Conceptual Frameworks for Housing Analysis

Description

During this session, we will explore several key conceptual frameworks for analyzing or understanding housing and urban policy. Over the course of today’s conversation, we’ll explore six frameworks - spatial distribution, class, demographics, public discourse, rights, and design, in order to question who shapes housing and what does housing shape.

Learning Goals

  • Think conceptually about the role of housing in society
  • Apply previous knowledge of key frameworks for housing analysis to our conversation
  • Articulate key questions associated with each framework

Readings

  • Schwartz 2  

  • The Housing Crisis is Breaking People’s Brains    

  • Deconstructing the “Housing Crisis”    

Reflect

  1. How could we reframe public narrative around supply skepticism and shortage denialism to guide the development of new (affordable) housing?
  2. Why might housing production and price issues start in coastal states and then spread elsewhere in the U.S.?
  3. How would you develop a mental model of the housing production and delivery system? Within this model, where would you situate the 13 different crises discussed
    1. There is a lack of housing available to lower-income and low-wealth individuals and families.
    2. The median (or mean) price of housing has become too expensive.
    3. There is a severe rental housing crisis.
    4. There is a housing production deficit problem.
    5. There is a jobs/housing imbalance problem.
    6. There is a related problem of the jobs/housing fit.
    7. There is the problem of sprawl.
    8. There is an eviction crisis.
    9. There is a homelessness crisis.
    10. There is a gentrification and displacement crisis.
    11. There is a worsening racial divide in homeownership rates.
    12. There is a serious problem of exclusionary zoning.
    13. There remains a fair housing crisis.

Slides

Additional Resources