Displacement Risk and Gentrification: The CLiME Displacement Risk Indicators Matrix (DRIM) Methodology
David D. Troutt
Research and graphics by Cristina Garmendia
November 2017
As Newark experiences unprecedented growth potential, Newarkers express more and more anxiety about the prospects of housing displacement brought on by the processes of gentrification that have transformed urban neighborhoods across the United States. Given the recent history of other cities in its metropolitan neighborhood—New York, Hoboken and Jersey City—Newark would seem poised to attract the kind of global capital that has accelerated so much economic development among the transportation corridors that have easy access to Manhattan. With both an international airport, a port, R1 research institutions, a medical school and a rail hub at Newark Penn Station, this small, working-class city—just 24 square miles—would seem to be next in line for the arrival of a new “gentry”. It has not happened yet.
However, the Center on Law, Inequality and Metropolitan Equity (CLiME) at Rutgers Law School decided to examine the potential for displacement by any means in this brief analysis rooted in housing and demographics. (A more comprehensive Report on Housing and Equitable Growth in Newark will follow in January 2018.) Here is a summary of our pertinent findings.
Newark, a city with the second highest rate of renters in the country, is deep into a crisis of affordable housing. Rents are rising significantly, and income- restricted housing is at risk.
Traditional gentrification processes—such as the wholesale transformation of neighborhoods for upscale housing development and the retail stores that cater to more expensive tastes, the proliferation of private schools, the rapid entry of at least college-educated non-Hispanic whites—have not taken significant hold in Newark—yet.
People are moving to the City and locating in some of its more expensive neighborhoods.
There is significant vulnerability to housing displacement as witnessed by incomes that cannot keep pace with asking rents, very high eviction rates and low owner-occupancy (in part a reflection of high rates of foreclosure over the past decade).
Newark elected officials care deeply about the City and its residents. They are aware of these concerns. We believe that many of the findings here can aid them and their constituents in the process of producing just growth—that is, economic development that is inclusive, equitable and offers shared opportunities for longtime residents and newcomers alike. One such aid is the Displacement Risk Indicators Matrix (DRIM), a data tool that can help policymakers forecast the likely impact of proposed changes. In the remainder of this Brief, we outline the DRIM methodology and how to use it while providing additional measures of displacement along the way.
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