Metropolitan Housing and Communities

The Urban Institute

2100 M St. N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20037

Phone: 202-261-5751

Fax: 202-872-9322

SPOPKIN@ui.urban.org

EDUCATION

1988 Ph.D., Northwestern University, Program in Human Development and Social Policy.

1986 M.A., Northwestern University, Program in Human Development and Social Policy.

1982 B.S., Northwestern University, Program in Human Development and Social Policy.

CAREER BRIEF

Dr. Susan Popkin has more than 10 years of experience in conducting research and analysis on housing and welfare issues. She has expertise in a wide range of public housing issues, including the redevelopment of distressed public housing and housing mobility. She is an expert in qualitative data collection and analysis, and has directed several major projects involving large-scale data collection efforts that employ surveys, administrative and other qualitative interviews, and analysis of data from program files. Dr. Popkin is the lead author of the forthcoming book, The Hidden War: Combating Crime in Public Housing in Chicago and a co-author of Crossing the Color and Class Lines: Low-Income Black Families in White Middle Class Suburbs.

Dr. Popkin's work on public housing includes her current work to develop a survey to track outcomes for former residents of developments revitalized under the HOPE VI program. She is also directing HUD's Baseline Assessment of HUD's Major Public Housing Desegregation Cases and Early Implementation of the Welfare-to-Work Vouchers Initiative. She has been Principal Investigator for a series of studies on public housing in Chicago, including an assessment of the impact of the redevelopment of the Henry Horner Homes on crime and quality of life in the community; a Resident Satisfaction and Management Needs Survey of Chicago Housing Authority residents, and a National Institute of Justice-funded evaluation of the Chicago Housing Authority's Anti-Drug Initiative.

In addition to her work on public housing, Dr. Popkin is an expert on housing mobility and deconcentration. She recently completed an assessment of the challenges facing Section 8 participants in Chicago as part of the Chicago Regional Rental Market Analysis and directed a project to assist CHAC Inc., which manages the Section 8 program in Chicago, to understand the barriers that prevent participants from finding units and to develop a new mobility program. Dr. Popkin managed a series of studies on the Gautreaux Housing Desegregation program, which assists public housing residents with moving to

housing in integrated communities in Chicago and surrounding suburbs. She has also worked on research related to the Moving to Opportunity Demonstration and the Regional Opportunity Counseling Initiative.

Prior to joining the Urban Institute, Dr. Popkin was an Associate at Abt Associates, Inc. Before coming to Abt, Dr. Popkin was an Assistant Professor of Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health, and a Senior Research Specialist at the Prevention Research Center, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC).