The Housing Initiative at Penn has been selected to receive a 2026 Institutional Challenge Grant, a three-year, $650,000 award to support a research-practice partnership with the Shapiro Administration focused on addressing youth homelessness across the Commonwealth.
The grant is part of a $2.6 million funding initiative supported by the William T. Grant Foundation, which was joined this year by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Bezos Family Foundation, Doris Duke Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation. The Institutional Challenge Grant encourages university-based research institutes, schools, and centers to strengthen research-practice partnerships with public agencies or nonprofit organizations to reduce inequality in youth outcomes.
The award will support work led by Vincent Reina, a professor of city and regional planning at the Weitzman School of Design and the founder and faculty director of the Housing Initiative at Penn (HIP), in partnership with Governor Shapiro’s Office. The partnership will examine the effectiveness of state policies in addressing youth homelessness while building lasting infrastructure for meaningful collaboration between Penn and the Commonwealth.
“The partnership will provide a valuable blueprint for how Penn faculty can meaningfully collaborate with state government institutions by developing shared goals and expectations, establishing dedicated channels for collaboration and data-sharing, and building trust and capacity for using rigorous research to advance effective policy,” says Reina. “We will create a guidebook and webinar series for Penn faculty to replicate this model and develop a curriculum to encourage emerging research-practice collaborations to become formal partnerships.”
Leveraging New Strategies for Lasting Change
Approximately 50,000 children and youth were identified as homeless in the 2023-2024 school year in Pennsylvania—the highest recorded number to date. Child and youth homelessness has been shown to exacerbate and perpetuates racial, educational, and health inequalities.
Like many other states, Pennsylvania’s housing and homelessness initiatives are siloed across various agencies. To address this issue, Governor Shapiro signed an executive order creating Pennsylvania’s first-ever Housing Action Plan, aligning state and local leaders, builders, advocates, and communities around a shared vision: building and preserving more homes, stabilizing housing outcomes, and expanding housing opportunity for all Pennsylvanians.
In partnering with the Governor’s Office, HIP plans to build on two strategies spearheaded by the Administration: (1) the Housing Action Plan, which was released earlier this year; and (2) the Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH), which was created in 2025 and convenes stakeholders from various agencies to develop and execute an integrated strategy on youth homelessness.
As part of the grant, HIP and the Governor’s office will jointly develop a research agenda to embed evidence into the decision-making processes conducted by ICH, with the ultimate goal of creating an evidence-based policy menu of state and local programs that have proven effective at reducing homelessness.
In addition, HIP will conduct a study to understand the effects on child and youth homelessness of Pennsylvania’s increase in the amount of its Child and Dependent Care Enhancement Tax Credit. Governor Shapiro tripled the relief available through this tax credit in 2024—eligible Pennsylvanians can receive between $600 and $2,100, depending on their income level and number of dependents. Because very few evaluations of this type of state-level program exist, the study is expected to benefit researchers and policymakers nationwide.
“The Shapiro Administration believes that housing is the foundation of opportunity, security, and dignity – that’s why the Governor created a long-term Housing Action Plan to build and preserve more affordable homes, address homelessness, and expand opportunity for all Pennsylvanians," says Akbar Hossain, Secretary of Policy and Planning for Governor Josh Shapiro. “This collaboration between the Shapiro Administration and leading researchers will provide evidence and data to inform future state policy on housing and create a long-term model for future research collaborations. We look forward to working with the University of Pennsylvania to get more data on the impact of state policies and collaborate on evidence-backed policy to improve the lives of young people facing homelessness in the Commonwealth.”
The Shapiro Administration has also significantly expanded the Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Enhancement Fund (PHARE) fund for building and repairing affordable homes. Since 2023, Pennsylvania has funded over 1,000 projects to build or repair more than 8,200 housing units, launched a statewide Right-to-Counsel initiative, and piloted Pennsylvania’s first middle market housing development program.
Expanding Research-Practice Partnerships to Reduce Inequality
A research unit of the Weitzman School of Design, the Housing Initiative at Penn (HIP) was established to pursue more effective housing policy at the local, state, and national levels. From developing housing action plans for the cities of Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia to evaluating emergency rental assistance plans in Atlanta, Baltimore, Oakland, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, HIP has a track record of developing new evidence and translating it for policy audiences.
In the Commonwealth, HIP has been a frequent collaborator with the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency to develop a statewide housing assessment and dashboard, and has collaborated with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development to analyze the Whole Home Repair program.
“When universities and communities work together, they demonstrate just how powerful engaged research can be to address some of the most pressing issues facing young people today,” says Adam Gamoran, president of the William T. Grant Foundation. “We are proud to support these partnerships as they advance their research agendas, challenge their institutions to reward collaborative, community-embedded scholarship, and work toward reducing inequality.”
