Yi Wang

Yi Wang

She/Her/Hers

Housing, Eviction & Health

Housing instability shapes health, wealth, and opportunity for millions of Americans — yet the landlord practices that drive it remain poorly understood. Using administrative data linking, spatial analytics, and quasi-experimental methods, I study how problematic landlord practices — such as frequent evictions and the use of risky home financing arrangements — emerge and operate, with the goal of informing housing policies to better protect tenants.

My research spans housing policy, urban planning, and public health, and has been published in Housing Policy Debate, Journal of Planning Education and Research, Cities, Journal of Urban Affairs, Socius, Journal of Physical Activity and Health, and Cities & Health.

📚 Research Areas

  • Landlord Practices: Investigating the patterns of landlord practices, including eviction filings, housing code violations, and the use of alternative 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, Climate Resilience, and Health: Examining the connections between affordable housing programs, community resilience to extreme weather events, and residents’ health, with a focus on the U.S. Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) and Brazil’s Minha Casa, Minha Vida (MCMV).

📺 Media Coverage

My research on subsidized housing evictions has been featured in:

🎓 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