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The world is observing unprecedented, devastating, yet growing effects of climate change. GDP has been slow for decades; Covid-19 has disturbed the economy; energy prices are rising; unemployment remains high; consumer debt and budget deficit are climbing; wealth inequality is at an all-time high. Still, 89% of the energy consumed in the United States comes from non-renewable sources. Amid this challenging time, the question this work tries to answer is how can we protect our climate and environment through innovative development policies and practices that concurrently promote social equity and preserve economic viability? To answer this question, I explore five sustainable housing goals: climate protection, policy innovation, environmental protection, social equity, and economic growth. I use data and empirical analysis to show sustainable development challenges and conflicts are significant. I share lessons learned from cities and states that act as pioneers of climate and environmental protection; I explore a balanced integration of economic, environmental, and social goals through zero-energy building in the traditionally siloed policy sector of low-income housing; I show that a lack of consideration for social equity can turn environmental initiatives into luxury goods that surrender equity to profitability; I show that a lack of consideration for economic viability can lead to underinvestment in environmental and social equity initiatives. The overall insights derived from this study suggest that state housing agencies and local governments, particularly in large cities and in communities that are more vulnerable to environmental risks, are in a unique position to stimulate and drive climate and environmental protection. Significant between-agency differences in housing policy innovation persist, and future policy innovation research should explore factors that impact the utility of policy innovation and barriers the environmental sustainability movement faces at the organization level and beyond. Existing challenges to distributed energy generation need further study. This research highlights the need for greater policy attention to affordable housing needs in core urban areas, neighborhood diversity, and costs of gentrification. / Doctor of Philosophy / The world is now observing unprecedented, devastating, yet growing effects of climate change. Covid-19 has slowed the economy; energy prices are rising; unemployment remains high; consumer debt and budget deficit are climbing, and wealth inequality has reached an all-time high. While renewable energy is rapidly growing in worldwide adoption, still 89% of the energy consumed in the United States comes from non-renewable sources. Sustainability thinking encourages integrated, interdisciplinary approaches and policies that holistically address multiple contemporary problems. Sustainable development requires a balanced integration of economic, environmental, and social justice goals with traditionally siloed policy sectors, such as housing, as a goal of governance. Policy integration is deemed necessary because some policy sectors – like environment and climate – alone are not capable of achieving all objectives and, thus, must work with other sectors. Despite the importance of sustainability to the future of the planet, there are inherent economic, environmental, and social justice conflicts involved in reaching sustainable development, and conflict resolution has not been easy. The overarching question in this work is how can we protect our climate and environment through innovative housing policies and practices that promote social equity and preserve economic viability? I explore five glocal sustainable housing goals, namely climate protection, policy innovation, environmental protection, social equity, and economic growth. The overall insights derived from this study suggest that state housing agencies and local governments, particularly in large cities and in communities vulnerable to environmental risks, are in a unique position to stimulate and drive climate and environmental protection. Significant between-agency differences in housing policy innovation persist, and future policy innovation research should explore factors that impact the utility of policy innovation and barriers the environmental sustainability movement faces at the organization level and beyond. This research highlights the need for greater policy attention to affordable housing needs in core urban areas, neighborhood diversity, and costs of gentrification. There are barriers to distributed energy generation that need to be studied.

Zoning, as a public land-use tool, has several important goals. As zoning accomplishes these goals, however, zoning has had the unintended outcome of guiding high numbers of minorities into certain areas in which multi-family housing is permitted. This study attempts to understand the connection that zoning has with racial and ethnic distribution within and across jurisdictions in the Washington, D.C. MSA. By using GIS to spatially connect zoning districts to Census data, I analyzed correlations between minority populations and zoning district regulations. For all locations studied, I found that proportions of minority population generally increase as zoning districts permit higher-intensity residential uses. Minority populations often increased as the density permitted by zoning districts increased, although there were many exceptions to this trend, most notably in the central city where minority populations did not directly correlate with zoning density. In all cases, however, low-density, single-family zoning districts had higher white populations than other, higher-density zoning districts. Zoning was shown to have the greatest correlation with minority populations in jurisdictions undergoing significant population growth, particularly minority population growth. The study shows that racially-segregated neighborhoods exist across a variety of zoning types, including low-density, single-family districts, but that segregation is more abundant within zoning districts that permit higher-intensity uses and higher-densities. White isolation was found to be greatest in low-density, single-family zoning districts. Although there is a clear connection between zoning regulations and minority population settlement, zoning density does not perfectly correlate with minority population and racially-segregated areas. Many higher-density zoning districts throughout the study area have high white populations and high levels of white clustering. Conversely, high minority populations and minority clustering occur to significant extents in parts of single-family zoning districts, particularly in Washington and Prince George's County. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

"Only Architecture that considers human scale and interaction is successful" — Jan Gel As architects we cannot control how humans act or how someone will use the spaces that we create. However, as architects we can use our designs to influence the way someone will act within a space. We can use architecture to promote social interaction, in an attempt to create a sense of community. This can be done by designing public spaces that architecturally encourage one to stop, gather, and interact with one another. This Thesis is an architectural exploration of the use of "public" and "private" spaces through the development of artist housing. The purpose of this project is to create necessary housing for artists in an area that needs it. While also striving to create a housing project that promotes a sense of community and interaction within the building and the surrounding neighborhood. / Master of Architecture

The Monitoring Program for all Inclusionary housing units in the City of San Luis Obispo is a needed component to the Affordable Housing Program. It ensures eligible households are occupying the affordable units and those that are renting are being charged according to the Affordable Housing Standards. Within the City’s Municipal Code it specifies monitoring and management of inclusionary units shall be done, however this hasn’t happened until now. This professional project provides a needed analysis of the current affordable housing stock. It examines multiple case studies that look at exemplary designed affordable housing units as well as implemented monitoring programs, which serve as a guide to the City of San Luis Obispo’s monitoring program. An extensive assessment survey was administered to all the inclusionary units within the City of San Luis Obispo that included some questions pertaining to the quality and design of the current units, location to local services, primary mode of transportation and miles traveled to work. The analysis of the survey responses were compiled into different analyzed categories: overall, senior, owner and renter. The analysis information and monitoring program procedures manual were completed as deliverables to the City of San Luis Obispo. The project concludes with recommendations for future affordable housing developments and toolkits, including the monitoring program procedures manual, to help with preservation of the current housing stock and ensure quality and sustainable affordable housing projects.

The current housing crisis in Sweden affects more municipalities today than ever before. There is a high demand for all type of tenures and the housing shortage is primarily evident in the metropolitan cities. Sweden has during the last 15 year focused on building for high-income households, with the vision to create migratory chains providing other society groups with housing as well. The migratory chains unfortunately often become significantly short and the housing shortage remains for low-income households. Municipalities are now facing an unsustainable situation, with an urgent need to resolve the situation for low-income households. This needs to be performed without the stigmatization and segregation that clusters of only affordable housing brings. A Swedish pilot project, RiverCity, including affordable housing through inclusionary zoning is currently under development in Frihamnen, Gothenburg. The first phase of the RiverCity that will be completed is called "RiverCity 2021" and includes parts of Frihamnen and Ringön. The completion will coincide with Gothenburg's 400th anniversary in 2021.There are ongoing discussion, and some factors regarding rent setting and distribution of the affordable housing units are not yet determined. It is a new, interesting and innovative development project that has not yet been studied, and therefore considered suitable for a Master of Science thesis project. The thesis and case study was conducted through a qualitative inductive research approach, with a case study of the pilot project in Frihamnen, Gothenburg. The study indicates a high level of innovation among the actors to fulfill the requirements for the assignment of a land allocation. The impression is that the aktors are keen to determine criteria that ensure that the apartments are distributed to households without the financial ability to afford a lease in a new construction building. Inclusionary zoning and requirements in land allocation to develop affordable housing seems to be a prerequisite for the current development of affordable housing. The study provides a basis for further research on the outcomes of the current plans in the future. / Den nuvarande bostadsbristen i Sverige drabbar fler kommuner idag än någonsin tidigare. Efterfrågan på alla boendeformer är hög och bristen på bostäder är framförallt tydlig i storstäderna. De senaste 15 åren har Sverige fokuserat på att bygga för hushåll med relativt hög inkomst, med avsikten att skapa flyttkedjor som i sin tur förser övriga grupper i samhället med bostäder. Flyttkedjorna blir tyvärr ofta korta och bostadsbristen kvarstår för hushåll med lägre inkomster. Kommunerna befinner sig idag i en ohållbar situation; hushåll med lägre inkomster måste akut förses med bostäder, samtidigt som den segregation och sociala stigmatisering som kluster av billiga bostäder för med sig bör undvikas. Ett svenskt pilotprojekt, Älvstaden, som inkluderar affordable housing-lägenheter bland lägenheter med marknadshyror är just nu under utveckling i Frihamnen, Göteborg. Byggstart av den första etappen, Älvstaden 2021, är planerad till 2017 med färdigställande till Göteborgs 400 års jubileum år 2021. En del faktorer angående hyressättning och fördelning av affordable housing-lägenheterna är inte fastställda och diskussion pågår fortfarande. Projektet är innovativt och väldigt intressant för bostadssituationen i Sverige, samt har inte analyserats ännu, vilket tillsammans motiverar en kvalitativ fallstudie av projektet som ämne för denna master uppsats. Studien indikerar på hög innovation ibland de utvalda aktörerna för att uppfylla de krav som ställts i markanvisningarna. Intrycket är att aktörerna är måna om att utforma kriterier som gör att lägenheterna fördelas till hushåll utan ekonomiska förutsättningar för att klara en nyproduktionshyra som inte är subventionerad. Inclusionary zoning och krav i markanvisning om att utveckla affordable housing verkar vara en förutsättning för utveckling av affordable housing. Studien utgör en grund för vidare forskning kring utfallet av de nuvarande planerna i framtiden.

Den svenska bostadskrisens utveckling berör hela bostadsmarknaden men främst deresurssvaga hushållen. Anledningen till detta fenomen är att samhällsklyftorna i landet harökat som ett resultat av att inkomstfördelningen i Sverige har förändrats. Glappet mellan derika och de resurssvaga har ökat, men även hushållsställning i de svenska hushållen harförändrats från stora till mindre hushåll. Det finns således ett behov av boende som bemöterde mest grundläggande kraven för en resurssvag individ som är rimliga att hyra ur ettekonomiskt perspektiv. Detta har lett till en efterfrågan för ett bostadssystem som kan bemötabehovet som finns hos dessa resurssvaga grupper. I andra länder kallas detta system förAffordable Housing, men finns inte i Sverige i samma utsträckning. Syftet med denna rapportvar att undersöka hur svenska byggbranschen utvecklingsfond (SBUF) förslag på alternativabostadslösningar, med avsteg från byggregler kan leda till ett sådant bostadssystem.En opinionsundersökning som grundar sig på SBUF:s förslag, utfördes genom enenkätundersökning. För att vidare komplettera denna undersökning har intervjuer medämneskunniga gjorts. Resultatet tyder på att det finns en marknad för bostadslösningar likt deSBUF presenterat, då merparterna av respondenterna i enkätundersökningen ställer sigpositiva till förslagen. Mer specifikt de grupper som har låga inkomster och osäkraboendeformer som andrahandskontrakt och inneboende. Resultatet visar även att detta förslagpotentiellt hade kunnat sänka byggkostnaden genom ett mer flexibelt bostadsbyggande. Islutändan handlar det om hur detta system är motiverat ur ett socioekonomiskt perspektiv, ochhur det på bästa möjliga sätt ska introduceras in i det svenska bostadssystemet. Resultatet somdras ifrån intervjuerna med de ämneskunniga innebär att ett sådant system bör genomföras påett sätt som motverkar segregation. Att förmedla bostäder med alternativa bostadslösningartill resurssvaga kan leda till en kontroversiell diskussion om lägre boendestandard för dessagrupper, men en diskussion som behöver tas. Slutsatsen som kan dras är att SBUF:s förslagkan vara en väg att gå för att inrätta ett system som Affordable Housing, och att det potentielltkan bemöta det behovet av bostad som finns hos dessa resurssvaga hushåll. / The fact that the Swedish housing market is experiencing a housing crisis is widely known. Inparticular, there is a limited range of tenancies, as many of these are converted intocondominiums. This development mainly affects the resource-poor households, as the socialgap in the country has increased, as a result of the change in income distribution in Sweden.The gap between the rich and the resource-poor has increased, but households in Swedenhave also changed from large to smaller households. Thus, there is a need for accommodationthat meets the most basic requirements for a resource-poor individual, which is alsoreasonable to rent from an economic perspective. This has led to a demand for a housingsystem that can meet the needs of these resource-poor groups. In other countries this system iscalled Affordable Housing, but is not etablished in Sweden to the same extent. With this inmind, the purpose of this report is to investigate how SBUF proposes alternative housingsolutions, with the exception of building rules, can lead to such a housing system.As housing concerns people, an opinion poll has been made based on SBUF's proposalthrough a survey. In order to further complete this survey, interviews with subject expertshave been made. The result indicates that there is a market for the housing solutions such asthose SBUF presented, as the respondents in the survey responded positively to the proposal.More specifically, those groups that have low incomes and insecure housing forms as secondhandcontracts and lodger. The result also shows that this proposal could potentially havelowered construction costs through more flexible housing construction. In the end, it is aboutwhether this system is motivated from a socio-economic perspective, and how it should beintroduced in the best possible way into the Swedish housing system. The experts in the fieldclaims that such a system should be implemented in a way that counter segregation.Providing housing with alternative housing solutions to resource-poor households can lead toa controversial discussion of lower housing standards for these groups, but a discussion thatneeds to be taken. The conclusion that can be drawn is that the SBUF's proposal can be a wayof setting up a system such as Affordable Housing, and that it can potentially address the needfor housing that exists within these resource-poor households.

In the wake of the Affordable Care Act, some US states expanded Medicaid eligibility to low-income, working-age adults while others did not. This study investigates whether this divergence induces migration across state borders to obtain Medicaid, especially in border regions of expansion states. It compares border with interior regions’ in-migration in the concerned subgroup before and after the Medicaid expansion in linear probability difference-in-difference and triple difference regression frameworks. Using individual-level data from the American Community Surveys over 2012–2017, this study finds only a statistically significant increase in in-migration to border regions after the expansion in Arkansas. The differing results across states could stem from statistical power issues of the employed regression analysis but might also result from state peculiarities. In Arkansas, the odds of having migrated increase by about 48% in its border regions after the Medicaid expansion compared to before and control regions. If all additional migrants take up Medicaid, the number of Medicaid beneficiaries in these regions increases by approximately 4%. Thus, even if the induced migration is statistically significant, it appears unlikely to impose meaningful fiscal externalities at the regional level. / Im Zuge des Affordable Care Acts haben einige US-Bundesstaaten den Anspruch auf Medicaid auf einkommensschwache Erwachsene im arbeitsfähigen Alter ausgeweitet, während andere Bundesstaaten dies nicht taten. Diese Studie untersucht, ob diese Divergenz zu einer Migration über die Bundesstaatsgrenzen führt, um Medicaid zu erhalten, insbesondere in Grenzregionen von Reformbundesstaaten. Sie vergleicht die Zuwanderung in Grenzregionen mit der Zuwanderung in das Landesinnere in der betroffenen Gruppe vor und nach der Medicaid-Ausweitung in linearen Wahrscheinlichkeits-Differenz-in-Differenz- und Dreifach-Differenz-Regressionsanalysen. Unter Verwendung von Daten auf Individualebene aus den American Community Surveys der Jahre 2012–2017 findet diese Studie nur in Arkansas einen statistisch signifikanten Anstieg der Zuwanderung in die Grenzregionen nach der Ausweitung. Die unterschiedlichen Ergebnisse in den einzelnen Bundesstaaten könnten von Problemen mit der statistischen Aussagekraft der durchgeführten Regressionsanalyse herrühren. Sie könnten aber auch aus Besonderheiten der jeweiligen Bundesstaaten resultieren. Eine zufällig ausgewählte Person in den Grenzregionen von Arkansas hat nach der Medicaid-Ausweitung eine um 48% erhöhte Wahrscheinlichkeit zugewandert zu sein im Vergleich zu vorher und den Kontrollregionen. Falls alle zusätzlichen Migranten Medicaid in Anspruch nehmen, steigt die Zahl der Medicaid-Empfänger in diesen Regionen um etwa 4%. Es scheint somit unwahrscheinlich, dass die induzierte Migration zu bedeutenden fiskalischen Externalitäten auf regionaler Ebene führt, selbst wenn der Migrationseffekt statistisch signifikant ist.