Supportive housing developments have no negative impact on neighboring property values, according to a new study by NYU's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. Instead, properties closest to the supportive housing see a steady increase in value during the years that follow.

The Furman Center report represents the first large-scale study of the property value impacts of supportive housing. The report evaluated the impacts of 123 developments across the city's five boroughs over an 18 year period. These new findings refute frequently asserted fears that supportive housing developments will depress the value of neighboring properties over time.

"While studies have shown that supportive housing plays a critical role in helping to address the problem of homelessness, before our study, little was known about the impact that supportive housing has on the neighborhood," commented Vicki Been, director of the Furman Center. "Neighbors often resist proposed supportive housing developments in their community, expressing fears that the housing will have a negative impact on the neighborhood, but the Furman Center thought it was important to look at this question empirically to see what the real impacts have been over time."

The findings show that the value of properties within 500 feet of supportive housing do not drop when a new development opens and show steady growth relative to other properties in the neighborhood in the years after the supportive housing opens. Properties somewhat further away from the supportive housing (between 500 and 1,000 feet away) show a decline in value when the supportive housing first opens, but their prices then increase steadily relative to other properties in the neighborhood.