so, it uses quantitative data at both the national and local levels to examine the relationship between the production of informal housing units, the local regulatory environment, and local expenditures on code enforcement. It also examines the dynamics of law, enforcement, discretion, and legitimacy in the context of widespread housing informality. It does so by documenting how public officials such as planners, code enforcement officers, or zoning appeal boards negotiate the demands and dilemmas of public service through discretionary decisions; how producers and users of housing conform to or transgress laws; and the ways they make sense of the legality of informal housing. In doing so, the project will elucidate the mechanisms by which the translation of housing laws (“in action”) produces informal housing units, and how cultural interpretations of housing laws and norms confer legitimacy that contributes to their persistence.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.