Affordable Housing Law (S)

The seminar will evaluate the current affordable housing crisis and the ways in which it has been influenced by significant events, including population growth pressures, the Great Migration, the 1918 Flu Pandemic, the spread of zoning in the 1920s, race-based restrictive housing covenants, red-lining, rent control and other topics. The course will examine the impact of racism, casteism and economic discrimination on housing law and the permitting, financing and taxation of housing by reviewing the relevant decisional law, local, state and federal regulations and statutes and housing policy reports and articles. The affordable housing crisis will be examined from the perspectives of the individuals who need affordable housing, the individuals who oppose affordable housing being built near them, the developers who design and build housing, the local officials who perform the permitting and the state and federal officials who create and enforce the regulatory, statutory and tax schemes that mold how affordable housing is created. A 15-20 page term paper will be required that examines one or more aspects of affordable housing law, with a variety of potential topics to be offered at the outset of the course. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: A limited number of students may use this class to satisfy the requirement. ** A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar (designated by an (S) in the title), or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, may be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who are on a wait list for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.