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Seeking the Tipping Point Summary
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The use of national demographic norms for owner occupation and houses of multiple occupation as a comparator
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The recognition that geographical disparities require that the process in applying demographic norms must be flexible.
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The need to develop "sustainable community" measurements such as health of primary schools as an "early warning" indicator.
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One Definition of a Balanced Community
"A community which approximates national demographic norms"
(HMO Lobby, April 2006) |
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Sustaining Community Balance: Seeking the Tipping Point
Rob Payne
Nov 2007
Many governments around the world are putting an emphasis on developing sustainable Communities. Implicit in these visions is the idea of a balanced community, where a move to sustainability involves progress on three front’s; economic development, social development, and preservation of the environment.For communities living near a Higher Education Institution, vague definitions of ‘balanced community’ make it difficult to determine any measurable early warning statistic upon which communities can act.
One definition of a balanced community that has been put forth by the National HMO Lobby in the UK is a community which approximates national demographic norms. .This idea is interesting in that it is fluid, allowing it to change as norms change. Demographic norms in countries such as the UK, U.S.A, Australia and Canada show a range of 65% to 71% of houses in owner-occupation. Norms for households in multiple occupations average at seven percent.
The HMO Lobby in the UK also provides for a definition of a Tipping Point as the threshold at which a deviation departs so far from the norm that a community tips from balance to un-balance. (National HMO Lobby, April 2006)
From these definitions, it follows that near-campus communities could therefore develop a sustainability early warning signal when their community reaches a situation where either HMOs exceed 10% of the properties or where HMO occupants exceed 20% of the population
How does this proposal stack up against actions/comments taken by communities from different geographical regions?
Scotland: Fife City Council use the threshold: within a given street or block, the proportion of properties in multiple occupancy should not exceed 5%, as part of Policy H6 to control concentrations of HMO (Fife City Council, 2005).
Northern Ireland: the Belfast HMO Strategy bans HMOs above 30% per street in 21 HMO Policy Areas (Belfast City Council, 2006).
City of Milwaukee, U.S.A: Acknowledges that, when a neighbourhood experiences absentee ownership for over a third of the properties, it begins to exhibit signs of disinvestments and decline (A strategy and vision for the UWM neighbourhood, City of Milwaukee, 2005)
Georgia, U.S.A : A study noted that most of the healthy streets surveyed were 25% or fewer rentals (Walker, Robert.P. A Survey of residential streets near University of Georgia 2002)
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Have developed lodging home density criteria where lodging homes cannot be within 75 metres from one another. This develops a structure of 1 in 12 houses, leading to 8% HMO level in the community.
While variations occur, it seems communities independently arrive at concrete data measurements for a balanced community that in many cases approximate those put forth by the National HMO Lobby. Other indicators could be added.
Analyzing the demographic trends for the number of children needed to support primary school systems could be one way to determine the tipping point, as loss of such schools in a community unbalanced by lack of young families generally signals a crisis for the neighborhood.
While a universal hard measurement may be inappropriate given the range in regional disparities, one could argue that there are enough similarities to use the HMO Lobby proposal as a starting point for communities and higher education institutions interested in maintaining the sustainability of their neighborhood. Key structural community supports such as primary schools should be closely monitored, as their viability is key to the sustainability of near campus communities, and is one area that can be dramatically affected should the number of young families in a neighborhood reach a critically low level. |
Planning Legislation to address "Tipping Point"
Nov 2007 UK
The UK Government is preparing to review planning regulations known as the Use Classes Order. A change to the Order, if it meant that any change in the use of a property from a family home to be rented to up to six unrelated parties would need to be scrutinised as part of the planning process, could be of enormous benefit in helping to deal with the problems relating to the conversion of family homes to properties rented to students in Loughborough.(Full Story) |
Give your ideas on "Tipping Point"
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HMO meeting in the Capital
Jan 2008, Scotland A MEETING will be held this week to discuss the issue of affordable student housing in Edinburgh. The city council has guidelines on the number of houses of multiple occupancy (HMO) licences approved in areas such as Marchmont, Southside and Tollcross, which suggest "sensitive areas" should have no more than 30 per cent of flats being shared by students or young professionals. (Full Story) |
Call To Limit Student Numbers
BBC Video UK
Aug 2007
Officials in Canterbury want to impose measures to limit the number of students living on any one road to 20 per cent.Video is 2 min long.(Go to video) |
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Less than 60% Owner Occupied
A Community Crisis ? |
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Different Communities
Different Measures of Success ? |
Primary School Health
Tipping Point Indicator ?
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| "Investing in public education, a unique undertaking for the time, had Penn actively working with the Philadelphia School District. Together they constructed the Penn Alexander School, a K-8 facility, and Penn helped to support it with an additional $1K per pupil per year for 10 years. Many new residents view the school as the tipping point that made the university neighborhood turnaround possible.".(Bob Karrow,University as Urban Planner) |
Penn's collaboration with Philly on school a success story
Nov 17, 2007 USA
Since opening its doors in 2001, just before the state takeover of city schools, the K-to-eighth-grade, West Philadelphia school created from scratch by the school district, the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers has become a success story in its neighborhood , and a model for school reform in other cities.
Educators nationwide are hooked on the school's test scores.UCLA called a few weeks ago. The University of Arkansas at Little Rock recently sent two representatives to check out the school at 42nd and Spruce streets. The College of Charleston and Howard University, in the nation's capital, have also been in touch.
These universities want to understand how Penn created one of the city's highest-performing public K-8 schools , while drawing students solely from the school's surrounding neighborhood.(Full Story)
University Park Partnership
USA
There are no fences here. In the Main South neighborhood of Worcester, Mass., a university and a community have traded barriers for partnership and collaboration.
The University Park Campus School (UPCS) was established by Clark and the Worcester Public Schools as a public secondary school for the children of Main South and has been recognized as the top urban high school in Massachusetts and one of the top urban high schools in the country. UPCS, a cornerstone of UPP, has a rigorous academic curriculum that prepares students for higher education. UPCS features a homework center, an August Academy to prepare students for the new school year and mentoring by Clark students. UPCS graduates who meet Clark's admissions requirements can attend the University tuition free.(Go to Link) |
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