This is the first course in a two-course sequence in housing policy, with an emphasis on major federal policies and the connection between housing, place and opportunity. This first course explores the historic, economic and social context of current housing policy and debates in the U.S., including how housing and community conditions and policies are intertwined. It provides an overview of housing policies, and how they play out on the ground. A key goal of the course is for students to develop knowledge of the field as well as insights for assessing the relative merits of various policies and interventions-what problem are we trying to solve? How might this approach address that problem, or not? What other related outcomes should we worry about? How have housing issues or challenges changed, and what might that mean for needed housing innovations? The role of race and space is considered throughout the course.