Research Expertise and Interest
poverty, economic development, regional planning, metropolitan spatial patterns, labor markets, community development, neighborhood change, gentrification
In the News
Berkeley Talks: Climate Displacement and Remaking the Built Environment
In Berkeley Talks episode 143, a panel of UC Berkeley experts discuss climate displacement — what it means to abandon places, the power dynamics between the Global South and the Global North, challenges for both the sending and receiving regions, and what needs to happen to address this fast-growing problem.
How Housing Production, Policies Impact Displacement
New research from UC Berkeley will provide lawmakers with previously unavailable data that pinpoint the impact that new housing production, rent stabilization and just-cause eviction policies have on residential displacement.
Minority-Owned Businesses Need Inclusive Policies, Especially During COVID-19
Race-conscious policy that provides financial and commercial rent relief, and improved employee benefits and federal data collection mandates for financial institutions, could help prevent the disproportionate economic impact that COVID-19 has had on minority-owned businesses.
Six UC Berkeley-led projects win funding to combat COVID-19 with AI
Six UC Berkeley-led projects have won funding from the recently launched C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute to harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to combat the spread of COVID-19 and other emerging diseases.
Burdensome regulations stymie backyard cottage production, UC Berkeley study finds
Despite numerous California state legislative wins in support of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) in the last three years, local regulations still limit their production, UC Berkeley researchers have found.
New York City gentrification creating urban ‘islands of exclusion,’ study finds
The New York metropolitan area has seen tremendous economic growth, but many residents in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods are struggling to afford living in the 31-county, tri-state region, University of California, Berkeley, researchers have found.
Researchers stress role of subsidized housing in easing affordability crisis
New research from UC Berkeley’s Urban Displacement Project stresses the need for the production of both market-rate and subsidized housing, along with aggressive preservation of affordable units and protection for tenants, to resolve the San Francisco Bay Area’s housing affordability crisis.
More gentrification, displacement in Bay Area forecast
The San Francisco Bay Area’s transformation into a sprawling, exclusive and high-income community with less and less room for its low-income residents is just beginning, according to UC Berkeley researchers who literally have it all mapped out.
With streamlined regulations, in-law units could boost East Bay affordable housing stock and economy, study finds
In-law units could provide needed affordable housing and boost the economies of five East Bay communities, according to a new UC Berkeley study that recommends adjusting local regulations so that can happen.
Report says green economy producing jobs, but urges work quality improvement
To achieve the state’s energy efficiency goals and provide better career opportunities for Californians, the state should modify its clean energy programs and its extensive but fragmented training and education programs, according to a report led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, released today (Thursday, March 17).
Backyard solutions to urban planning issues
Hundreds of visitors flocked to a new, 420-square-foot cottage in West Berkeley to examine the tiny, sustainably designed “accessory home” as a possible wave of the future.
Featured in the Media
Please note: The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or positions of UC Berkeley.
June 23, 2021
Millions of Californians are at risk of losing their homes to wildfire. When tragedy strikes, people often rebuild in the same risky places, according to researchers at UC Berkeley and Next 10 a nonprofit think tank, who are urging California policymakers to rethink how communities are rebuilt after destructive wildfires. "This is really important in a state where the focus has been on specific [wildfire] mitigation measures such as hardening homes, prescribed burns, fuel breaks, and not on land use planning, not on making more sustainable settlement patterns around the state," said report co-author Karen Chapple, an urban planning professor and director of UC Berkeley's Center for Community Innovation. "It's about thinking about what our post-fire communities look like before the fire happens."
April 30, 2020
A new report by Berkeley's Urban Displacement Project and the nonprofit EcoAdapt calls for climate change mitigation efforts to be integrated with other priorities, such as affordable housing, food and water security, and public safety, in order to prevent the displacement of disadvantaged individuals and families from their neighborhoods or communities. "Displacement -- whether temporary or permanent, forced or voluntary -- is an issue rooted in inequity and exacerbated by climate change," according to the report. "Climate change poses significant threats to the physical, cultural, spiritual, social, and economic displacement of communities around the world. It is also causing increasing mental and emotional distress or 'solastalgia' -- the loss of sense of place or identity."
March 3, 2020
Berkeley and other California cities are not succeeding at encouraging homeowners to build accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, to help solve the housing crisis, according to a new study by Berkeley's Center for Community Innovation. The study gave Berkeley a C+ for its measures encouraging the units, and that was a typical score. "We thought folks were doing better," says city and regional planning professor and department chair Karen Chapple, the center's faculty director. "I don't usually have a median grade of C+ in my classes." Although the grades are evolving, and they don't measure how cities have responded to laws that were just enacted in January, she says: "The shear lack of expertise at the local level is stunning. ... We have so far to go."
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