Population Research Discovery Seminars

Co-Sponsor(s):

Population Health Initiative

As communities experience unprecedented housing unaffordability and resident displacement, they are increasingly turning to the community land trust (CLT). CLTs are a unique model for the provision of affordable housing because they aspire to ensure housing remains affordable in perpetuity and that land in trust is community controlled. While previously working for the national organization Grounded Solutions Network, now UW Assistant Professor and CSDE Research Affiliate Ruoniu (Vince) Wang from the Runstad Department of Real Estate has led a research team to complete the largest and most comprehensive national census on CLTs and nonprofits with shared equity homeownership programs. In this seminar, Dr. Wang will share highlights from the study about the prevalence, practice, and impacts of the CLT field.

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Ruoniu (Vince) Wang is an Assistant Professor in the Runstad Department of Real Estate in the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington. He studies spatial justice and inclusive communities, including their impacts reflected in the built environment, human behaviors, and policy interventions. Vince joined the University of Washington after serving six years as the research manager and director in a national non-profit organization Grounded Solutions Network. He has designed and conducted a U.S. Census of inclusionary housing policies, a U.S. census of community land trusts, and a national performance evaluation of shared equity homeownership programs. His research expands to policy evaluation for the two largest federal assisted housing rental programs in the U.S.: the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program and the Housing Choice Voucher program. Vince grounds his research with applied tools to democratize data for low-income communities.