Raising the Spotlight on Affordable Housing Despite research
illustrating the presence of an acute affordable housing crisis, the issue remains below the national radar, experts say
By Ronald Roach
To Dr. Victoria M. Basolo, a professor of urban planning at the University of California-Irvine, the desire to play a part in making sure all Americans have adequate housing motivated her to pursue an academic career in urban and regional planning. “In a country as wealthy as the U.S., every one should have access to adequate housing,” she says.
The work of Dr. Michael P. Johnson at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, which focuses on improving the operations of public housing authorities, also springs from a motivation similar to that of Basolo. “My research explores how public housing authorities could better serve their clients, but there’s a larger issue of whether this society is willing to produce affordable quality housing for all Americans,” he notes.
