Prior CHURP Activities

On April 30, 2024, TD Bank and the Howard University Center of Excellence in Housing and Urban Research and Policy (CHURP) convened an affordable housing summit in the Blackburn Center at Howard University. Bringing together a wide range of affordable housing non-profits, housing innovators, and academics, TD Bank demonstrated its commitment to addressing the increasingly urgent affordable housing crisis. CHURP Director Haydar Kurban served on the introductory panel with Ph.D. student Jasmine Fuller while CHURP Associate Director Rodney Green and CHURP Research Scientist Nyanya Browne assisted in the overall program. Jasmine Fuller was the featured speaker at the final plenary, focusing on CHURP's work in exploring modular housing as a pathway to expanding the stock of affordable housing across the country. Participants agreed that this successful conference should be followed up with annual convenings of cutting-edge innovators in affordable housing.

On April 1, 2024, Drs. Haydar Kurban and Rodney Green, Director and Associate Director of CHURP respectively, joined with a CHURP partner, the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University, at the Cook Center's Career Achievement Awards dinner and ceremony. Awardees were Fed Governor Lisa Cook, PhD; Peter Blair Henry, PhD; and Cecilia Rouse, PhD. These thought leaders have demonstrated exceptional dedication and impact in advancing social equity, championing the cause of social justice and inspiring meaningful change in their communities. CHURP congratulated these distinguished African American scholar-activists and offered their appreciation to Dr. William A. “Sandy” Darity, Director of the Cook Center for convening this award ceremony.

On November 16, 2023, CHURP hosted an audience of over 50 people to share its findings from over 13 research projects funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Under the leadership of CHURP Director Haydar Kurban, CHURP Research fellows reported preliminary findings on a variety of urban and housing topics. These included addressing childhood asthma in public housing, elevating the voices of public housing resident leaders, studying the health conditions for the unhoused, evaluating D.C. housing policies, developing strategies for increasing affordable housing including modular factory construction, considering the impacts of the Purple Line on displacement, and more (see program below). Howard University Provost and Chief Academic Officer Anthony K. Wutoh welcomed attendees, offering his congratulations on CHURP’s outstanding research. Keynote remarks from leaders from the  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Development & Research (PDR/HUD) Solomon Greene and Calvin Johnson (Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary, respectively) applauded CHURP’s research progress. Todd Richardson, PDR/HUD General Deputy Assistant Secretary provided important remarks on several of the research projects during the event. The conference and its findings showcased the impressive work being done by CHURP and marked a significant milestone for this new research center at Howard University.

ADVANCING THE INTERESTS OF UNDERSERVED POPULATIONS THROUGH RESEARCH

9:00 a.m.  Welcome – Haydar Kurban, Director of CHURP & Omari Swinton, Chair, Department of Economics

9:10 a.m.  Greetings from Howard University, Provost & Chief Academic Officer Anthony K. Wutoh

9:30 a.m. Panel 1: Overcoming Challenges in Public Housing

Session Chair: Rodney Green

Exploring Indoor Allergen Levels in Public Housing Where Children with Asthma Reside: What are More Effective Interventions? Janet Phoenix, Milken School of Public Health, George Washington University

The Health and Safety of Low-Income Homes in the Greensboro Area. Alesia Ferguson, North Carolina A&T University

Lifting Voices of Resident Leaders in Public Housing:  Exploring Lived Experiences with Leadership.

Sandra Crewe, Rodney Green, Bezil Taylor, and Jalissa R. Worthy. School of Social Work, Howard University, and CHURP

Barriers to Sustainable Affordable Public Housing in Urban Low-Income Communities in the Tri-Cities in North Carolina. Musibau Shofoluwe, North Carolina A&T University

11:00 a.m. Panel 2: Housing Affordability: Policies and Challenges

Session Chair: Brooke McKie

Increasing Black Homeownership through the Home Purchase Assistance Program (HPAP) in the District of Columbia. Haydar Kurban, Bethel Cole-Smith, Daniel Muhammad, Susan Steward and Joseph Dean, CHURP and D.C. Government

Building A Rent Control Database in D.C. Joseph Dean and Haydar Kurban, CHURP

Unintended Consequences of Property Tax Relief Programs in D.C. Haydar Kurban, Amirhossein Amini Behbahani and Mohammad Alfayazi. CHURP and Howard University Department of Economics

Realizing Housing Justice in the Nation’s Capital: The Role of Tenants’ Rights to Purchase. Casey J. Dawkins, Kathryn Howell, and Sophie McManus, National Center for Smart Growth (NCSG), University of Maryland

12:30 p.m. Luncheon and Keynote, Calvin Johnson, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Policy Development and Research, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

1:30 p.m. Panel 3: Neighborhoods and the Environment

Session Chair: Digna Mosquera

Gentrification and Displacement in Maryland’s Purple Line Corridor. Nicholas Finio, National Center for Smart Growth (NCSG), University of Maryland

Measuring Exposure to Ambient Air Pollution among Individuals Experiencing Homelessness in New York City. Jasmine Fuller, Prasun Dhungana, and Manish Adhikari, CHURP

Case Studies of Modular Housing: A Prelude to a New Operation Breakthrough. Melvin Mitchell, Bradford Grant, and Jacqueline Carmichael, Howard University Schools of Engineering & Architecture and Fine Arts

3:00 p.m. Panel 4: Finance, the Underserved, and Racial Disparities

Session Chair: Jasmine Fuller

The Spillover Effects of State Payday Lending Regulations. Nyanya Browne, CHURP

Black Investment in Financial Instruments: Barriers and Solutions. Bethel Cole-Smith, Beza Afework, Nyanya Browne and Digna Mosquera, CHURP

Improving Equity? The Short-term Impact of Inclusionary Zoning on Housing and Health Outcomes. Haydar Kurban, Bethel Cole-Smith, Daniel Muhammad and Susan Steward, CHURP and DC Government

Using New Tools to Understand the Appraiser’s Role in the Lingering Effects of Redlining. Linda Loubert, Morgan State University

4:30 p.m. Round Table of Selected Upcoming Projects

Session Chair: Beza Afework

Aging in Place, Intergenerational Wealth, and the Quality of Life. Felecia M. Banks and Nyanya Browne, Howard University Department of Occupational Therapy and CHURP

Airbnb and the Loss of Housing Voucher Opportunity. Haydar Kurban, CHURP

Exploring Household Exits from Transitioning Neighborhoods Using the American Housing Survey, Regina Tawah, LaTanya Brown-Robertson, and Augustin Ntembe, Bowie State University and Howard University

5:30 p.m. Remarks and Reception – Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Solomon Greene, Office of Policy Development and Research, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developmen

CHURP managed the 6 th annual week-long workshop (May 21-26, 2023) jointly organized by the Howard University Center on Race and Wealth and University of Wisconsin Madison Institute for Research on Poverty to assist doctoral students in the social sciences develop their dissertation proposals. CHURP/CRW Director Dr. Haydar Kurban welcomed the multidisciplinary group of 14 participants from around the country, noting that this event is dedicated to supporting students from under-represented groups complete their doctoral work related to the challenges facing underserved populations. CHURP Fellows Digna Mosquera, Jasmine Fuller, and Dr. Brooke McKie organized and managed the program, which included informative sessions on research processes and multiple small working groups. CHURP Associate Director Dr. Rodney Green joined Dr. David Pate from the University of Wisconsin in presenting a session on community-based participatory research.

    

    

CHURP was well-represented at the recent Abolitions Conference (May 6-8, 2023) organized by the University of California Washington Center and co-sponsored by the Howard University Center for Urban Progress. The conference brought together scholars and activists from across the U.S. to consider various types of abolition, a strategy to address the profound racial and other social inequalities in the U.S. Keynote speakers included Drs. Charisse Burden-Stelly and Dorothy E. Roberts. Associate Director Rodney Green presented a paper providing a historical review of strategies to achieve social change since the 18 th century. Research Fellow Digna Mosquera presented a well-received paper on the continuing impact of European colonialism on the persistent inequalities in the periphery in Colombia. Conference goers plan to deepen their engagement in efforts to overcome the disparities affecting underserved populations.

   

CHURP was well-represented at the recent annual meeting of the Allied Social Sciences Association. This coalition of the major economics organizations includes the National Economic Association, the organization of mainly Black economists that maintains a focus on the needs of underserved populations. CHURP’s Post-Doctoral Researcher Nyanya Browne and Student Research Fellow Bethel Cole-Smith presented their findings in a paper “The China Trade Shock and Unionization among Black Workers in the United States.” CHURP Director Haydar Kurban presented an urban housing paper, “Does Inclusionary Zoning Policy Promote Racial and Income Integration? A Case Study of DC IZ/ADU Program” on behalf of his research team and co-authors Bethel Cole-Smith, Gauri Gautam, Daniel Muhammad, and Susan Steward. Dr. Kurban also participated in two panel discussions of vital interest to the underserved – “Macroeconomics, Race, and Inclusive Growth” and “The Past, Present, and Future of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.”

  

On Monday, December 5th 2022, CHURP Directors and Student Fellows participated in a convening of the German Marshall Fund entitled Bridging Health, Housing, and Generations: What the United States Might Learn from Germany’s Intentional Multigenerational Housing Demonstrations. This all-day conference featured reports of leaders in intentional multigenerational housing projects in both Germany and the United States, and included a panel of housing experts including Dr. Haydar Kurban, Director of CHURP (see photo). The day’s events were capped by a closing dialogue of Solomon Greene, who leads U.S. HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research with Matthias Von Schwanenfluegel, who recently served as Director General of the Division of Demographic Change, Older People, and Welfare in Germany’s Federal Ministry of Family Affairs.

  

CHURP Director Haydar Kurban advanced the analysis of housing policy at the annual fall meeting of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) where he presented a paper, “Does Inclusionary Zoning Policy Promote Racial and Income Integration? A Case Study of the DC IZ/ADU Program.” The paper was the result of intensive analysis by CHURP researchers of housing program data from Washington DC, and was co-authored by Bethel Cole-Smith, Haydar Kurban, Daniel Muhammad, and Susan Steward. The paper's abstract can be accessed here.

 

On September 21, 2022, Haydar Kurban, Director, and Rodney Green, Associate Director, shared the vision and goals of CHURP and the history of housing and urban research at Howard University on a panel at the White House Initiative on HBCUs Conference. The panel also included partnering researchers Jeffrey Lowe and Laura Solitaire from Texas Southern University. Chaired by Kinnard Wright from the Policy Development and Research unit of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the panel unveiled the new HUD PDR publication, A Historically Black College and University (HBCU) Toolkit for Policy Research for Underserved Populations prepared through a collaboration between Howard University and Texas Southern University (see photo).

For an online version of the toolkit, click here.

   

  

MassMutual Executive Dominic Blue and his team visited CHURP on September 19, 2022, with the goal of deepening the research partnership between MassMutual and CHURP. The visit was hosted by Drs. Haydar Kurban, Rodney Green, and Omari Swinton, Chair of the Economics Department. CHURP Research Fellow Bethel Cole-Smith provided an update on the challenges facing Black households in accessing appropriate financial instruments, a joint research project of MassMutual and CHURP. Later, the site visit team and CHURP leaders and staff toured the campus of Howard University including the Economics Department. Learn more about MassMutual.