Megan E. Hatch, Ph.D., associate professor and Ph.D. program director at 91¹ú²ú¾«Æ·â€™s Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, and co-researchers have been awarded nearly $250,000 in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to study impacts that specific HUD grants have on housing and social equity. Michael Overton, Ph.D., assistant professor of political science and public administration, University of Idaho; Bruce Godfrey, GIS librarian, University of Idaho; and Eric Stokan, Ph.D., assistant professor, department of political science, University of Maryland are co-researchers.

Over the next two years, the team will work to uncover the effects that the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG) and HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) resources have on equity outcomes, through data that captures the disparity of social or economic conditions between disadvantaged and more affluent groups.

The team will conduct their research in three phases:

• First, they will develop catalogues of neighborhood deprivation and economic growth potential in targeted areas.
• Second, they will examine the differential impact of CDBG and HOME activities on a broad range of housing and social equity outcomes.
• Third, they will identify the threshold effects (the minimum point of action for change to occur) of CDBG and HOME activities required to impact equity outcomes.

Research will highlight impact across income groups, gender, race and ethnicity

According to the research team, the effectiveness of CDBG programs and HOME activities is normally measured by economic indicators and property sale prices. However, these long-held methods do not account for the housing and social impacts that CDBG and HOME have across income groups, gender, race and ethnicity.

Through their research, the team plans to bridge this gap in knowledge that will help HUD and local CDBG administrators strategically address issues related to equity.