8 July 2020

Regular readers of High Road Policy will have noticed that the first two issues of Volume 2 (March and June 2021) are not yet available on our website. The delay in production coincides with the birth of our editor's second child, in March 2021. Alongside that exciting news, we are pleased to announce that production of HRP has resumed, and the first two issues of Volume 2 will be available later this month (July 2021).

Both new issues engage with the challenge of housing cost burden in the City of Buffalo, NY. The March issue provides a brief overview of housing cost-burden before quantifying and describing the nature of cost-burden in Buffalo. From there, Vol. 2 Memo No. 1 employs a novel method for calculating the effective hourly wages of workers who live in Buffalo. The analysis reveals the number of Buffalo-based workers who ostensibly earn below $15/hour, the minimum wage level to which New York State is aspiring, and the level flirted with at the federal level as part of the original American Rescue Plan (but was ultimately stripped out of the final bill). The results suggest that a universal $15/hour minimum wage has the potential to marginally close racial earnings gaps in Buffalo. At the same time, the estimates show that a $15 minimum wage can meaningfully reduce the number of cost-burdened households in Buffalo in a way that advances racial equity.

The June 2021 issue offers readers a brief explainer on the forthcoming expansion to the federal Child Tax Credit (CTC), which set to take effect on July 15th. Picking up where the March issue leaves off, Vol. 2 Memo No. 2 then performs data analyses to estimate the potential impact that the expanded CTC might have on housing cost-burden in Buffalo. The results show that the CTC expansion will benefit nearly all families with qualifying children in Buffalo, and that it may meaningfully alleviate cost-burden in ways that advance racial equity. As such, the June issue argues that the CTC expansion ought to be made permanent, as opposed to current plans that allow it to expire in 2025. The final portion of Vol. 2 Memo No. 2 analyzes the possibility of combining the expanded CTC with a universal $15 minimum wage. The results make a strong case that, together, these two policies -- which both provide resources directly to working families -- would have a dramatic positive effect on housing and economic security in Buffalo.

The chart at the top of the post offers a preview of what's to come in Vol. 2, Memo Nos. 1-2.