Diane K. Levy

Senior Research Associate

Diane Levy is a Senior Research Associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center at the Urban Institute. She has extensive experience studying public housing transformation, neighborhood change, and the impact of both on residents. Ms. Levy directed the qualitative research component of UI's multi-site HOPE VI Panel Study and the ongoing panel study in Chicago. She led the final phase of the related Chicago Process Study (CPS), which examined the development flow and neighborhood impact of the redevelopment of two public housing developments in the mid-south area of the city. She also contributed to a comparative study of efforts in the US and the UK to revitalize distressed communities using a mixed-income strategy. Since joining the Institute in 1998, Ms. Levy has studied the impact of community development corporations on neighborhood change, public housing desegregation efforts, and housing discrimination in the rental and sales markets. She directed a six-site case-study project that examined relationships between the strength of local housing markets and strategies used to reduce gentrification-related displacement. Building on her public housing research, Ms. Levy and a colleague initiated a line of inquiry into the sustainability of HOPE VI mixed-income developments. Currently, she is directing a HUD-funded study of the benefits and costs of inclusionary zoning programs and a foundation-supported study of the purported benefits for low-income families from living in mixed-income communities.

Ms. Levy holds a Masters in both Cultural Anthropology and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned her B.A. in Human Development and Social Relations from Earlham College.

DLevy@urban.org

Publications by topic:
Race, Ethnicity, Gender
Racial/Ethnic Disparities
Housing

See all publications by Diane K. Levy