Core Research Areas
Opportunity Communities/Housing
The Kirwan Institute has a number of significant projects, research and collaborations to promote community development, fair housing and social justice through our “Opportunity Communities” model. The “Communities of Opportunity” framework is a model of fair housing and community development based on the premises that everyone should have fair access to the critical opportunity structures needed to succeed in life; and that affirmatively connecting people to opportunity creates positive, transformative change in communities. The Communities of Opportunity model advocates for a fair investment in all of a region’s people and neighborhoods -- to improve the life outcomes of all citizens, and to improve the health of entire regions.
Unfortunately, many citizens are isolated from opportunity by patterns of residential segregation, exclusionary land use policies, sprawl and disinvestment in urban areas. Fifty years of social science research has demonstrated that racially isolated and economically poor neighborhoods restrict employment options for young people, contribute to poor health, expose children to extremely high rates of crime and violence, and house some of the least-performing schools. Neighborhood racial and economic segregation is segregation from opportunities critical to quality of life, financial stability and social advancement. Isolation and disinvestment threatens not only individuals and their families, but entire communities.
The Communities of Opportunity model has two goals: to bring opportunities to opportunity-deprived areas, and to connect people to existing opportunities throughout the metropolitan region. The model seeks to bring opportunities into distressed neighborhoods by improving education, stimulating investment and expanding employment opportunities in disinvested neighborhoods. The model advocates affirmatively connecting marginalized populations to regional opportunity structures by improving housing mobility options and providing fair and effective public transportation. In addition, the model advocates for managing sprawling growth, in order to reduce the drain of jobs and resources from existing communities. The institute’s projects focus on three primary goals to affirmatively connecting people to opportunity: neighborhood revitalization, fair housing and regional equity.
