New Updates on PD&R Edge

PD&R Leadership:
Expanding Housing Choice through Investments in Innovation and Technology
In the Leadership Message, Regina C. Gray, director of the Affordable Housing Research and Technology Division at PD&R, provides a history of HUD’s research efforts into how technology can reduce housing costs, beginning with the Operation Breakthrough demonstration in the late 1960s and continuing to the present day, with many new housing technologies featured at HUD’s Innovative Housing Showcase event.

In Practice:
Creating a New Mixed-Income Neighborhood in Alexandria, Virginia
Developer Pennrose transformed a 33-acre undeveloped site in Alexandria, Virginia, into a new mixed-income neighborhood. The development includes 175 townhomes that create market-rate homeownership opportunities, 216 units of affordable multifamily rental housing, and 63 units for seniors. The project was aided by Virginia’s Public-Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act, which facilitates the private development of certain projects that further the public interest on publicly owned land.

PD&R at 50:
Fifty Years of Assessing Worst Case Needs for Affordable Rental Housing
Among the research that PD&R produces, one of the most high-profile products is the series of Worst Case Housing Needs reports to Congress. These reports, which span most of PD&R’s 50-year history, have supplied researchers and policymakers with critical data and insights about affordable rental housing needs in the United States. Over time, the prevalence of worst case needs has expanded, driven by an increase in housing cost burdens.

Trending:
Pressure to Move and Forced Moves Among U.S. Renter Households: Findings From New Questions in the Household Pulse Survey
PD&R developed new questions on forced moves to include in the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey (HPS) beginning in June 2023. With the inclusion of these questions, researchers now have access to national, real-time data on forced moves. Data already available from the first 3 months show many renters experiencing pressure from landlords to move, with rent increases and a lack of needed repairs by landlords the most common causes.

International & Philanthropic Spotlight:
U.S.-Germany City-to-City Initiative Takes Aim at Barriers to Affordable Housing
The United States and Germany face similar housing affordability challenges, and for more than a decade, HUD has partnered with its German counterparts to organize delegations, undertake joint research projects, and exchange information to better understand and overcome these common challenges. A key element of this partnership is a city-to-city exchange project that convenes cohorts of local leaders to inform research and exchange perspectives on housing and sustainable urban development. Delegates convened for the first time in April 2023 in Atlanta, following several months of virtual meetings, and will next convene in Germany.

Please send your comments and suggestions to editor@huduser.gov.