Initiative on Cities: Anti-Displacement Tool

The BU Initiative on Cities led development of an Anti-Displacement Tool for the City of Louisville. The ADT provides a framework to evaluate the impact of new housing developments on local displacement, accounting for neighborhood specifics like rental prices and demographic factors. By linking development affordability to local housing conditions, the tool helps cities like Louisville create sustainable growth plans that protect vulnerable communities, particularly those at risk of gentrification. The ADT is creative commons (open-source) and fully functional and is hosted online (here), currently utilizing R and shiny.io. The tool needs a modernized tech stack and user-friendly interface to allow for more scalability of the product. The goal is to redesign the tool for the city of Louisville with the hopes that it can be a model for other cities to embark on growth plans that elevate the community, ensuring affordable housing and preventing displacement while fostering inclusive and sustainable urban development.