Martin D. Abravanel

Senior Research Associate

Martin D. Abravanel is a Senior Research Associate in the Metropolitan Housing & Communities Policy Center at the Urban Institute, and is Chairman of the Institute's Institutional Review Board (IRB). His research expertise is on low-income housing and urban revitalization programs-emphasizing field and survey research methods, program evaluation, and performance measurement. He is currently directing or co-directing an evaluation of the U.S. Treasury Department's New Markets Tax Credit program, a series of national surveys of key implementation partners of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and an evaluation of HUD's Section 108 loan-guarantee program. Abravanel has previously conducted research on: economic development lending activities supported by HUD's Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program; the general public's knowledge, support and use of Federal fair housing law; HUD's Moving to Work (MTW) initiative involving deregulation of public housing agencies; the long-term sustainability of redevelopments funded by HUD's HOPE VI program; the linkage between HOPE VI redevelopment and neighborhood school improvement; lessons for HUD's Public Housing program deriving from the experience of the HOPE VI program; rents and rent flexibility options related to HUD's Public Housing and Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) programs; performance measures related to the AmeriCorps programs of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS); CNCS-supported tutoring programs; and developers'/owners' perspectives on the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program.

Prior to joining the Urban Institute in 1997, Abravanel was Director of the Division of Policy Studies in the Office of Policy Development and Research at HUD (1979-1997), a Social Science Research Analyst in that Division (1975-1979), and Assistant Professor of Political Science at Case Western Reserve University (1969-1975). He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1971).

MAbravanel@urban.org

Publications by topic:
Cities and Metropolitan Regions
Neighborhoods/Community Building
Housing
Federal Programs and Policies
Housing Markets and Choice
Homelessness

See all publications by Martin D. Abravanel