宾夕法尼亚大学法学院种族与民事司法倡导事务所(Advocacy for Racial and Civil Justice Clinic, ARC)的一项新分析报告发现：2008年的第135号法案(Act-135)牺牲了弱势群体房产所有者的利益。
该法律于2014年进行了修订，旨在减少费城破旧房产的数量。研究人员发现，在费城更新改造的地区，亚裔和非裔业主的申请比例过高。
A new analysis by the Advocacy for Racial and Civil Justice Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania’s law school found that the conservatorships under the 2008 Act-135 law have come at the expense of vulnerable property owners. The law was revised in 2014 and designed to reduce the number of blighted properties in the city. Researchers found that petitions were disproportionately filed against Asian and Black property owners in gentrifying parts of Philadelphia.“这是第一次对135法案在费城的影响进行研究，也是事务所更广泛使命的一部分，”艾丽·约翰逊(Ally Johnson)说。“确保个人能够负担得起他们所在社区的生活，是ARC司法事务所支持社区，解决经济正义、健康正义和过度监管以及教育公平问题的基础。”
“This first-of-its-kind research on Act 135’s impact in Philadelphia is part of the Clinic’s broader mission,” said Ally Johnson. “Ensuring individuals can afford to live in their communities is foundational to the ARC Justice Clinic’s work to support communities in building power to address economic justice, health justice, mass incarceration and over-policing, and education equity issues.”发起这项立法的前州众议员约翰·泰勒(John Taylor)说，他立法的初衷是因为他所在的费城东北区到处都是废弃的房产，包括他办公室旁边的一栋空置建筑，那里吸引了非法占用者，滋生了犯罪活动。
泰勒表示：“这是整个宾夕法尼亚州最有效且最未被充分利用的法律之一。”
John Taylor, the former state representative who sponsored the legislation, said he was motivated by the abandoned properties dotting his former Northeast Philadelphia district, including a vacant building next to his office that attracted squatters and crime.
“It’s one of the most effective and underutilized laws in all of Pennsylvania,” said Taylor.
泰勒认为第135号法案能够防止闲置房屋对周围房屋的结构和价值产生影响。但实际受益者之一可能是那些获得托管权的非营利组织，他们向法院提交申请，要求从业主手中接管这些房产，进行翻修并转售以获取利润。
Taylor views Act 135 as preventing blighted homes from impacting the structure and value of the homes around them. But the actual beneficiaries seem to be the non-profit conservators petitioning the courts to take possession of these properties from the owners, rehabbing and reselling them for a profit.2014年，第177选区的众议员约翰·泰勒领导立法者修改了法律，鼓励并在经济上支持开发商提交有关第135号法案的申请，来获得托管权。
In 2014, Representative John Taylor of the 177th District led legislators to amend the law to encourage—and financially incentivize—developers to file Act 135 petitions and obtain conservatorships.这些激励措施似乎起了作用。报告审查了2009年10月至2022年12月期间提交的所有577份有关135法案申请的公共档案信息。
The incentives appear to have worked; the report reviewed the public docket information for all 577 Act 135 petitions filed from October 2009 to December 2022. Ninety petitions were filed in Philadelphia between 2009 and 2014, roughly 15 per year. After the 2014 amendments, 487 petitions, approximately 60 per year, were filed between January 2015 and December 2022, with 44 percent of all 577 petitions initiated by just two non-profit corporations.
Approximately 26.6 percent of addresses subjected to an Act 135 petition came from a census block group the Reinvestment Fund denotes as “at elevated risk” for displacement, and 32.8 percent came from a census block group the Reinvestment Fund indicates as “at risk” for displacement. These trends are exacerbated by rapid home value appreciation throughout Philadelphia.
Additionally, large investors increasingly purchase single-family homes in Philadelphia to convert into apartments, threatening residents’ ability to build intergenerational wealth and homeownership rates.
The report also found that Asian families owned 11 percent of the properties taken by non-profit conservators. Asians make up approximately 7.8 percent of the population in Philadelphia and make up 7.2 percent of homeowners, according to data from the 2021 Year American Community Survey at the census tract level.报告发现，在费城约有四分之一的亚裔美国人生活在贫困中。特别是柬埔寨人口中，近三分之二（65%）生活在低收入家庭中，这比拉丁裔人口的比例（64%）还要高。此外，超过一半的越南裔和华裔费城居民也生活在低收入家庭中。
One in four Asian Americans in Philadelphia lives in poverty, the report found. For the Cambodian population, nearly two out of three, or 65 percent, live in low-income households, the highest group in the city above Latinos 64 percent. More than 50 percent of Vietnamese and Chinese Philadelphians also live in low-income households.
One in four Asians pays more than half of their income toward housing costs compared to 16 percent of their white counterparts, putting many on the edge of financial vulnerability.
图片来自The Swarthmore Phoenix
研究还发现，不同收入群体之间住房拥有率也有差距。根据美国国家亚太裔社区发展委员会(National CAPACD)的调查结果显示，在低至中等收入的亚裔人口中，仅有37%拥有自己的住房，而相同收入群体的白人中，有53%拥有住房。
Disparities in homeownership also persist by income group. National CAPACD findings show that low-to-moderate-income Asians, 37 percent are far less likely to own a home than whites, 53 percent of the same income group.
Asians are also more likely than whites to live in a multigenerational household. Asians are four times higher, and NHOPIs are seven times more likely than whites to live in multigenerational households. Although residing in a multigenerational household may sometimes be a cultural choice, out of economic necessity, many AAPIs in multigenerational households face severe housing cost-burdens and overcrowding concerns compared to white households.当房产被出售时，理论上房主可以获得所有的利润。然而，成功出售房产的第三方现在可以追回他们的法律费用、修复费用，并且还可以获得相当于销售价格最多20%的费用。
即使房主进行抗争并成功保留了房产，他们仍然可能需要承担那些申请人的法律费用。
When a property is sold through conservatorship, the homeowner theoretically recovers any profits. But a conservator who successfully sells a property can now get back its legal fees and repair costs, plus a fee worth up to 20 percent of the sale price. Even homeowners who fight and get to keep their properties can be on the hook for the conservator’s legal fees. Even homeowners who fight and can save their properties are on the hook for the conservator’s legal fees.ARC的主任麦克莱伦说：“无力修缮房屋的业主可能一无所有。”
“So, owners who can’t afford to fix their properties can be left with nothing,” said McClellan, the Director of ARC. 胡安·马德里加尔·加西亚(Juan Madrigal Garcia)说:“第135号法案的目标是提高现有居民的‘生活质量’。当经济困难的业主想要修缮他们的房子，但没有资金时，我们最好帮助他们保留他们的房产。政策制定者和政府官员应该团结起来，为业主提供更多资源，这样他们就可以在’被135号法案处理‘之前，修缮自己的房产。”
“Act 135’s goal is to improve the ‘quality of life’ of residents who already live in a neighborhood,” said Juan Madrigal Garcia. “We’d be better off helping disadvantaged owners retain their property when they want to remediate their properties but do not have the resources to do so. Policymakers and government officials should rally to provide more resources to property owners so they can fix their properties before facing an Act 135 petition.”在第135号法案颁布后，其中一个最活跃的申请机构是非营利组织Scioli Turco。管理主任贝丝·格罗斯曼(Beth Grossman)否认该机构的申请以社区中产化为目标，也否认是出于经济利益。
One of the most prolific Act 135 filers was the non-profit Scioli Turco. Managing Director Beth Grossman denies targeting gentrifying areas or being motivated by profit.“我们的使命是为社区团体提供帮助，解决废弃、空置和荒废的房产问题。”格罗斯曼说道。
“We are mission-based,” said Grossman. “Our mission is to be here as a resource for community groups to address abandoned, vacant, and blighted properties.”为该分析报告设计静态和交互演示页面的伊丽莎白·夏克尼(Elizabeth Shackney)指出，了解该法律的“社会空间影响”是至关重要的。
Elizabeth Shackney, who designed static and interactive maps for the report, said it’s essential to understand the law’s “socio-spatial impact” and highlighted two trends demonstrated in the maps.
First, there are observable concentrations in South Philadelphia’s Point Breeze neighborhood and Brewerytown. Second, when overlaying the instances of Act 135 petitions with a neighborhood’s demographic data, there is a concentration of points where demographics transition from majority-white to majority-non-white.
The UPenn report explains Act 135 was created as a mechanism for communities to “transform abandoned and blighted buildings into productive reuse” in order “to modernize, revitalize, grow, and to improve the quality of life for neighbors who are already there.” In passing the Act, the Pennsylvania legislature found that blighted or abandoned properties pose several issues to residents of communities where those properties are located, including the diminishment of property values and increased cost to taxpayers and municipalities to secure and demolish those properties.“当一项法律通过后，很少有一个系统的方法来评估它是否成功。重要的是要了解解决空置或荒废房产的整体影响，”夏克尼说。“我们知道有些人因为这项策而失去了自己的家园，我们也知道它在更新改造的同时，也加大了一些地区居民被迫迁移的风险。这项报告是一个很好的开始，可以评估这项法律是否达到了预期的效果。”
“When a law is passed, there is rarely a systemic approach to evaluating its success. It’s important to understand the big-picture impact of attempts to address vacant or blighted property,” said Shackney. “We know there are people who have lost their homes to this policy, and we know it is leveraged in areas that are gentrifying or where there is a risk of displacement. That is a good place to begin assessing whether the law is doing what it intended.”麦克莱伦说：“尽管第135号法案最初的目的是鼓励社区主导的房地产开发，但数据分析表明，该法案的申请对费城的亚裔和非裔房地产业主及正在经历沿革的社区产生了不成比例的影响。”
“重要的是要确保处房主获得必要的支持，让他们的房产得到修缮，而不是让他们面临被驱逐的风险。”
“Despite Act 135’s original purpose to encourage community-led property development,” said McClellan. “The data analysis evidences that Act 135 petitions disproportionately impact Asian American and Black property owners and communities experiencing gentrification in Philadelphia. We think it is important to consider strategies and tools to ensure that vulnerable Act 135 respondents receive needed support to restore their property rather than face displacement.”这份报告发布时正值建筑行业和76人队开发公司提出一项提议，计划将76人队新球馆迁至费城市中心靠近唐人街的位置。居民对此表示担忧，他们担心这可能会导致唐人街的华人居民和商家被迫搬离，尤其是考虑到亚裔人士已经在费城其他地区面临被迫搬离的情况。与此同时，整个费城的住房成本仍在上涨。
This report comes on the heels of a proposal pushed by the building trades and 76ers Dev. Corp will move the 76ers into Center City on the doorstep of Chinatown, which residents fear could displace Chinese residents and business owners at a time when Asians are already being displaced in other parts of Philadelphia. Housing costs continue to rise throughout the city.为了确保代际财富积累和家庭未来的稳定，房屋净值仍然具有重要意义。随着收入和财富的不平等问题日益突出，提供住房咨询服务变得至关重要。根据美联储2016年的消费者财务调查数据，全国白人家庭的中位净值为171,000美元。相比之下，非白人家庭的中位净值为103,100美元，其中黑人家庭的中位净值仅为17,600美元，拉丁裔家庭为20,700美元，其他种族群体为64,800美元。这些整体数据未能显示其他非白人族裔群体之间的差异情况。
Home equity remains important in generational wealth building and stabilizing a household’s financial future. Housing counseling services are critical given the growing income and wealth inequality. According to data from the Federal Reserve’s 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances, the median net worth for a white household nationally is $171,000. For nonwhite households, the median net worth is $103,100, with black households having a median net worth amounting to $17,600, Latino families with $20,700, and other racial groups with $64,800. Aggregate numbers from the Federal Reserve fail to capture the nuances between other nonwhite racial and ethnic groups.模范少数族裔的刻板印象将亚裔美国人描绘为富有和高度受教育的群体。亚太裔美国人社群中的不同族裔群体显示出特定的家庭净值差异。根据全美亚太裔社区发展联盟的一项研究，“华裔在族裔差异中拥有最高的家庭净值，而菲律宾裔和东南亚裔则相对较低。”
The model minority stereotype paints Asian Americans as wealthy and highly educated. Ethnic variations among AAPI communities show specific subgroups have lower home equity than others. According to a National CAPACD study, “Chinese-born Asians have the highest and Philippine-born and Southeast Asians have the lower home equity within ethnic variations.”随着亚太裔美国人不断增加，他们面临着日益严重的族裔间收入和财富不平等问题。为了弥合这些差距并更加包容，政府机构和基金会需要在未来十年内改变他们的工作方式。以下建议旨在提供信息、洞察力，并与资助者以及更广泛的住房和金融机构展开合作，以增加亚太裔美国人在购房方面的机会。
As the AAPI population continues to grow rapidly in the United States against the backdrop of increasing racial income and wealth inequality, government agencies and foundations need to shift their work in the next decade to address these gaps and be more inclusive. The following recommendations inform, provide insights, and engage funders and the more extensive housing and financial fields on improving access to AAPI homeownership.更大、更成熟的中介机构需要与全美亚太裔社区发展联盟等地方层面的网络合作，以更好地为低收入的亚太裔族群提供服务并了解他们的需求。
Larger, more established intermediaries need to partner with networks like National CAPACD at the local level to serve better and understand the experiences of low-income AAPI populations.为满足边缘化的亚太裔社区和其他有色人种群体的需求，住房行业的政府机构和资助者应提供充足的资源。为此，住房和城市发展部(HUD)以及费城市政府应划拨资金，用于培训并增加具备专业文化能力和语言能力的住房顾问团队，以确保有限英语能力者(LEP)能够获得高质量的住房咨询、财务福祉和其他相关服务。
Government agencies and funders in the housing industry need to provide resources to adequately address the needs of marginalized AAPI communities along with other communities of color. HUD and municipalities should set aside funding to train and increase the number of housing counselors with professional cultural competency and language capacity to ensure that persons with limited English proficiency (LEP) have quality access to housing counseling, financial well-being, and other related services.
Many studies on the racial wealth divide either exclude AAPIs (often rendering them invisible) or lump more than 40 ethnic groups into an aggregate category of AAPIs, framing them as doing as well as or better than whites or the general population.对于有特定语言需求的高需求人群来说，每个客户的服务成本是不同的。资助者通常更关注为客户提供服务的数量，而不是以具备文化能力和有意义的方式提供高质量的服务。尽管住房顾问的工作需要大量资源，但其价值和数据记录并未得到充分重视。因此，了解通过语言、文化和社区外展策略和活动来接触到未得到充分服务的社区的最佳做法至关重要。
The cost per client for high-needs populations is very different when they have specific language needs. Funders tend to place value on the volume of clients served versus the quality of services provided in a culturally competent and meaningful way. The work done by housing counselors is resource-intensive but is not valued or documented in the data. Understanding best practices for reaching underserved communities through language, culture, and community outreach strategies and activities is essential.应当制定财政能力计划，以应对移民和租房人口的增长，特别是他们对可负担且易达的住房提出的新需求。目前，金融和住房领域主要关注购房问题，导致租房者的服务经常缺乏资金支持。因此，需要更多的资源和关注来满足租房人群的需求，并确保他们能够获得高质量的住房服务。
Financial capability programs should be developed and funded to address the growth of immigrant and renter populations, particularly how they might create new demands for affordable and accessible housing. The financial and housing fields primarily focus on homeownership, creating a scenario where services for renters are often underfunded.
These are just a handful of things that can be done to improve homeownership in the AAPI community. On the other end of the spectrum, Act 135 needs to de-incentivize Non-profits from taking the homes of poor, marginalized families or provide a buffer of funding to the families and communities at risk of losing their homes under this law to make the home repairs necessary to be able to keep their homes.
