New York University, School of Law, Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy

The Furman Center (Furman) is a joint center of the New York University School of Law and the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service that advances research and debate on housing, neighborhoods, and urban policy. Furman proposes a national community of practice to develop guidelines on how to assess and develop effective local housing strategies for cities, counties, and neighborhoods facing strong housing demand. The community of practice (CoP) will bring together a core group of 12 to 18 local government officials, planners, nonprofit housing owners, and practice-oriented academics for an intensive, collaborative network that will develop a framework for effective local housing strategies. The framework it creates will help cities and metropolitan counties develop specific housing goals and priorities, drawing on research about the importance of housing. It also will identify substantive housing policy options linked to other key social policies, such as public health, education, and economic development. Finally, the framework will demonstrate the necessary operating capacity to prepare, build, and implement desired policies and programs, assess effectiveness and adjust plans over time.

The Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy is a leading academic research center on the public policy aspects of land use, real estate development, and housing. Residential buildings account for nearly a quarter of total U.S. energy consumption, and produce 20 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. While various incentives encourage households to use less energy, policies that influence energy use in government-subsidized households receive little attention. The Center will use this grant to identify alternative legal and regulatory frameworks governing federal reimbursements for utility costs in subsidized housing to improve its energy conservation.

The Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy is a leading academic research center devoted to the public policy aspects of land use, real estate development, and housing. While a significant majority of all renters, including most of the nation’s lowest-income renters, live in small rental properties (two- to 50-unit buildings), current literature and published data do not provide sufficient insight about how these properties are financed and operated. The Center will use this grant to create a seminal white paper outlining the financing options available to small multifamily properties and their impact on their operations.

As part of the Foundation’s How Housing Matters to Families and Communities initiative, researchers at New York University will examine whether low-income households use housing vouchers, which are a form of federal subsidy that allows families to choose where they want to live, to move to neighborhoods with higher performing schools, and whether children’s academic performance improves. If the study finds that housing vouchers do improve educational outcomes, it would for the first time help determine whether this improvement is driven by increased housing stability or improved school quality.

Founded in 1995 as a joint research center of the New York University School of Law and the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service, the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy is an influential source of expertise, policy innovation, and best practices in affordable housing and real estate research in New York City and, increasingly, the nation. The Center will allocate the proposed MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions to building an endowment-like fund to help attract new faculty affiliates within NYU and in universities across the country, strengthen its data management infrastructure and improve external communications capabilities.