I am a postdoctoral research associate at Washington University’s Prevention Research Center. My research interests focus on the intersections of housing policy, eviction, and population health. My academic work has been published in Cities, Housing Policy Debate, Socius, and Cities & Health.

🏘️ Current Research Areas

• Landlord Behaviors: Investigating property owner and manager behaviors, including eviction filings, housing code violations, and the use of risky home financing arrangements such as Contract for Deed (CFD) and Rent-to-Own (RTO).

• Eviction Prevention: Assessing the effectiveness of eviction prevention initiatives, including tenant Right to Counsel (RTC) programs, COVID-19 eviction moratoriums, and Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) programs.

• Housing and Health: Examining the impacts of housing policies on people’s health and well-being, with a focus on the U.S. Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) and Brazil’s Minha Casa, Minha Vida (MCMV) program.

📚 Previous Research

Previously, I was a senior research associate on the Evicted in Oregon research team at Portland State University, where I studied evictions in subsidized housing and the implementation of the Oregon ERA Program during the COVID-19 pandemic.

📺 Media Coverage

My research on subsidized housing evictions has been featured in:

• The Oregonian/OregonLive: “Oregon affordable housing landlords filed thousands of evictions in recent years, study finds”
• KOIN 6 News (Video): “Oregon saw over 5K recent affordable housing eviction filings, PSU finds”
  • The report highlighted that one in every 10 evictions is a person living in low-income subsidized housing and that these subsidized tenants were more likely to receive an eviction judgment compared to those in unsubsidized housing.

🎓 Education

• Ph.D. in Public Affairs (Minor in Population Studies) – University of Minnesota (2023)
• Master in Urban Planning – Tsinghua University (2018)

📧 Contact

Please feel free to contact me at: yiw1@wustl.edu