Events

Given the economic havoc brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, Don Layton will review the major points of stress in the housing finance system that will be tested by this crisis. Taking a longer view, the discussion will also describe the intertwining of economics and politics that have dominated and, he believes, often distorted that system in negative ways.

In this seminar, Samara Scheckler, a Center postdoctoral fellow will describe research showing that grandparents living in counties characterized by high opioid use are much more likely to act as primary caregivers for their grandchildren. Implications of this care disruption will be explored and will be used as a platform to examine caregiving during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Who becomes homeless? Why do people become homeless? How do we end homelessness? And how do we prevent it? Join us for a conversation about these questions with Beth Shinn, co-author (with Jill Khadduri) of In the Midst of Plenty: Homelessness and What To Do About It, recently published by Wiley-Blackwell and David Luberoff, Deputy Director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies.

The Harvard Real Estate Weekend is an annual conference jointly presented by The Real Estate and Development Club of the Graduate School of Design and The Real Estate Club of Harvard Business School. It aims to engage next generation leaders with industry experts through an inclusive and globally oriented forum. Together we explore, debate and advance topics that have the potential to transform the real estate industry.

“Aging in place” is a personal goal for many older people and a policy goal for many governments. But the phrase appears to have multiple (often unstated) definitions and motivations, according to Ann Forsyth, the Stanton Professor of Urban Planning at GSD, and Jennifer Molinsky, a Center senior research associate, who are both researching issues related to housing and older adults.

The Conference on Poverty and Inequality is a student-run conference at the Harvard Kennedy School. Over the past four years, the Conference on Poverty and Inequality has rapidly grown into a leading platform for students, alumni, faculty, and policy practitioners across Harvard and the Boston area who are interested in addressing issues that affect individuals and communities experiencing poverty and marginalization.

Design and Planning often wax poetic about collectively transforming the future, but realizations are harder to come by. How can activism, policy and design work together to bring about the societal transformations needed to ensure a just and habitable future?

Can past efforts to revitalize America’s cities inform contemporary strategies to address the problems of economic inequality, unaffordable housing, segregated neighborhoods, and deteriorating infrastructure? That question, in part, informs Saving America’s Cities: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age, a new book by Lizabeth Cohen, a Professor in the History Department at Harvard and former Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

This conference will address new emerging concepts in the field of adaptive and intelligent architecture such as machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL), Robotic Buildings, Smart Homes in a form of a symposium. Co-sponsored by the Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Despite a slowdown in demand, rental markets across the US remain extremely tight, according to our new America’s Rental Housing report. Join us as Whitney Airgood-Obrycki, a Research Associate at the Center and lead author of the report, discusses key findings, including how low vacancy rates, limited new construction, and a growing number of higher-income renters are driving a rental affordability crisis, particularly for middle-income renters.