At the heart of the course is a ‘live hypothetical’ case.  We take a real city or town that is facing a real (hard) affordable housing problem, atop which we locate a site, and then conjure up a potential developer seeking to turn it into affordable housing plus (often mixed-use).  Our team research relevant (real) information, including resources, imperatives, and even (real) media stories, and compiles this into briefing papers.  Over the four classes, we tackle the problem of creating a politically and financially feasible plan by building up four layers: Vision, Obstacles, Money Resources, and Public-Private Negotiation.

This course uses an emerging-nation case (in past years, the case has been in Ukraine, Morocco, and Nigeria), and its companion in-person course uses a US (developed nation) case.  In both cases, we always choose a location and a challenge that has principles applicable in any urban setting and make a point of regularly cross-referencing relevant US issues.  As a recent student wrote, “The case study was fascinating because at first it was like, “how does this relate to me?” and then it was like, “this case relates to all of us.”

• Learn durable and globally applicable principles, practices, and approaches to change that apply to any urban affordable housing challenge.
• For US practitioners, get a whole new lens through which to evaluate the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), workforce, mixed-income, and hybrid tenure models such as rent-to-own or shared appreciation.
• Discover how to adapt principles, practices, and approaches to individual contexts.
• Draw lessons from dozens of countries around the world, developed and emerging.
• Use a real-life, multi-part case study that demonstrates the universal aspects of affordable housing and the crucial details of its local application.
• Master the universal essentials of affordable housing, and understand how they can be adapted by place, policy, and laws – enabling participants to analyze the housing models needed in their changing cities
• Frame affordable housing for external stakeholders as an imperative where they should act to help. Understand the pathways by which political or market desires can be converted into successful housing developments.
• Recognize development and redevelopment opportunities in an urban context. Identify financial and subsidy resources that, if tapped, turn uneconomic eyesores into profitable development opportunities.
• Decide whether and how to enter or expand your company’s or agency’s involvement with affordable housing.

• US affordable housing executives who are sure there is more to life than just the next cookie-cutter LIHTC property.
• Global executives from anywhere in the world whose work connects to housing and urbanization.
• Developers, financiers, investors, urban planners, government officials (national, state/ provincial, or municipal/local), and real estate professionals (e.g., attorneys, accountants, appraisers) working in these fields.
• Domain experts in health, municipal development, insurance, or economic development who have discovered that affordable housing is essential to what they do and who need to understand how to approach incumbents without being trapped in jargon or old, static ways that are not addressing current challenges.
• Housing organization board members, executives leading regional housing commitments at large companies, and executives leading shelter networks seeking to transition from relief to redevelopment or revitalization.

• Session 1: Affordable housing and 21^st century cities
• Session 2: Housing’s value chains and making them work
• Session 3: Finding the money: making private-sector economics profitable and the role of government
• Session 4: Affordable housing now and into the future

• Lecture (orientation)
• Case work (building layers of understanding)
• Report-out (pros and cons, tensions, decisions for case purposes)
• Way forward (what comes next, what to think about beforehand)