NYU’s Furman Center For Real Estate and Urban Policy Receives MacArthur Award For Creative and Effective Institutions
February 16, 2012
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Award recognizes the organization’s innovative research to address pressing policy issues, and will support the Center’s continued growth as a national academic research center

WASHINGTON, D.C. – February 16, 2012 – (RealEstateRama) — Today the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation named NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy a recipient of the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. This distinguished award recognizes the Furman Center’s excellence in providing objective, policy-relevant research to address the challenges facing neighborhoods in New York City and across the nation. The award comes with a grant of $1 million, which the Furman Center will use to broaden its research and policy analysis to more national issues.

“We are humbled and honored that the Furman Center was selected for such a prestigious award,” said Vicki Been, faculty director of the Furman Center. “The demand for our work has grown dramatically with the housing crisis and the increasing need for sustainable and affordable housing across the country. This award presents a remarkable opportunity for us to expand our research beyond New York City to help policymakers in Washington and across the nation make more effective housing and community development investments and policies.”

“Because we are based at New York University, and are a joint project of the NYU School of Law and the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, we’re able to draw on the talents of a diverse team of faculty and students to produce rigorous, interdisciplinary research on urban policy issues,” Furman Center Co-Director Ingrid Gould Ellen said. “The MacArthur Award comes at a critical time, allowing us to continue to expand the work we’ve always done in New York City to cities and neighborhoods across the country, and to address a broader range of national issues and public policy debates.”

From analyses of how subsidized housing investments affect neighborhoods, to studies of the impacts the foreclosure crisis has had on local crime, neighboring property values, tenants, and the educational trajectories of children, the Furman Center has been committed to producing objective and empirically rigorous research on pressing policy issues. Its policy breakfasts, roundtable discussions, and conferences bring thought leaders from all sectors and all points of view together to discuss topics ranging from new models for housing extremely low-income households to creative ways of addressing credit needs in a volatile and declining housing market. The Center launched the Institute for Affordable Housing Policy in 2010 to bring research, policy analysis, and debate about promising new ideas and innovative practices to bear on the challenges of creating cost-effective affordable housing programs. Through its annual State of New York City’s Housing and Neighborhoods report, Quarterly Housing Updates, and Sub sidized Housing Information Project, the Center provides essential data and analysis for the media, government agencies, non-profit housing providers, and affordable housing developers and financiers.

The award is both a recognition of the excellence of the Furman Center’s prior research and policy analysis and an investment in the Furman Center’s future. The Furman Center will use the grant to build data and research partnerships that will allow it to broaden the geographic scope of its research, strengthen and expand its policy analysis, and improve its communications and data management infrastructure.

The Furman Center is one of only 15 organizations from six countries to be recognized today with the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. “From Chicago to Kampala, these extraordinary organizations demonstrate exceptional creativity and effectiveness,” said MacArthur President Robert Gallucci. “They provide new ways to address old problems. They generate provocative ideas and they reframe well-worn debates. And their impact is altogether disproportionate to their size.”

The MacArthur Foundation does not seek or accept nominations for its Creative and Effective Institutions awards. To qualify, organizations must demonstrate exceptional creativity and effectiveness; have reached a critical or strategic point in their development; show strong leadership and stable financial management; have previously received MacArthur support; and engage in work central to one of MacArthur’s core programs.

About the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy
The Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy is a joint center of the New York University School of Law and the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at NYU. Since its founding in 1995, the Furman Center has become a leading academic research center devoted to the public policy aspects of land use, real estate development, and housing. The Furman Center launched the Institute for Affordable Housing Policy (IAHP) in February 2010 to improve the effectiveness of affordable housing policies and programs by providing housing practitioners and policymakers with information about what is and is not working, and about promising new ideas and innovative practices. More information on the Furman Center and IAHP can be found at: http://furmancenter.org

Contact:
Meghan Lewit

212-998-6492

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