About us
Our homes and neighborhoods set the stage for our lives. How, where, and when people have shelter affects almost every facet of their lives including their health, educational outcomes, economic mobility, and longevity. And research shows that when people have access to affordable, stable, and high-quality housing, their overall well-being improves, as does that of their communities.
The Urban Institute’s Housing Matters initiative delivers data and research, technical assistance, and evidence-based insights to changemakers who have the power to advance solutions for enhancing access to affordable housing. We aim to equip policymakers, advocates, and program designers and implementers in housing and other fields with the information they need to invest in housing as a vehicle for building stronger, more resilient communities.
We adhere to the following principles:
Acknowledge the necessity of a home.
Shelter, security, and dignity are fundamental human needs, so access to housing—for absolutely everyone—is a primary public policy concern.
Share evidence-based insights as they emerge.
Because no person or neighborhood can hit pause while waiting for answers to policy debates, the research and best practices presented by Housing Matters are constantly evolving. We routinely provide new research summaries and synthesize the latest evidence on specific topics as they relate to housing.
Value research rigor.
When assessing a study’s rigor, Housing Matters focuses on the validity of the inputs and methods, not on whether a study reached a preferred result. We hesitate to further define “rigor” because different questions and cultural contexts merit different approaches. As a result, we read and share findings from an array of study types—from small, qualitative interviews to multisite randomized controlled trials.
Encourage cross-sector collaboration.
To enable collective action among industries that intersect with the housing field, we strive to bridge divides and deliver critiques—especially those that involve specific people, organizations, or roles—in an inclusive and constructive way. To do this, we encourage collaboration between a range of stakeholders and publish material that bridges multiple sectors, including health, climate, justice, and education.
The Housing Matters website publishes research summaries, editorial content, a news roundup, and event listings. We strive to share content that can help practitioners, policymakers, and researchers strengthen their work and use housing to reduce disparities and attain better outcomes.
Editorial content
Blog posts and other editorial content published on Housing Matters share evidence-based insights, promising practices, and compelling stories that highlight how housing intersects with other fields and influences individual and community outcomes. Most content is written by Urban Institute staff. All opinions expressed are the views of the individual author and not those of Urban, our editors, or funders.
Housing Matters prioritizes solution-oriented writing on the following topics:
- connections between housing and other fields, including health, education, climate and environment, and the criminal legal system
- economic opportunities and asset growth through housing
- correcting injustices in housing and neighborhood opportunities
Typical Housing Matters content links high-quality evidence to timely policy discussions or practical decisions, offering lessons that can advance quality of life and residential options for all people, particularly those who lack access to safe, affordable housing. We aim to provide valuable and relevant insights to readers, whether editorial content addresses current policy debates or emerging research.
And we strive for all Housing Matters content to acknowledge the basic dignity of all people.
Research
Housing Matters summarizes and shares key findings from rigorous research on the connections between housing and well-being, opportunities, and outcomes. Our summaries seek to provide enough information to allow readers to make their own judgments about whether and how to use research to inform decisions, shape solutions, or inspire additional research.
We focus on selecting recent peer-reviewed research published in academic journals or lengthy, publicly funded program evaluation reports to summarize. We do this because these sources may be otherwise inaccessible to many mission-driven organizations, advocates, and policymakers. However, to encourage an array of voices, Housing Matters also occasionally summarizes findings from other sources, such as working papers or community-based reports. We usually select US-based studies, but non-US studies with findings relevant to housing policy and practice in the US are also eligible for inclusion.
Publication on Housing Matters does not constitute an endorsement of the findings or research methodology. Authors of the research summarized on Housing Matters may have affiliations with any academic or nonacademic research organization or may be unaffiliated researchers. Research by Urban Institute staff or funders must adhere to the same quality and content standards as independent work.
Full-text links may send readers to free download options, subscription-based journals, or book publication information. For those unable to access research through organizational subscriptions, we recommend seeking the assistance of a librarian or contacting the author to inquire about full-text access. Authors have advance access to the research summaries to improve quality control and prevent factual errors.
News roundup
The Housing Matters news roundup summarizes a selection of articles related to housing quality and affordability, subsidy programs, homelessness, neighborhood change, and partnerships between housing and other sectors or policy domains. The editorial staff bear sole responsibility for the selection of news and determination of whether an opinion piece merits inclusion in the roundup. To subscribe to the newsletter, click here.