Project title: Gentrification and Residential Instability in Oakland
Project description: The Changing Cities Research Lab (CCRL), led by Stanford Assistant Professor of Sociology, Jackelyn Hwang, is committed to using quantitative and qualitative methods to inform policy solutions that advance equity in the face of urban change. As a Research Assistant at CCRL, I am working on projects focused on gentrification and residential instability in Oakland. I will be assessing the Keep People Housed (KPH) program – a homelessness prevention pilot program administered by Bay Area Community Services (BACS) in partnership with the City of Oakland – by conducting interviews with KPH applicants, encouraging applicants to complete online surveys, and assessing survey data. This data assessment will include coding interview data to prepare deliverables for policymakers and the public. On a larger scale, CCRL's assessment of KPH will help inform future homelessness prevention efforts in the Bay Area and beyond. I will also be doing survey outreach and analyzing two waves of survey data related to Race and Residential Instability in Oakland, a longitudinal project that aims to understand racial disparities in residential instability among low-income residents in Oakland. The Race and Residential Instability project has largely informed the design of KPH and has the similar goals of delivering data-informed policy situations that promote equity.