How are architects responding to the warming climate, the affordability crisis, and other housing challenges? Our new book focuses on the new, novel, and notable in US housing design.
Joint Center for Housing Studies
of Harvard University
Our Center strives to improve equitable access to decent, affordable homes in thriving communities and conducts rigorous research to advance policy and practice.
This paper estimates the impact of household liquidity provision on macroeconomic stabilization using the 2020 CARES Act mortgage forbearance program. We leverage intermediation frictions in forbearance induced by mortgage servicers to identify the effect of reducing short-term payments with little change in long-term debt obligations on local labor market outcomes.
Accessory Dwelling Units or ADUs – small, independent living units that are inside, attached to, or detached but on the same parcel as a primary residence – have the potential to address a variety of housing-related challenges like affordability, equity, and environmental issues. Recognizing this potential, many localities have tried to encourage the construction of more ADUs by changing their zoning codes to remove restrictions that limited homeowners’ ability to build ADUs. More recently, several states have followed suit by changing state laws that govern local zoning to require that localities approve ADUs that meet state standards.
Desegregation-focused housing policies aimed at reducing disparities in neighborhood conditions may also reduce disparities in health outcomes. This paper examines the effects of one such policy on the health of pregnant people and their newborn infants. Specifically, it studies the impact of Massachusetts Chapter 40B, a major civil rights-era housing policy that increases the supply of affordable ownership and rental housing in higher-income areas to facilitate moves for lower- income households to those areas.
