Skip to main content

New Updates on PD&R Edge

HUD.GOV HUDUser.gov
eList
PD&R UPDATES

21 January, 2025

Edge logo with text PD&R Edge, an online magazine and graphics of houses

PD&R Edge, an online magazine, provides you with a snapshot view of our newly released research, periodicals, publications, news, and commentaries on housing and urban development issues.

A row of prefabricated modular houses in a dirt lot.

On October 25, 2024, the Joint Center for Housing Studies and the Davis Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah honored the winners of the 2024 Ivory Prize. Recipients of the Ivory Prize are selected for their work in creating “ambitious, feasible, and scalable” solutions to affordable housing across multiple categories. During a panel discussion at the event, participants discussed the role that construction innovations can play in advancing housing production amid ongoing labor shortages in the construction industry.

|  READ MORE

PD&R LEADERSHIP

Kurt Usowski (left) and Todd Richardson (right). Remembering John Weicher

In the Leadership Message, PD&R’s Kurt Usowski, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs, and Todd Richardson, General Deputy Assistant Secretary, recall the work of their former PD&R colleague, Dr. John Weicher, who passed away on December 12, 2024. Dr. Weicher is remembered for his role in twice revitalizing HUD’s research operation, for helping to launch the American Housing Survey, and for bringing incredible drive, deep subject-matter knowledge, and moments of levity to his work. He leaves behind an accomplished professional legacy and will be missed.

|  READ MORE

RESEARCH

Evaluation of the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD): Implementation and Impact of the Choice Mobility Option Evaluating the Rental Assistance Demonstration Choice Mobility Option, Part 2: Resident Experiences and Outcomes

In a 2023 report, researchers examined residents’ experiences with the Choice Mobility option, which allows residents of public housing undergoing a RAD conversion to request a tenant-based (rather than project-based) voucher in order to move to a unit on the private rental market. Researchers found that although overall use of the Choice Mobility option is low, the program succeeds in providing the opportunity for residents to move to neighborhoods and into units that better serve their needs. While more residents could potentially benefit from improved communication from public housing agencies about the Choice Mobility option, researchers found that both residents who move and residents who remain in their units are generally satisfied with both their housing and their neighborhood.

|  READ MORE

The welcome sign of Boring, Oregon, with houses and other buildings in the background.

SPOTLIGHT ON PD&R DATA

All That CHAS: Use Cases for the Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy Dataset
The Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy (CHAS) dataset, which is managed by PD&R, is a custom tabulation of the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey estimates and was created to meet the consolidated planning needs of HUD grantees. CHAS provides information on housing characteristics, including housing quality, overcrowding, and cost burdens, by household income relative to local area median incomes and other household characteristics. The dataset is a critically important source of information for researchers, program administrators, and evaluators. Additionally, many of HUD’s formula allocations, applications for competitive grants, and academic research incorporate CHAS estimates. This article provides an overview of CHAS, illustrating through use cases examples of the dataset’s utility.

|  READ MORE

A building with a sign in front that says "University."

TRENDING

New Research Funding Opportunity for Minority-Serving Institutions
On January 10, PD&R published a new Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) titled “Advancing HUD's Learning Agenda through Cooperative Agreements with Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions.” Through this funding opportunity, PD&R is making $10 million available to support quality research that contributes to knowledge on housing and community development and to support minority-serving institutions conducting housing and community development research important to the communities and students these institutions serve. Eligible research areas include community development and place-based initiatives; disaster recovery; fair housing; homelessness; homeownership, asset building, and economic opportunity; housing and health; and American Indian, Alaska Native, or Native Hawaiian housing needs.

|  READ MORE

IN PRACTICE

Oblique aerial view of several three-story apartment buildings with downtown Shreveport in the background. Affordable Housing Spearheads Revitalization of Shreveport Neighborhood

In Shreveport, Louisiana, the city’s Choice Neighborhood Initiative is supporting the transformation of under-resourced neighborhoods through the creation of new affordable housing, retail space, and public parks. For one of the plan’s two housing “nodes,” the city is partnering with ITEX Development to create the four-phase Bayou Grande development, which will eventually consist of hundreds of new affordable and market-rate rental units near the city’s downtown, helping to transform a once thriving neighborhood that suffered from sustained outmigration and disinvestment. The third phase, with 122 units, opened in Summer 2024.

|  READ MORE

Edge app

PD&R Edge is now available on Apple iOS and Android powered smartphones!

Please send your comments and suggestions to editor@huduser.gov.

HUDUSER Logo

HUD USER · P.O. Box 23268 · Washington D.C, DC 20026-3268 · USA
Toll Free: 1-800-245-2691 | TDD: 1-800-927-7589
Local: 1-202-708-3178 | Fax: 1-202-708-9981
https://www.huduser.gov/

 

eList Archives