Affordable Housing Project

Project Details

Using the case of Williamsburg, VA, Professor Meaghan Stiman's current research explores how low-income individuals and families make housing choices in a post-public housing era in a small US city. Professor Stiman and a group of W&M students will collect and analyze three sources of data. First, the project will draw on interview data with low-income residents about their housing choices and decisions. Second, the project will draw on interviews community leaders, government officials, and stakeholders who shape access to affordable housing, to understand how the constraints of small cities mediate low-income residents’ choices and experiences. Third, the project will draw on ethnographic and archival data from municipal meetings to understand how local officials and constituents make decisions about affordable housing. While this project is in its early stages, Professor Stiman and her students have begun collecting archival data from Williamsburg and James City County municipal meetings that attend to issues related to housing.