New life for US housing and urban policy

After a decade of neglect, housing and urban issues in the United States are getting serious attention from the federal government. After 18 months, we can see a very serious urban policy framework emerging from the words and actions of the current administration. This framework isn't just about cities or distressed neighbourhoods. It's about metropolitan regions and the urgent need for city and suburban jurisdictions to start coordinating their planning and investments more systematically. And the new framework looks far beyond housing and HUD to address transportation, energy, environment, labour, and education policy. Knowledge matters to the Obama Administration; many of the initiatives now being launched explicitly reflect lessons from the past 15 years of research. Today, those of us in the research community have an opportunity to contribute hugely to the pursuit of the new urban policy agenda, but only if we are prepared to make our work genuinely useful to policymakers.