Gentrification/Displacement

Research Summary
Publications
News and Media
Blogs
Documents and Other Resources

Research Summary

The Urban Displacement Project is a research and action initiative of UC Berkeley in collaboration with researchers at UCLA, community based organizations, regional planning agencies and the State of California’s Air Resources Board. The project aims to understand the nature of gentrification and displacement in the Bay Area. It focuses on creating tools to help communities identify the pressures surrounding them and take more effective action.

The Center for Community Innovation (CCI) at UC Berkeley conducted regional data analysis and nine neighborhood case studies to understand better the nature and drivers of gentrification and displacement. From this analysis, and with careful review and input from an advisory committee, CCI developed eight neighborhood typologies to help communities better characterize their experiences with gentrification and risks of displacement.

Literature Review on Gentrification

In 2015, researchers at UC Berkeley and UCLA completed a review of the academic and practitioner literature on gentrification, displacement and its relationship to public and private investments. This review provides summarizes research that has gone into the nature of neighborhood change and highlights many limitations in the literature.

Displacement Maps
As part of the Regional Early Warning System for Displacement project funded by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, UC Berkeley conducted regional data analysis to better understand the nature and drivers of gentrification and displacement, which was validated through 9 neighborhood case studies. From this analysis, and with careful review and input from an advisory committee, we developed 8 neighborhood typologies to help communities better characterize their experience and risks in an effort to raise awareness and stimulate action. Explore the links below for more information on the typologies and the methodology used to develop them.

Online interactive maps
Methodology and results of the Regional Early Warning System for displacement

Susceptibility Report
In 2009, we developed an early warning toolkit for gentrification with funding from the Association of Bay Area Governments. View our early warning gentrification report

Case Studies in the Bay Area
The Urban Displacement Project is grounded in live experiences of real communities. This is why our research analyzed 9 different case studies from across the Bay Area. Beginning in the spring of 2014, UC researchers partnered with 7 community-based organizations funded by MTC’s Regional Prosperity Plan to complete a comprehensive neighborhood profile based on data analysis, stakeholder interviews and ground-truthing of data.

Browse our online case studies and explore our interactive maps for more information.

Policy Tools
In the summer of 2014, we inventoried 10 anti-displacement policies and strategies in the Bay Area and complemented the inventory with a survey conducted by the Association of Bay Area Governments to better understand the anti-displacement landscape in the Bay.

View our displacement policy map and our displacement prevention policy tools

Publications

Goetz, Edward G. & Chapple, Karen 2010. “You Gotta Move: Advancing the Debate on the Record of Dispersal.” Housing Policy Debate 20(2).

Chapple, Karen. 2006. “Overcoming Mismatch: Beyond Dispersal, Mobility, and Development Strategies.” Journal of the American Planning Association 72(3): 322-336.

Chapple, Karen, John V. Thomas, Dena Belzer,, & Gerald Autler. 2004. “Fueling the Fire: Information Technology and Housing Price Appreciation in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Twin Cities.” Housing Policy Debate 15(2): 347-383.

Goetz, Edward G., Karen Chapple, & Barbara Lukermann. 2004. “The Minnesota Land Use Planning Act and the Promotion of Low- and Moderate-Income Housing in Suburbia.” Law and Inequality: A Journal of Theory and Practice 22(1): 31-72.

Goetz, Edward G., Karen Chapple, & Barbara Lukermann. 2003.“Enabling Exclusion: The Retreat from Regional Fair Share Housing in the Implementation of the Minnesota Land Use Planning Act.” Journal of Planning Education and Research 22(3): 213-25, 2003.

Chapple, Karen. 2009. Mapping Susceptibility to Gentrification: The Early Warning Toolkit . Berkeley, CA: Center for Community Innovation.

Reconnecting America, Center for Community Innovation, and Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California.2007. Transit-Oriented for All: The Case for Mixed-Income Transit-Oriented Communities in the Bay Area. Berkeley, CA: Center for Community Innovation..

Goetz, Edward G., Karen Chapple, and Barbara Lukermann. 2002. “The Affordable Housing Legacy of the 1976 Land Use Planning Act.” Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, University of Minnesota, 2002.

Chapple, Karen. 2012. “Evaluating the Effects of Projected Job Growth on Housing Demand.” Report prepared for the Association of Bay Area Governments.

Chapple, Karen and Strategic Economics. 1999. “Gentrification: Causes, Indicators, and Possible Policy Responses for the San Francisco Bay Area.” Report prepared for Urban Habitat.

Goetz, Edward G., Karen Chapple, and Barbara Lukermann. 2005. “The Rise and Fall of Fair Share Housing: Lessons from the Twin Cities.” In Xavier de Souza Briggs, ed., The Geography of Opportunity: Race and Housing Choice in Metropolitan America. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.

Chapple, Karen. 2002. “Sharing America’s Neighborhoods: The Prospects for Stable Racial Integration, by Ingrid Gould Ellen.” Book review. Journal of Planning Education and Research 22(2).