Courses:

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Given that the quest for effective practice underlies the Housing, Community, and Economic Development (HCED) philosophy, the course emphasizes strategic analysis of the institutional contexts within which public, nonprofit and private actions directed at housing, economic and community development are implemented. A way of framing neighborhood institutions and organizations, their relationship to one another and to citywide players is a theme running throughout the course.

Course Objectives

As an introduction to the field of HCED, the course is structured to:

1. advance students' understanding of how public policy and private markets affect housing, economic development, the local economy, and neighborhood institutions;
   
   
2. provide an overview of techniques for framing public and private interventions to meet housing and community development agendas (broadly defined) of inner-city and low-income neighborhoods;
   
   
3. review and critique specific programs, policies and strategies that are (and have been) directed at local development and neighborhood regeneration issues; and
   
   
4. give students an opportunity to reflect on their personal sense of the "housing, community, and economic development" process and the various roles that planners play in implementing various elements of those processes.

Readings

There is a substantial amount of reading for this course. Students are expected to attend class having read and digested the readings, and to be prepared to engage in intense discussion of them. Most of the readings are provided for you under the readings section of this site. In addition to the those, there are four required books for the course:

Hooks, Bell. Where We Stand: Class Matters. New York: Routledge Press, 2002. ISBN: 041592913X.

Redford, Gail. Modern Housing for America: Policy Struggles in the New Era. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. ISBN: 0226702235.

Campbell, Scott, and Susan S. Fainstein. eds. Readings in Planning Theory. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2003. ISBN: 0631223479.

Williamson, Thad, David Imbroscio, and Gar Alperovitz. Making a Place for Community: Local Democracy in a Global Era. New York: Routledge Press, 2002. ISBN: 0415933560.

Requirements

In addition to doing the required reading, students are expected to participate in class discussions, to give a 10-minute presentation (i.e. stating the key assumption(s), the central argument(s), and any questions you may have, etc) on one of the assigned readings, and to hand in two memos and an RFP. Expectations for the presentation and the memos - their form, purpose, content, setting etc. - will be discussed in detail in class.

Grades

The final grade will be based on 40% for class participation (includes your oral presentation), and 60% for the memos and the RFP.