Meeting the Challenge: Global Innovations in Urban Housing
As America’s housing crisis persists, high-cost cities are increasingly facing three immediate challenges: affordability, public housing, and homelessness. On April 8-9, 2019, the Boston University Initiative on Cities hosted Meeting the Challenge: Global Innovations in Urban Housing, an international conference to address these challenges.
Participants featured the High-Cost Cities Housing Forum (HCHF), a peer-to-peer group comprised of local housing commissioners from nine of the most expensive cities in the United States—Boston included. This conference was the first time that the HCHF engaged directly with experiences and peers from outside the United States. What is traditionally a very US-focused meeting, was purposefully designed to dialogue with and learn from international work on housing policy.
The housing commissioners were joined by leading international experts representing eleven countries for a two-day program that featured a mix of panel presentations, keynotes, and local site visits. Conference speakers, including Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, highlighted several housing strategies and challenges on topics ranging from land use planning to social housing.
This conference was supported by Citi Community Development, The Rockefeller Foundation, Enterprise Community Partners, and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
Presentation Slides:
Panel 1: Scaling Up Social Housing (Vienna, Singapore, Sao Paulo)
Track 1: Permanent Solutions to Homelessness (Finland)
Track 2: Engaging the Public: Building Community Support for Housing Development (US, Mexico City)
Panel 2: Building Affordability in your City (Bogota, Vancouver)