About Center of Excellence for Housing and Community Development Policy Research (CEHCDPR)
CEHCDPR advances research and debate on affordable housing and community development policy for racial equity benefiting low-income communities of color in the six major Texas cities: Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. Investigators assume research projects under the following
two thematic and interconnected areas: 1) individual and community wealth building and housing security and stability; and 3) planning and infrastructure inequity affecting underserved communities.
TSU is the only HBCU with both an accredited professional urban planning program (in the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs) and an accredited (Thurgood Marshall) School of Law. A joint center of the two schools, CEHCDPR aims to expand the ability to conduct academic and empirical research in housing and community development at TSU. As a US Department of Housing and Urban Development Center of Excellence (one of two at an HBCU), CEHCDPR intends to become a destination point for supporting the innovative research projects of seasoned and emerging scholars within and outside of TSU that help foster collaboration and stimulate policy debate.
In partnership with Alabama A&M University's Department of Community and Regional Planning (the only HBCU with an accredited undergraduate planning program), and the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Community and Regional Planning Department and Law School, CEHCDPR investigators conduct research with assistance from graduate and undergraduate students and, thereby, extend the pipeline for conveying future housing and community development researchers and scholars of color.