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Research & Policy
Supply Skepticism: Housing Supply and Affordability
Will building more housing lead to more affordable rents and lower home prices? Economics 101 says yes, but an increasingly vocal cohort of advocates and activists—supply skeptics—oppose new housing construction on the grounds that it will not enhance affordability in their communities and might, instead, increase prices and rents.
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Research & Policy
Policy Minute: Perspectives on Housing Supply and Affordability
This Policy Minute examines whether increasing the supply of market-rate housing improves housing affordability.
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News & Events
The Dream Revisited: Contemporary Debates about Housing, Segregation, and Opportunity
The Dream Revisited takes as a starting point the belief that all people should be able to live with equal dignity and recognition of their humanity, and that part of the realization of the ideals of the United States is a continuing responsibility to advance equal access to opportunity for all individuals. Even with these basic principles as a starting point, there is still significant disagreement about the causes of contemporary residential segregation, the consequences of that segregation, and how we as individuals and as a nation should address it. Learn more about The Dream Revisited, available now from Columbia University Press.
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Policy Minute: Access to Counsel and Other Strategies to Prevent Displacement
This Policy Minute rounds up recent developments and research on increasing access to legal representation to prevent displacement.
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Research & Policy
Fact Brief: NYCHA’s Outsized Role in Housing New York’s Poorest Households
As the largest landlord in New York, New York Housing Authority (NYCHA) units represent almost six percent of all occupied housing citywide, and almost nine percent of all occupied rental housing. The city’s public housing provides shelter to substantially more households than any other place-based housing assistance program in the city. In 2017 over 60 percent of the roughly 174,000 households in NYCHA’s public housing developments earned 30 percent of Area Median Income (AMI) or less. That translates to just $28,600 annually for a family of four. These households would have few housing options in New York City without the affordability offered in public housing.
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Research & Policy
Policy Brief: National Lessons of NYC’s Universal Access to Counsel Program
In 2017, New York City enacted the first legislation in the country providing legal representation for all income-eligible tenants facing eviction. The legislation, sponsored by Council Members Vanessa Gibson and Mark Levine, has been implemented in four zip codes in each of New York’s five boroughs, with citywide universal access mandated by July 2022. As major cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Newark, Cleveland, and Boston consider expanding access to counsel, New York’s experience offers important lessons for program design and implementation.
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News & Events
VIDEO: Policy Breakfast on Reforming Rent Stabilization in New York City
Close to 1 million apartments in New York City are subject to the state’s rent stabilization laws, which regulate how rents can rise. In June, 2019, those laws are set to expire. On November 29th, 2018 the NYU Furman Center hosted an event to bring experts together to explore ideas for reforming the rent laws.
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Research & Policy
Gentrification and Fair Housing: Does Gentrification Further Integration?
On the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act, long-time residents of cities across the country feel increasingly anxious that they will be priced out of their homes and communities, as growing numbers of higher-income, college-educated households opt for downtown neighborhoods. These fears are particularly acute among black and Latino residents. Yet when looking through the lens of fair housing, gentrification also offers a glimmer of hope, as the moves that higher-income, white households make into predominantly minority, lower-income neighborhoods are moves that help to integrate those neighborhoods, at least in the near term.
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News & Events
NYU Furman Center Researchers Present New & Forthcoming Work at the 2018 APPAM Research Conference
APPAM brings together academics and research on a variety of emerging policy issues, exploring ways to bring global and inter-disciplinary perspectives into conversations on pressing challenges, ranging from changing population demographics and economic inequality to climate change. This year’s conference theme was “Evidence for Action: Encouraging Innovation and Improvement”.
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Research & Policy
Neighbors and Networks: The role of social interactions on the residential choices
NYU Furman Center Faculty Director Ingrid Gould Ellen co-authored a paper with Michael Suher and Gerard Torrats-Espinosa considering the role of information and social influence in determining the effective set of potential housing choices for participants in the Housing Choice Voucher Program.
