State of the Field: Housing Challenges during the COVID-19 Crisis

The economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic has had resounding effects on New York City’s and the country's housing and labor markets. As the United States rounds the corner on its one-year anniversary of living with the pandemic, policymakers are still grappling with the massive loss of employment income due to shutdowns, and the resulting influx of need for housing assistance. As NYC begins the gradual roll-out of the vaccine and lifts stay-at-home orders, government officials at every level must continue to address housing instability and eviction. In this talk and discussion, Professor Katherine O'Regan will focus on what we know about the current scope of the housing problems and discuss policy initiatives to promote housing stability and address the issues faced by vulnerable populations during the pandemic. 

Katherine O'Regan is a Professor of Public Policy and Planning at NYU Wagner, Faculty Director of the M.S. in Public Policy Program and Faculty Director of the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy.  She served as the Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research at the Department of Housing and Urban Development under the Obama Administration. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley and spent ten years teaching at the Yale School of Management prior to joining the Wagner faculty in 2000. She teaches courses in microeconomics, poverty, program evaluation, and urban economics, and has received teaching awards from Berkeley, Yale, and NYU. Her primary research interests are at the intersection of poverty and space, and her recent work also includes several projects examining neighborhood transitions over the past few decades, including possible broad causes (changes in federal housing policy, and changes in crime, in particular), and outcomes (including possible displacement, and improvements in neighborhood conditions).  Among others, she has served on the board of the Reinvestment Fund, the advisory board for NYU's McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research, and the editorial board for the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.