New Updates on The Edge

PD&R’s online magazine, The Edge, provides you with a snapshot view of our newly released research, periodicals, publications, news, and commentaries on housing and urban development issues. Stay informed on current topics and check back frequently, as our content is routinely updated.

Message from PD&R Leadership: Happy New Year 2021

In the leadership message, general deputy assistant secretary for PD&R Todd M. Richardson reviews the office’s accomplishments in 2020 and discusses plans for 2021. In the retrospective, Richardson discusses significant anniversaries of legislation that were observed in 2020. In his discussion of plans for the coming year, Richardson reviews new funding allocations, research projects, and the addition of a new Office of the Chief Data Officer to PD&R’s organizational structure.

Featured: When the Rent Eats First From Incomes Large and Small, Is the Traditional Measure of Cost Burden Still Useful?

In October 2020, Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies sponsored a webinar titled “The Rent Eats First: Using Residual Income to Measure Rental Affordability,” during which researcher Alexander Hermann discussed an alternative means of measuring cost burden. Hermann explained the traditional percentage-of-income measure of rental affordability, the alternative residual income measure, and the methodology and findings of the research he and his co-authors had produced comparing the two.

In Practice: Bringing Education and Affordable Housing Together for Farmworker Families in California

Opened in 2020, Guadalupe Court is a 38-unit, $18.2 million affordable apartment complex serving farmworkers and their families in Guadalupe, California. The three-building project was built by nonprofit developer Peoples’ Self-Help Housing, and rental subsidies are provided via the USDA’s Section 521 Rural Rental Assistance program. Guadalupe Court features a barbeque area, a play area, and a community center with a computer room.

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