News

NCSG Researchers Examine How Diverse Housing May Benefit a Community

Arnab Chakraborty and Andrew McMillan published a study in the Journal of Planning Education and Research for their work examining housing diversity. Arnab Chakraborty is an NCSG affiliate based at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Andrew McMillan is a Post-Doctoral Researcher based at the University of Maryland, College Park. The authors explore how diverse housing affected foreclosure rates within a community during the great recession when national home foreclosure rates peaked. They further compare this rate to home foreclosure trends after the peak and conclude that zoning communities for diversity may lead to greater stability.
This project was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
More information and full text of the study may be found at the Journal of Planning Education and Research.
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NCSG Faculty Proposes “Regionalism Light” for the DC Region in a New Book 

NCSG faculty member Willow Lung-Amam is among the esteemed authors in A Shared Future: Fostering Inclusion in an Era of Inequality, published by Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. Lung-Amam’s chapter “An Equitable Future for the Washington, DC Region?: A ‘Regionalism Light’ Approach to Building Inclusive Neighborhoods” proposes real strategies for regional housing policies and plans in the Washington, DC region, where rents are 60% higher than the national average, home prices are double the national average, and segregation is among the highest in US metropolitan areas. The chapter points to leaders in affordable housing from within the region and across the nation. Recognizing the tough political realities of implementing change across multiple state, county, and municipal governments, Lung-Amam explores non-governmental agencies that could enact regional change.
More information about the book and free access to working papers of the chapters are available from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.
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LightScape Garden Supports STEAM Learning and Safety in Silver Spring

NCSG faculty Ronit Eisenbach has been working with the Quebec Terrace/Carroll Avenue community in Silver Spring for several years, on LightScape Garden, a project that aims to increase public safety through lighting, provide a place for people to gather and play and support the informal STEAM and literacy after school programs provided by the YMCA and Arts on the Block in the adjacent community center.
 
Funding for the project was provided by NCSG, EFC and a grant from Community Forklift.
More information can be found at arch.umd.edu.
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