On February 7, the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Planning and the Institute for Education and Social Policy were named one of nine MacArthur Foundation grant recipients; they will receive $800,000 to study the impact of housing instability due to foreclosure on school performance. The Furman Center and IESP will be joined by the University of Connecticut, Northwestern University, and Indiana University for the research project.
The project is part of the MacArthur Foundation’s $25 million initiative, How Housing Matters to Families and Communities, which is based on the premise that stable, affordable housing is an essential platform that promotes positive outcomes in education, employment, and physical health by helping to ensure a greater return from other social and public investments.
The Furman Center described the prospective outcomes of their research: “Research findings will provide federal, state, and local housing, mortgage finance, and education policymakers with information about whether, when, and how they should intervene in housing markets or tailor educational processes to try to reduce the negative effects that housing instability may cause. The findings also will help policymakers at every level of government to better estimate the benefits of providing more stable housing.”
Posted February 11, 2011