Housing

How Urban Form Impacts Housing Affordability
The way we design cities affects housing costs differently than you might think.

Pennsylvania Mall Conversion Bill Passes House
If passed, the bill would promote the adaptive reuse of defunct commercial buildings.

Opinion: Criminalizing Homelessness Is ‘Expensive and Shortsighted’
Policies that punish and fine unhoused people for sheltering outdoors, even when other shelter is not available, are the most visible but least efficient ways to reduce homelessness.

Texas Law Could Limit Local Control Over Zoning
If upheld, a Texas law would likely prevent cities from enacting zoning reform that would increase density or eliminate single-family-only zoning.

Maine Law Promotes Smart Growth
New state legislation encourages cities to plan around ‘smart growth’ principles to preserve farmland and open space, and use infill development to build more housing.

Atlanta Infill Project Takes Inspiration From Dutch Design
A residential development includes a central courtyard designed to be shared by pedestrians and cars.

Median Home Prices Top $1 Million in Over 200 California Towns
Towns once known for their affordability are seeing sharply rising home prices.

How Financing Restricts the Rental Housing Market
The way apartment buildings are financed has a major impact on supply and costs.

Understanding Average Versus Median Rent
The disparity between these commonly used terms can give vastly different outlooks on the housing market.

Legislation Introduced to Support Adaptive Reuse of Federal Buildings
The proposed bill would promote the conversion of vacant and underused buildings into affordable housing.

Opinion: Unhoused People Need Housing, Not Law Enforcement
The sharp increase in the unhoused population calls for urgent action, not criminalization.

Houston Supportive Housing Development Sparks Debate
Critics say a proposed apartment building would negatively impact the neighborhood’s walkability.

Friday Funny: Gated Community Doubles Down
The Onion skewers suburbia.

Fair Housing Cannot Take a Back Seat to ‘Build, Baby, Build’
If we overlook fair housing principles in the plan to build US housing back better, we risk ending up right back where we started.

California Exodus: Population Drops Below 39 Million
Never mind the 40 million that demographers predicted the Golden State would reach by 2018. The state's population dipped below 39 million to 38.965 million last July, according to Census data released in March, the lowest since 2015.

Chicago to Turn High-Rise Offices into Housing
Four commercial buildings in the Chicago Loop have been approved for redevelopment into housing in a bid to revitalize the city’s downtown post-pandemic.

Depopulation Patterns Get Weird
A recent ranking of “declining” cities heavily features some of the most expensive cities in the country — including New York City and a half-dozen in the San Francisco Bay Area.

New Jersey Passes Fair Housing Reform
A new law streamlines and clarifies the state’s affordable housing requirements for cities and towns.

Making TOD More Viable
Tying housing and land acquisition funding to transit projects could make dense, walkable development easier and more cost-effective.

Rural Affordable Housing in Crisis
Rural U.S. communities are poised to lose hundreds of thousands of affordable housing units as federally backed mortgages mature.
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This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
New York City School Construction Authority
Village of Glen Ellyn
Central Transportation Planning Staff/Boston Region MPO
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions