Taubman College

Graduate / Concentrations

Housing, Community, and Economic Development

Healthy cities and regions need affordable housing, safe, vibrant and diverse neighborhoods, and good jobs and public services. The tasks are complex and challenging: reconciling affluence and equity; mobility and a sense of place; global markets and local traditions; retaining manufacturing jobs while embracing post-industrial digital technologies; providing housing as both a market commodity and a social need. Moreover, these various tasks work best if interconnected: housing integrated into the larger neighborhood, economic activity embedded into local communities, and equal partnerships between public and private actors.

The Housing, Community, and Economic Development (HCED) concentration takes on these challenges: planning housing, neighborhoods, and economic well-being of a community and the larger region. The goals are to increase social and economic capital and improve the quality of life generally but particularly in low-income, minority and other disadvantaged communities.

Planners with this background work with local residents, neighborhood and community organizations, community development corporations (CDCs), and nonprofit housing developers, as well as municipal, regional, state, and federal agencies and the private sector in efforts directed toward securing decent, affordable housing, improving job opportunities, increasing safety, and restoring or maintaining community stability. They work for state departments of commerce or economic development, city departments and mayors’ offices, and federal agencies to plan and implement development projects, strengthen tax base, improve employment opportunities, and enhance housing policy.

HCED is a broad concentration consisting of three tracks: housing; community development; and urban and regional economic development. HCED Students may choose to specialize in one or more of these interrelated but distinctive tracks (and do not need to take courses across all three areas). Students acquire fundamental knowledge of political/economic/social systems that lead to urban growth and decline, low incomes, inadequate housing, unemployment, uneven development, deindustrialization, and poor neighborhoods. Students may further specialize in particular skills and techniques, such as: local and regional economic analysis; real estate finance and development; neighborhood planning; site planning; nonprofit management; public-private partnerships; and community participation (to facilitate an open planning process with people and organizations of multiple backgrounds and interests).

Students in this concentration should complete the economics requirement (UP 510) early in their programs, if they have not taken microeconomics elsewhere. Students in this concentration normally take UP 634 (Integrative Field Experience), a course in which students work in teams on community-based planning projects, to meet the capstone requirement. The concentration requires the completion of three courses. These normally include at least two foundational courses and at least one techniques/methods course. One foundation course should be UP 573: Urban and Regional Theory (although this is not required); the other can be selected from the following list, depending on the student’s particular interest within the concentration.

Foundation Courses
UP 573Urban and Regional Theory
UP 537Housing Policy and Economics (for students interested in housing)
UP 538Economic Development Planning (for students interested in economic development)
UP 652 (SPP652)Strategic Thinking for Affordable Housing (for students interested in housing)
UP 655Neighborhood Planning (for student interested in community development)
UP 656Central-City Planning and Community Development (for students interested in community development)
Techniques/Methods

Students should take at least one of the following courses to gain exposure to methods in this broad area of planning. Students should choose methods courses that relate to their specific sub area of interest.

For students interested in housing:
UP 517Real Estate Essentials (BA 517)
UP 565Real Estate Development (FIN 565)
UP 566Structuring Real Estate Financial Deals
UP 568Real Estate and Urban Development
(see also courses listed below related to managing a nonprofit organization)
For students interested in community development:
UP 654Concepts and Techniques of Community Participation
BA 519Managing the Nonprofit Organization
BA 619Non-Profit & Public Management
COMORG 651Planning for Organizational and Community Change
COMORG 652Organizing for Social and Political Action
COMORG 654Concepts and Techniques of Community Participation
COMORG 657Multicultural, Multilingual Organizing
COMORG 658Women and Community Organizing
COMORG 660Managing Projects and Organizational Change
For students interested in economic development:
UP 539Methods for Economic Development Planning
BA 519Managing the Nonprofit Organization
BA 675Social Entrepreneurship
PUBPOL 573Benefit-Cost Analysis
PUBPOL 636Program Evaluation
PUBPOL 686State and Local Policy Analysis: Focus on Development
Other Related Courses

Students may pursue their special interests within the concentration through courses in urban and regional planning and elsewhere in the University. Note that these vary from semester to semester and may not be offered every year. Also note that prerequisites may exist for many courses. New courses are introduced every term.
Urban and Regional Planning Courses
UP 523Regional Planning
UP 526Sociocultural Issues in Planning and Architecture
UP 532Sustainable Development: Resolving Economic and Environmental Conflicts
UP 534Conception, Practical Issues and Dilemmas in Environmental Justice
UP 569Organizations and Management in Urban Planning
UP 598Thinking about Crime
UP 613Architect/Planner as Developer
UP 651Planning for Organizational and Community Change
Other Courses at the University of Michigan
BE 570Tax Policy and Business
COMORG 674Community-Based Policy Advocacy
COMORG 650Community Development
ECON 574Advanced Quantitative Methods: Forecasting and Modeling
ECON 683* Government Expenditures
ECON 881* Seminars in Public Finance
ES 581* Urban Entrepreneurship
FIN 568* Real Estate Finance and Investment
LAW 826* Fair Housing Law and Policy
PUBPOL 530The Economics of Regulation
PUBPOL 536Economics and Social Policy
PUBPOL 559* Accelerated Microeconomics
PUBPOL 561Economic Development Policy
PUBPOL 562The Corporate Site Selection Process in Public Policy (BA 743)
PUBPOL 580* Values, Ethics, and Public Policy
PUBPOL 587* Public Management
PUBPOL 622Community Economic Development Law
PUBPOL 636* Program Evaluation
PUBPOL 671Policy and Management in the Non-Profit Sector
PUBPOL 686* State and Local Policy Analysis: Focus on Development
PUBPOL 694 State, Local, and Community Development: A Practitioner’s Guide
PUBPOL 724Urban Politics
PUBPOL 730Women and Employment Policy
PUBPOL 736*Poverty and Inequality
PUBPOL 744* Economics of the Public Sector
PUBPOL 756*Local Government: Opportunity for Activism
POLSCI 623* Proseminar in Municipal Problems
POLSCI 688-001* Law and Inequality
STRATEGY 645Social Enterprise: Innovation in the Information Society
STRATEGY 646* Solving Societal Problems Through Enterprise and Innovation
POLSCI 736* Poverty and Inequality
SOC 530* Social Demography
SOCWK 560Introduction to Community Organization, Management and Policy/Evaluation Practice
STRATEGY 445* Base of the Pyramid
STRATEGY 646* Solving Societal Problems Throgh Enterprise and Innovation
SW 502* Organizational, Community, and Societal Structures and Processes
SW 650* Community Development
SW 652* Organizing for Social and Political Action
SW 654* Concepts and Techniques of Community Participation
SW 660* Managing Projects and Organizational Change
SW 663* Grantgetting, Contracting, and Fundraising
SWPS 647Policies and Services for Social Participation and Community Well- Being

* Indicates course is a cognate.

Other Opportunities Related to Housing, Community, and Economic Development

Dual degree in Social Work and Urban and Regional Planning

The student-initiated dual degree, M.U.P./M.S.W., enables students to study community planning in greater depth and to obtain two master’s degrees in about three years of study.

Dual degree in Business Administration and Urban and Regional Planning

The M.B.A./M.U.P. degree provides much more extensive background for students who would like to work in urban revitalization through business development or in real estate development.

Dual degree in Public Policy and Urban and Regional Planning

The student-initiated dual M.U.P./M.P.P. degree provides the student with additional background for going into housing and economic development policy making at the state or the federal government levels.

Dual degree in Law and Urban and Regional Planning

The J.D./M.U.P. degree prepares students for community development advocacy, affordable housing development, and other areas related to the concentration.

The Non-Profit and Public Management Program

Students may also want to take courses associated with this program that prepares students to go into work in community-based nonprofits as well as other nonprofits.

The Graduate Certificate in Real Estate Development

This program admits students who want to gain the background for implementing development ideas to create better neighborhoods, stronger cities, and better housing.

The Michigan AmeriCorps Partnership offers internships in community-based organizations in Detroit.

Faculty associated with the Housing, Community, and Economic Development concentration: