Policies for Action (P4A) is proud to announce the funding of 12 new research teams as part of its mission to identify policies, laws, and other system and community levers that can help ensure opportunity to live a healthier life for everyone. Researchers submitted these projects through P4A’s call for proposals for research on housing policies that promote equity. 

With topics including fair share housing programs, community preference policies and rent stabilization, these research projects seek to address key policy questions that have real and immediate implications for people and communities across the country, particularly as the nation grapples with the coronavirus pandemic and the racial and economic inequity that permeates everyday life. 

The following projects are now underway: 

• Cleveland State University Foundation, led by principal investigator Roland Anglin, PhD, will assess the impacts of Middle Neighborhoods (communities where housing is generally affordable to the average household and with generally positive quality of life for residents) and its effects on life outcomes for families with low incomes in the Industrial Heartland.  

• Florida Housing Coalition and University of Florida, led by principal investigators Anne Ray, MUPP, and Ashon Nesbitt, MURP, will analyze the impact of Florida's State Housing Initiative Partnership Program on equity and capital access before and after disasters.  

• Harvard University, led by principal investigators David Cutler, PhD, and Noémie Sportiche will assess the impact on wellbeing of Massachusetts Chapter 40B, the longest-running fair share housing program in the United States.  

• Howard University, led by principal investigator Haydar Kurban, PhD, will evaluate the efficacy of the District of Columbia’s suite of affordable housing programs. 

• Kaiser Permanente Colorado, led by principal investigators Cheryl Kelly, PhD, and Morgan Clennin, PhD, will assess how policies regulating manufactured housing parks in Colorado are implemented and their impacts on housing security. 

• New York University, led by principal investigator Katherine M. O’Regan, PhD, will evaluate whether and how the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit increases opportunity and mobility in Connecticut. 

• Portland State University, led by principal investigators Amie Thurber, PhD, and Lisa K. Bates, PhD, will examine the intended and unintended consequences of Portland’s community preference policy for the wellbeing of residents returning to a gentrifying neighborhood.

• The Pennsylvania State University, led by principal investigators Andrew Fenelon, PhD, and Selena E. Ortiz, MPH, PhD, will investigate the effects of innovative mobility vouchers and mobility counseling programs on low-income racial minority access and transition to opportunity-rich neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, PA. 

• St. Catherine University and the University of St. Thomas, led by principal investigators Marina Mileo Gorzig, PhD, and Deborah Rho, PhD, will assess the effects of reducing the use of background checks during the housing rental process on racial discrimination in the housing market in Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN.  

• University of California, Berkeley, led by principal investigators john a. powell, JD, and Steven Raphael, PhD, assess the effects of rent stabilization policies in the cities of Mountain View and Richmond, CA. 

• University of California, Los Angeles, led by principal investigators Michael Lens, MPP, M.Phil, PhD, and Paavo Monkkonen, MPP, PhD, will evaluate the effectiveness of the expanded California Housing Element Law on fair housing practices in the state.  

• University of Miami and the Community Justice Project, led by principal investigators Alana Greer and Zinzi Bailey, MPH, ScD, will study the impact of COVID-19 related tenant protections on racial and ethnic disparities in evictions and displacement in three urban Florida counties. 

With many challenges ahead as the nation begins to recover from the coronavirus pandemic and related economic recession — expanding the evidence base on the impacts of housing policy can help us better understand what levers should be used to create a recovery that leaves no one behind.  

We prioritize rigorous, real-world research, shaped and brought to life with community input and applied by practitioners and policymakers. Please join us in congratulating these distinguished scholars on their groundbreaking work and contribution to this goal, and keep in touch to learn about the results of their projects. 

FOR MORE INFORMATION 

Have a question about our cross-sector policy research? Reach out to us at Policies4Action@urban.org