Anna Maria Santiago named to Habitat for Humanity International Affordable Housing and Homeownership Research Advisory Council

June 6, 2022

Anna Maria SantiagoAnna Maria Santiago, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in the College of Social Science and Professor of Community Development in the School of Social Work, was named to serve a two-year term as a member of the inaugural Affordable Housing and Homeownership Research Advisory Council for Habitat for Humanity International.

The Affordable Housing and Homeownership Research Advisory Council will provide strategic oversight to guide Habitat’s research efforts to ensure its work builds on the housing sector’s evolving knowledge base and is conducted using the appropriate research methods and level of rigor. Advisory Council members will have the opportunity to provide insight to help guide Habitat’s research activities with the goal of impacting internal decision-making and the sharing of best practices to our affiliates and across the broader field. The Advisory Council will provide meaningful networking opportunities for members while also facilitating impactful contributions to research led by a trusted and influential organization in the affordable housing sector.

In addition, Dr. Santiago recently published a special issue of the Journal of Urban Affairs that examines global housing policies aimed at desegregating urban areas and creating socially, economically and ethnically mixed communities. With Australian colleagues, Drs. Iris Levin and Kathy Arthurson, and collaborators from across the world, Creating Mixed Communities through Housing Policies: Global Perspectives provide analyses of social mix in the Global North, Global South and Global East. In addition to the introductory essay with the same title, Santiago published a U.S. case study with Department of Economics PhD student, Joffré Leroux assessing the impacts of pre-purchase counseling on sustaining homeownership in socially mixed neighborhoods.