Nicholas Kelly

I am a researcher, policymaker, and advocate working on public policy and housing policy, with a particular focus on fair housing and urban politics. In my research, I develop and evaluate new policy tools to address racial inequality in housing.

I received my PhD in Public Policy and Urban Planning from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. I currently serve as Director of Innovation and Research at the Boston Housing Authority, as a lecturer at Northeastern University, as well as a consultant and advocate on housing issues in Greater Boston and around the country.

Previously, I worked as a research fellow at New York City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Prior to MIT, I studied at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs where I received a Master in Public Affairs. I have also worked at the New York City Economic Development Corporation, as an aide for Senators Charles Schumer and Elizabeth Warren, and at the National Economic Council at the White House.

Research

My research examines new policy tools to address racial inequality in housing. I have published on opportunity bargains, the 2015 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule and The HOPE VI program. My new research focuses on innovative methodologies and digital tools to expand access to economic opportunities for low-income families, and the urban politics of efforts to expand neighborhood choice.

Planning for Opportunity: How Planners Can Expand Access to Affordable Opportunity Bargain Areas

Journal of the American Planning Association. 2022. Nicholas Kelly and Ingrid Gould Ellen.

Although there is strong evidence that living in high-opportunity neighborhoods can improve the long-run educational and economic outcomes of children, translating this into practical advice for planners is difficult. We offer concrete guidance to planners about how to best overcome these barriers. We argue for a streamlined measure called the school–violence–poverty (SVP) index. Combining the SVP index with data on rental prices in New York City (NY) and Greater Boston (MA), we identified a collection of high-opportunity bargain neighborhoods with lower rents than expected given their opportunity metrics and housing characteristics. We found that high-opportunity bargain areas tended to be more affordable because they lacked amenities such as restaurants and proximity to the city center that are associated with higher rents but are unlikely to be very related to children’s economic mobility.

A New Deal For Housing Justice: Ford Foundation and Community Change Housing Playbook Project

The Housing Playbook Project, an effort led by Community Change with support from the Ford Foundation, aims to reassert the federal role in housing in ways that fundamentally reframe and reimagine that role to be centered on racial equity and opportunity. I contributed to the playbook, specifically focusing on the intersections of housing, health, education, and upward economic mobility and proposing a housing policy agenda for the first 100-200 days of the next administration.