Housing Initiative at Penn

What Housing Initiative at Penn does

Housing Initiative at Penn (HIP) is a university-affiliated housing policy research initiative founded in 2018 by Vincent Reina, operating within PennPraxis at the University of Pennsylvania's Weitzman School of Design. Headquartered in Philadelphia with a team of approximately 11 staff (7 core researchers plus 5 graduate fellows), HIP conducts empirical research and rigorous program evaluations on housing affordability, homelessness, emergency rental assistance, subsidized housing preservation, universal vouchers, and housing equity at local, state, and national levels. The organization produces research briefs, working papers, academic journal articles (including through Housing Policy Debate, where the faculty director is Editor-in-Chief), and facilitates housing plans for municipalities including Cleveland, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania. Its flagship product is the PHLHousing+ randomized control trial evaluation, a direct-to-tenant cash rental assistance program serving 301 low-income Philadelphia families with children, administered by the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation with the Philadelphia Housing Authority providing data and a voucher comparison group.

HIP's business model is structured as a nonprofit academic research center funded by philanthropic foundations and government grants rather than commercial revenue. Major funders include the William Penn Foundation, Spring Point Partners LLC, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Hilton Foundation, Stoneleigh Foundation, Wells Fargo Foundation, and Russell Sage Foundation, alongside federal funding from HUD, U.S. Department of Treasury, CDC, NIH, and the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency. The go-to-market is community-led and policy-oriented: HIP engages policymakers, researchers, journalists, students, funders, and housing practitioners through publications, convenings, media appearances, and policy advisory work rather than through traditional product distribution. Multi-city research partnerships span Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Oakland, Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Allegheny County, and California statewide, with national collaborations including the National Low Income Housing Coalition and NYU Furman Center.

Name

Housing Initiative at Penn

Legal name

The Housing Initiative at Penn

Website

https://housinginitiative.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Housing Initiative at Penn is a University of Pennsylvania-affiliated housing policy research institute that conducts empirical research, randomized control trial evaluations, and housing plan facilitation for government agencies and foundations across multiple U.S. cities and states.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Housing Policy Research

NAICS

Administration of Housing Programs (925110), Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (54172)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Public & Affordable Housing Programs (Subsidies, Vouchers, Public Housing) (BPAIANAA)

Keywords

• Housing policy research
• Emergency rental assistance
• Affordable housing evaluation
• Housing program evaluation
• Policy analysis

Headquarters

HQ city

Philadelphia

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Others, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Foundation and Philanthropic Funding: HIP receives funding from foundations including William Penn Foundation, Spring Point Partners LLC, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Hilton Foundation, Stoneleigh Foundation, Wells Fargo Foundation, and Russell Sage Foundation to conduct research and evaluations.
2. Government Grants: HIP receives federal funding from agencies including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), U.S. Department of Treasury, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (HHS), National Institute of Nursing Research (NIH), and Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency for research partnerships and program evaluations.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

HIP conducts rigorous academic and empirical research to advance evidence-based housing policymaking. The organization designs and evaluates housing programs, analyzes current conditions and future housing trends, facilitates inclusive planning processes, and produces research publications including briefs, working papers, reports, testimony, and journal articles on topics such as emergency rental assistance, subsidized housing preservation, permanent supportive housing, and universal vouchers.

Product overview

Housing Initiative at Penn (HIP) is a research institute at the University of Pennsylvania that conducts empirical housing research and policy analysis, not a technology product company. HIP's offerings consist of research publications, policy evaluations, housing planning facilitation, and academic studies. The core offerings include PHLHousing+ evaluation research, general housing research publications (briefs, working papers, reports), housing plans and studies facilitation for municipalities, academic research projects, and COVID-19 rental assistance program evaluations. These research products inform evidence-based housing policymaking at local, state, and national levels.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• PHLHousing+ Research and Evaluation Randomized control trial evaluation of PHLHousing+, a direct-to-tenant cash rental assistance program serving 301 low-income families in Philadelphia. Provides research briefs and working papers on housing security outcomes including homelessness, forced moves, and housing quality.
• Housing Research Publications Research briefs, working papers, reports, testimony, and journal articles on housing policy topics including emergency rental assistance, subsidized housing, permanent supportive housing, and housing equity. Published as open-access content freely available on the HIP website.
• Housing Plans and Studies Facilitation and writing of housing plans for cities and states, including ten-year housing plans, community-wide housing strategies, and comprehensive housing studies for municipalities including Cleveland, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania.
• Academic Research Rigorous academic research on housing policy including voucher lottery studies, access to housing assistance, and disparities in housing programs. Published in academic journals including Housing Policy Debate, Urban Affairs Review, and Journal of the American Planning Association.
• COVID-19 Rental Assistance Evaluation Evaluation of emergency rental assistance programs in partnership with cities and states during the COVID-19 pandemic. Includes national surveys of 220+ ERA program administrators and analysis of program outcomes, including California's COVID-19 Rent Relief Program (255,269 households funded).
• Universal Voucher Analysis Interactive analysis exploring universal housing voucher concepts, examining eligibility, costs, and impact on poverty reduction across U.S. states and metropolitan areas, including Source of Income protection analysis.

Quantifiable outcome

• Cash assistance led to 63-75% reduction in forced moves relative to households with no assistance
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core, key and supporting.

• PennPraxiscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHIP is an initiative based out of PennPraxis, part of the University of Pennsylvania's Weitzman School of Design. This provides the institutional home and academic framework for HIP's research operations.
• National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHIP collaborates with NLIHC on national emergency rental assistance research, conducting surveys of 220+ ERA program administrators and publishing joint research briefs on program design and spending.
• NYU Furman CentercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHIP partners with NYU Furman Center on national ERA research, including case studies and surveys of emergency rental assistance programs across 15 jurisdictions.
• Eviction Research NetworkkeyStrategic or Co-development PartnerHIP partners with Eviction Research Network at UC Berkeley to study ERA impact on evictions, moves, and homelessness in Philadelphia and Los Angeles.
• Urban Displacement Project (UC Berkeley)keyStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with Urban Displacement Project at UC Berkeley for ERA research examining neighborhood-level eviction filing rates across 700+ counties.
• Stanford Changing Cities Research LabkeyStrategic or Co-development PartnerStanford's Changing Cities Research Lab and HIP served as evaluation partners for Oakland's Homelessness Prevention Pilot program.
• ACTION-Housing (Allegheny County)keyImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerHIP partnered with ACTION-Housing, the primary grantee of Allegheny County's Whole-Home Repairs Program, to analyze repair needs among applicants and program impact.
• University of Pennsylvania Center for Guaranteed Income ResearchkeyStrategic or Co-development PartnerHIP collaborated with Penn's Center for Guaranteed Income Research for guidance on program development, survey design, and qualitative data collection for PHLHousing+.
• Philadelphia Housing AuthoritycoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerPHA facilitates data sharing and program evaluation for the PHLHousing+ research. They also manage the HCV comparison group in HIP's randomized control trial.
• Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation (PHDC)coreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerPHDC administers the PHLHousing+ program. HIP serves as the research evaluation partner, conducting randomized control trial evaluation of the cash assistance program.
• Poverty & Race Research Action CouncilsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerPRRAC provides in-depth analysis of Source of Income protections used in HIP's universal voucher research.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Brookings Institution - Metropolitan Policy Program: Large think tank producing housing and urban policy research with national policy influence. Overlaps with HIP on housing affordability and federal policy but operates with significantly greater scale, longer tenure, and broader thematic scope.
• Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) - Housing Policy: National policy research and advocacy organization covering federal housing and anti-poverty programs. Comparable audience of federal policymakers, similar empirical orientation, and overlapping funder network, but at significantly larger scale.
• Urban Institute - Housing Finance Policy Center: Large, well-established think tank with a dedicated housing finance policy center producing empirical research on housing affordability, vouchers, and federal policy. A broader incumbent with greater scale, comparable methodological rigor, and overlapping funder base.
• Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies: Leading academic housing research center producing the annual State of the Nation's Housing report and rigorous empirical research on rental and ownership markets. A larger, longer-tenured peer with comparable academic orientation and policymaker audience.

Direct peers

• National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC): National advocacy and research organization focused on federal housing policy for extremely low-income households. Overlaps with HIP on emergency rental assistance research, federal policy advisory, and serving as a leading source of housing data for policymakers.
• NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy: Academic housing policy research center at NYU that conducts empirical research on housing, neighborhoods, and urban policy. Directly comparable to HIP in scope, methodology, and target audience of policymakers and researchers; HIP has an active research partnership with the Furman Center.
• Terner Center for Housing Innovation (UC Berkeley): UC Berkeley-based housing research center focused on innovative housing policy, affordability, and development. Comparable to HIP in academic setting, California footprint, and emphasis on empirical evaluation of housing programs.
• Urban Displacement Project (UC Berkeley): UC Berkeley research initiative tracking neighborhood-level displacement and gentrification. Direct peer to HIP on geographic housing research; the two organizations are active research partners on ERA impact analysis.
• Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC): National civil rights law and policy organization focused on the intersection of housing, education, and poverty. Comparable to HIP in policy research orientation and civil rights framework; PRRAC provides source-of-income protection analysis for HIP's universal voucher research.
• Eviction Lab (Princeton University): Academic research lab at Princeton producing nationwide data and research on evictions, housing instability, and policy responses. Highly comparable to HIP's ERA and homelessness research, with shared academic and policymaker audiences.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/housinginitiative
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/housing-initiative-at-penn

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Housing Initiative at Penn