While the United States (US) has territories outside its mainland boundaries, many are surprised to learn that Washington, DC, (DC) the nation’s capital, is a territory where residents do not have the same citizenship rights as other Americans. For instance, DC residents pay federal taxes yet do not have complete congressional representation. Furthermore, the DC municipal government has limited power and can be overruled by the federal government. This undemocratic situation also persists in Puerto Rico (PR). The US acquired the island in 1898 and it remains a US territory, like DC, with limited home rule and congressional representation. 

Recently, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico’s capital, San Juan, have experienced rapid economic development. Investments have poured into these municipalities following fiscal and environmental crises. These investments are associated with skyrocketing property values, gentrification, residential and cultural displacement, and growing inequality in working-class communities of color. Some have deemed these “revival and removal” circumstances as “disaster capitalism” or “disaster gentrification;” however, these situations are much more complicated than large firms and wealthy individuals taking advantage of recent financial and environmental calamities. By assessing neighborhood development and displacement in Washington, DC and San Juan, PR, my book tells a multifaceted narrative linking colonialism, urban political precarity, and racial inequalities.

As housing becomes increasingly unaffordable for many Americans, policymakers at all levels of government are revisiting a measure last popular in the 1970's and 80's: rent control. This project, led by DPAP PhD student Chris Campbell with assistance from DPAP Professors Derek Hyra and David Schwegman, as well undergraduates Irene Zhao (Brown University '27) and Damian Lem Gonzales (American University '27), examines the city-level effects of rent control ordinances in California cities between 2010 and 2020. Preliminary findings suggest that while the presence --and strictness – of rent control may have little effect on median rent levels or changes in housing costs, the policy may help reduce the proportion of high housing cost burden families and rate of residential turnover. We hope the insights drawn from this project will help policymakers sort through the pros and cons of rent control and decide if this policy is right for their community.

This paper has been published in Housing Policy Debate. 

In Slow and Sudden Violence, Derek Hyra links police violence to an ongoing cycle of racial and spatial urban redevelopment repression. By delving into the real estate histories of St. Louis and Baltimore, he shows how housing and community development policies advance neighborhood inequality by segregating, gentrifying, and displacing Black communities.

Repeated decisions to “upgrade” the urban fabric and uproot low-income Black populations have resulted in pockets of poverty inhabited by people experiencing displacement trauma and police surveillance. These interconnected sets of divestments and accumulated frustrations have contributed to eruptions of violence in response to tragic, unjust police killings. To confront American unrest, Hyra urges that we end racialized policing, stop Black community destruction and displacement, and reduce neighborhood inequality.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, under its Interdisciplinary Research Leaders program, supports MPC's gentrification research. MPC director Derek Hyra leads a three-person project team with Mindy Fullilove, a professor at The New School, and Dominic Moulden, the resource organizer for Organizing Neighborhood Equity - ONE DC. Their project entitled, "Making the Just City: An Examination of Organizing for Equity and Health," investigates, over a three-year period, different processes designed to reduce health disparities in two communities currently experiencing gentrification: Orange, NJ and Shaw, DC. The research team's objective is to discover, document, and assess community-level mechanisms in different contexts that help make mixed-income communities more vibrant engines of healthy living, particularly for low-income people.

We are honored to announce that MPC is joining an international research collaboration providing a comparative study of urban regeneration financing and politics in Korea and the U.S. In partnership with the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars’ Urban Sustainability Lab, the Korean Housing and Urban Guarantee Corporation, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Urban Research, this project presents an exciting opportunity to analyze urban redevelopment and equity in local and global contexts. Our contribution is a case study of The Wharf, a monumental, $2.5 billion waterfront redevelopment project in Southwest, DC.

The DC Area Survey, led by Faculty Fellow Michael Bader, centered on understanding racially and ethnically diverse communities in DC and its surrounding counties. The 2016 survey of 1,200 households concentrated on attachment to place, health, safety, trust in local organizations, and governance, with a focus on two relatively new types of neighborhoods: Latino neighborhoods and "quadrivial neighborhoods." Latino neighborhoods exist all over the DC metropolitan area, but mostly in the immediate Maryland and Northern Virginia suburbs. "Quadrivial neighborhoods," with populations of at least 10 percent White, Asian, African-American, and Latino, appeared in the past 20 years, reflecting the increased racial integration of the DC area. This survey is the first of its kind and it provides a detailed snapshot of the social realities and inequalities that exist within the DC region's most diverse communities. The study was a collaborative effort among several centers and units at American University including the Metropolitan Policy Center, the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, the Center for Health, Risk and Society, the Office of the Provost, the School of Public Affairs, and the Kogod School of Business.
 

In many neighborhoods, gentrification - defined as neighborhood change caused by the influx of middle-class residents - does not result in residential displacement, but rather political displacement. A sizable proportion of long-term, low-income residents are able to stay in place because of policies that promote greater affordable housing. These new mixed-income neighborhoods, however, often lead to a loss of political voice for long-time residents. Minority groups who were well-represented at the local levels might find themselves losing seats on city councils, county commissions, and community boards as new constituencies and coalitions form among the newcomers. This study analyzes the relationship between newcomer influx and political loss in 40 US cities that contain some of the country's fastest gentrifying neighborhoods. Using 20 years of local election data, we identify and measure the extent to which political displacement has occurred alongside inner-city neighborhood redevelopment. This study will help determine how the contemporary wave of gentrification relates to changing urban political shifts.

Faculty Fellow Lewis Faulk is working on the Grant Seeking and the Grant Making Study, which involves two parallel surveys of nonprofit organizations and foundations. Together these surveys will collect data on over 450 nonprofit organizations and 300 foundations. This project examines both the effectiveness of nonprofits' grant-seeking behaviors and the recent challenges foundations face when distributing their grants. The research provides key insights into the state of civil society in metropolitan America.