Team Members

Last Update:

This site was launched on February 19, 2021, near the end of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We aim to provide a user-friendly tool to visualize the impact that the pandemic is having on rental housing stability within cities in the US through the lens of rental housing providers. Tenants face particular challenges in the face of disasters, and those challenges have been amplified in the current pandemic. Post-disaster stability requires that landlords remain solvent and interested in continuing to provide rental housing. We anticipate that the study findings will contribute to the national conversation about rental housing access and stability and will assist local government officials and planners in evaluating existing disaster policy responses and developing new and innovative rental housing stability strategies.

Current Contributors

Jane Rongerude

Associate Professor of Community and Regional Planning, Iowa State University

Dr. Rongerude is an associate professor in the Department of Community and Regional Planning at Iowa State University where she teaches classes in planning theory, housing, community planning, and planning and social justice. Her research investigates how housing policy and planning practices shape and maintain poverty places and contribute to or inhibit opportunities for community transformation. Within this frame, her work addresses a range of topics including rental housing instability, housing and disasters, the redevelopment of public housing, and community engagement practices. Her research has been published in the Journal of Community Practice, Planning Theory and Practice, Urban Affairs Review, and the Journal of the American Planning Association. She earned her MCP and PhD in city and regional planning from the University of California at Berkeley.

Daniel Kuhlmann

Assistant Professor of Real Estate and Planning, Univeristy of Arizona

Daniel Kuhlmann, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Real Estate and Planning at the University of Arizona. Before coming to Arizona, he was an assistant professor of community and regional planning at Iowa State University, where he helped launch a new Master of Real Estate Development degree. He has an MA and Ph.D. in Community and Regional Planning from Cornell University and a BA in International Relations from Carleton College. In his research, he examines issues related to housing, zoning, and real estate development. As part of the Rental Property Research Consortium, Daniel is helping to design and analyze the landlord¡¯s survey and working to develop new methods to identify rental properties from existing data sources.

Elizabeth Mueller

Associate Professor of Community and Regional Planning, The University of Texas at Austin

Elizabeth Mueller is an Associate Professor of Community and Regional Planning and Social Work. She holds masters and doctoral degrees in city and regional planning from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Mueller is primarily interested in questions of social equity in cities and regions. Her research focuses on social and political inclusion in cities, and how city planning and development policies shape the quality of life and opportunities available to historically vulnerable residents and communities. Her current work focuses on these topics through investigation of tensions between housing and planning goals in current strategies for building sustainable cities. Her work has appeared in both academic and popular publications. Past and current research funders include the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development as well as many national and local foundations. Dr. Mueller is also an active participant in state and local affordable housing policy discussions, serving on various state and local task forces concerned with housing issues.

Jake Wegmann

Associate Professor of Community and Regional Planning, The University of Texas at Austin

Jake Wegmann joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin in 2014 after completing his PhD at the University of California at Berkeley. His research lies at the intersection of housing unaffordability, land use regulation, and housing production with a focus on fast-growing markets. He teaches graduate-level courses on quantitative methods, real estate development, real estate finance, survey methods, and research design. At present he is at work on a book titled From Enclave to Haven: New Futures for the North American Single-Family Block. Before entering academia, Jake worked for for-profit and nonprofit affordable housing developers in Denver and San Francisco. He lives in Austin with his wife and daughter and in his spare time enjoys cycling and spending time in the great outdoors.

Taylor Cook

PhD student in Community and Regional Planning, The University of Texas at Austin

Taylor is a PhD student in Community and Regional Planning at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on housing and homelessness. Before enrolling at UT, Taylor was a Project Manager for the City of Austin then at the University of Texas Dell Medical School where she specialized in the research, design, and testing of health and social service interventions. Prior to joining the City, she was the founding Executive Director of Farmshare Austin and a healthcare policy consultant for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Taylor is currently an Officer on the Board of the Texas Homeless Network and is active in local and statewide homeless advocacy. She has a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Hollins University and an M.A. in Economics and Public Administration from the University of Montana.

Lily Wang

Professor of Statistics, George Mason University

Lily Wang is a Professor of Statistics at George Mason University. She earned her PhD in Statistics from Michigan State University in 2007. Prior to joining Mason in 2021, she was on the faculty of Iowa State University (2014-2021) and the University of Georgia (2007-2014). Her primary areas of research include non/semi-parametric modeling and inference, statistical learning of data objects with complex features, methodologies for functional data, spatiotemporal data, imaging, survey sampling, and data reduction methods. Working at the interface of statistics, mathematics, and computer science, she is also interested in general issues related to data science and big data analytics. The methods she developed have a wide application in engineering, neuroimaging, epidemiology, environmental studies, economics, and biomedical science. Dr. Wang is a fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the American Statistical Association and an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute.

GuanNan Wang

Associate Professor of Statistics, William & Mary

GuanNan Wang is an Associate Professor of Statistics at William & Mary (W&M). She earned her Ph.D. in Statistics and M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Georgia in 2015. After graduation, she joined the faculty in the Mathematics Department at W&M as an Assistant Professor. In 2021, she was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. With a proven track record in driving innovation in research, she is always keen on integrating her expertise in statistics and computer science to develop novel statistical learning methods. Specifically, she develops cutting-edge methodologies for functional data, imaging data, spatial/spatiotemporal data, and general data science. She designs fast, efficient, and scalable computational algorithms to realize the methods. These statistical methodologies and computational algorithms have critical applications in many areas, such as neuroimaging, epidemiology, public health, social studies, and environmental science. Dr. GuanNan Wang is an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute.

Addison Williamson

Graduate Researcher, PhD Student, Iowa State University

Wanying Zhu

Graduate Researcher, PhD Student, George Mason University

Kristen Hoss

Undergraduate Researcher, Iowa Student University

Past Members

Biswa Das

Associate Professor of Community and Regional Planning and Specialist with ISU Extension and Outreach, Iowa State University

Dr. Das is a faculty member in the department of community and regional planning at Iowa State University (ISU), and an extension specialist with ISU Extension and Outreach. Besides teaching courses at ISU, as part of ISU Extension, Dr. Das is the program leader of a public finance outreach initiative (Iowa Government Finance Initiative) targeted at Iowa cities and counties. He also delivers outreach programs relating to the community and economic development of Iowa communities. His main areas of research interest are in applied public finance, economic development, and natural resource and environmental economics. He received his Ph.D. in agricultural and applied economics from Texas Tech University.

Lin Quan

Graduate Researcher, PhD Student, Iowa State University

Suggested Citation

Rongerude, J., Das, B., Kuhlmann D., Quan, L. and Wang, L. (2021). Keeping shelters in place: Understanding landlord decision-making during the COVID-19 Pandemic. https://covidrental.design.iastate.edu

Disclaimer

This disclaimer informs readers that the analysis, views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the site belong solely to our research group, and not necessarily to the contributors' employers, organization, government agency, committee, or other group or individual.