Affordable Housing

Housing that a household can pay for while still having money left over for other necessities like food, transportation, and healthcare. The US government considers housing affordable if the occupancy cost (rent or ownership cost, inclusive of all utilities) is no more than 30% of the collective income of the occupants (household income). Affordable housing may be naturally occurring, built by a private developer through a public/private partnership, or developed, owned and managed by the government (this last category is called public housing).

Affordable Housing 101

Anchor Effects

This is a description of anchor effects.

Art In Place

Branding

Carbon Capture

Case Studies

Clean Energy

Climate Change

The long-term alteration of temperature and typical weather patterns in a place.

Community Development

The US Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Department gives the following definition: “Community development activities build stronger and more resilient communities. To support community development, activities are identified through an ongoing process. Activities may address needs such as infrastructure, economic development projects, public facility installation, community centers, housing rehabilitation, public services, clearance/acquisition, microenterprise assistance, code enforcement, homeowner assistance, etc. Federal support encourages systematic and sustained action by state and local governments.”

Complete Communities

Cost Drivers

Creative Place Keeping

Creative Placemaking

Cultural Districts

Culture Led Development

Culture-Led Development is an NYU Urban Lab research area that aims to accelerate arts and culture-centered development. To a city, arts and culture-centered real estate development is highly coveted. It enriches the community’s artistic and cultural development and appreciates land/real estate values. However, the challenge comes from the fragmented discourse among the stakeholders: government, private financiers/developers, and artists, which NYU Urban Lab aims to help solve.

Culture-Led Development

Decarbonization

Deregulation

Economic Development

Economic Growth

Economic Resilience

Energy Storage

Technology that enables energy to be captured and used later (including chemical, kinetic, or thermal devices). This helps to rectify the discrepancy between energy generation and fluctuations in demand.

Equity

ESG

ESG is a form of SRI and stands for Environmental, Social and Governance. While the definition is still in flux globally, as well as within certain industries, there has been a sharp rise of private capital going into ESG and a corresponding response from companies and projects to participate.

Exhibition

Gentrification

When the average income in an area can’t afford the average costs of the rising of goods.

Green Infrastructure

Guaranteed Income

Government programs that provide recurring cash payments to a targeted group of people, generally families or individuals whose annual income falls below a specified level.

HBCUs

Institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African American community.

Housing Affordability

Impact Development

Impact development is a term for a category of economic development and/or real estate development that seeks to have a positive social impact. It may be double-bottom line (in which it has as a goal both positive social impact and economic return), or it may be focused exclusively on social impact (such as when pursued by a government or non-profit for social reasons alone).

Incentives

Economic development tax incentives are exceptions to regular tax rules meant to achieve an economic goal by encouraging people or businesses to do something that they otherwise would not have done. Often, that “something” is to locate a company in a certain area, create or keep jobs, or invest in equipment and facilities. When policymakers offer tax breaks to lure businesses from other states, they often are using economic development tax incentives. The same is true when they offer tax credits to companies that hire more workers.

Incentives & Tools

Inclusive Development

Inclusive development is a form of impact development that seeks to cause economic growth without causing the negative effects of gentrification or wealth disparity. It can be targeted at inclusivity for the future, or it may attempt to address historic inequity with new projects.

Inclusive Economic Development

Inclusive Economic Growth

Increased Real Estate Value

Inflation Reduction Act

Multifamily Benefits

Municipal Finance

National Trends

Net Zero Cities

NOAH

Offshore Wind

Generation of electricity through wind farms that capture wind blowing from the land towards the sea.

Op-Ed

Policy & Toolkit

Programming

Public Benefit

Public Private Development

Public Private Partnership

Collaborative agreements between government agencies and private-sector companies to fund and operate services or projects.

Public-Private Partnerships

Real Estate Private Equity

Regenerative Infrastructure

Infrastructure that is not only Sustainable Infrastructure but also in its creation and operation repairs damage to natural systems. Regenerative infrastructure not only causes no damage now or in the future but also leaves the planet better off for that infrastructure having been built.

REITs

Renewable Energy

Energy from a source that is not depleted when used, such as wind, hydro-electric or solar power.

Senior Housing

Site Selection

The process by which a company or developer evaluates multiple potential locations based on relative advantages to select a location for new business, relocation, or expansion. Site selection can involve any type of business, but most typically, it is used to refer to the process of attracting or retaining industrial (exporter) companies, office HQ locations, and retail locations.

Social Finance

Financing and financial services that seek to leverage private capital to address social problems.

Social Impact

Social Impact Bonds

Bonds whose proceeds are exclusively used to finance or refinance projects that achieve positive social outcomes. While these are called bonds, they are essentially public-private partnerships that fund effective social services through performance-based contracts.

Social Responsibility Investing

Socially Responsible Investing

Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) is a broad term for investing that either has a positive social purpose and/or avoids a negative impact on society. It includes investing through private and public vehicles with companies, real estate, and financial products. The strategy and mechanics of social investing evolved out of faith-based standards for investments, moved through the early environmental movement, the influence of the war in Vietnam, and the civil rights struggle in the United States, and came of age during the synthesis of international efforts geared toward alleviating suffering in South Africa. SRI is a term that encompasses many specific trends in impact-based investments. SRI as an overarching category does not necessarily involve positive financial returns, nor is it necessarily ESG-related.

Solar

Pertaining to solar energy; the use of technology that converts sunlight into electricity.

Sustainability

Sustainable Communities

Communities designed with a focus on environmental sustainability, economic stability, and social equity.

Sustainable Development

The United Nations defines sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Sustainable Infrastructure

The UNEP: “Sustainable infrastructure systems are those that are planned, designed, constructed, operated and decommissioned in a manner that ensures economic and financial, social, environmental (including climate resilience), and institutional sustainability over the entire infrastructure life cycle. Sustainable infrastructure can include built infrastructure, natural infrastructure or hybrid infrastructure that contains elements of both.”

Tenancy (Individual)

Tenancy Cluster

Transportation

Zoning Policies