Navigating Homelessness
We begin the semester by discussing two pieces from the New Yorker that capture the day-to-day challenges of those experiencing homelessness as well as the providers who work with them. These stories capture a number of issues that we’ll discuss further in the semester such as mental health, substance abuse, financial costs and supportive services. A common refrain is that homelessness is a housing problem. These stories though show that homelessness is a culmination of a number of issues and perhaps none more important than strong and healthy relationships. Slides
Housing Policy
In this class we disscuss Edward Glaeser’s and Joseph Gyourko’s piece on “Rethinking Federal Housing Policy”. It’s a nice starting point for the semester for at least two reasons. First, it highlights how we can use the basic economic tools from Principle of Microeconomics to evaluate housing policy. And second, much of its analysis relies on “findings” from other papers. This naturally motives the curious reader to want to better understand the underlying study which will be our focus for much of the semester. Slides
