Course

UPCD 730: Housing Policy and Community Development Finance

A course on housing systems, affordability, capital investment, community development finance, policy design, and the relationship between housing and neighborhood opportunity.

Course orientation

Students examine housing as both a market system and a public policy problem. The course connects housing need, land use, finance, federal and local policy, climate risk, community development institutions, and the social consequences of housing instability.

Selected learning outcomes

  • Analyze the historical evolution of U.S. housing policy.
  • Evaluate place-based and people-based housing strategies.
  • Understand affordable housing finance and development feasibility.
  • Assess climate risk, resilience, and housing vulnerability.
  • Connect housing policy to equity, community development, and regional planning.
Map of Greater Boston coastal flood risk

Student research example

Students have examined the vulnerability of elderly and disabled residents in subsidized housing to sea-level rise and coastal flooding in Massachusetts.

View student research page