Research Activities: Dan Hammel

Current Research

I am currently working on three projects that all concern housing issues, particularly mortgage and tax foreclosures. These events contributed to the recent financial crisis and have been exacerbated by it. My research focuses attempting to understand the events "on the ground" by looking at how, why and where foreclosures happen. At the same time I am interested in the larger theoretical issues surrounding housing and it serves as an intermediary bringing the influences of global capital to neighborhood change.

*The Process of Foreclosure: Lucas County, Ohio*
In this project Sujata Shetty and I have taken a sample of foreclosure filings in Lucas County and traced them through the foreclosure process to exam how that process changed over the key years in the recent housing crisis. We also attempt to explain the legal process of foreclosure which is not well-understood by researcher. We have found that even though the volume of foreclosure filings increased dramatically from 2004 through 2008, local attempts to provide foreclosure assistance combined with larger national events has substantially reduced the percentage of foreclosure filings that actually result in the loss of a home.
*Foreclosures in New York City*
In this project I am working with Xueying Chen (MA Toledo, 2010) and Benjamin Teresa both of Rutgers University to analyze a rich dataset collected by the Center for New York City Neighborhoods. CNYCN has provided a small grant to fund the initial analysis which we started in the summer of 2011. Maps of 60 day and 90 day mortgage delinquencies in New York City
*Financialization and Tax Foreclosures – Another Way to Foreclose*
In this project I am working with Kathe Newman and Irene Tung (both of Rutgers University) to examine the extent and characteristics of the practice of selling public tax liens on properties to private entities. We have found evidence of securitization of tax liens and are examining the process in the context of privatization and financialization of traditionally public functions.

Recent Publications

	Wyly, Elvin; Moos, Markus; Hammel, Daniel and Kabahizi, Emanuel 2009, "Cartographies of Race and Class: Mapping the Class-Monopoly Rents of American Subprime Mortgage Capital." International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 33.2:332-354.
	Hammel, D. J. 2008, "The Foreclosure Crisis: Ideological Struggles and Research Challenges." Urban Geography, 29:772-778. In, Crump, J., Newman, K., Belsky, E., Ashton, P., Kaplan, D., Hammel, D. and Wyly, E. 2008 "Cities Destroyed (Again) for Cash: Forum on the U.S. Foreclosure Crisis." Urban Geography, 29:745-784.
	Wyly, E.K. and D. J. Hammel, 2008, "Commentary: Urban Policy Frontiers." Urban Studies, 45.12:2643-2648.
	Hammel, D. J. 2006, "Public Housing Chicago Style: Transformation or Elimination?" In Chicago's Geographies: A 21^stCentury Metropolis. pp. 172-188. Richard P. Greene, Mark J. Bouman and Dennis Grammenos, eds. Association of American Geographers, Washington D. C.
	Wyly, E.K., M. Atia, H. Foxcroft, D. J. Hammel and K. Phillips-Watts, 2006, "American Home: Predatory Mortgage Capital and New Spaces of Neighborhood Inequality in the United States." Geografiska Annaler B, 88: 105 – 132.

Recent Graduate Students

Han Li (2011) Thesis Title: Modeling gentrification on census tract level in Chicago from 1990 to 2000

Xueying Chen (2010) Thesis Title: An Analysis of the Pattern of Mortgage Foreclosures in Lucas County, Ohio.

Jaerin Chung (2010) Thesis Title: A Quantitative Assessment of the HOPE VI Program from 1993 to 1998.

Weronika Kusek (2010) Thesis Title: The Possibility for Spatially Clustered Developments of LGBT Neighborhoods in Poznan, Poland.

Current Graduate Students

M.A.
	Michael S. Moore	Evaluating changes in mortgage lending in Toledo before and after the financial crisis.

Ph.D.
	Verl Luse	Evaluating shrinking cities in Detroit

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Department of Geography and Planning