What Award-Winning JAPA Research Reveals About Affordable Housing and Racial Equity Planning

Across two distinct areas of planning practice, award-winning research published in the Journal of the American Planning Association (JAPA) in 2026 offers timely, actionable approaches to advancing more equitable communities. One study examines how sales of naturally occurring affordable housing affect residential stability during a nationwide housing crisis; the other develops a framework for integrating racial equity objectives into regional scenario planning.

The American Planning Association (APA) recognized both papers at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) annual conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in early October. Taesoo Song, PhD, and Carolina Reid, PhD, were honored for their paper, “The Implications of Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH) Sales for Residential Mobility,” the recipient of the 2026 Article of the Year Award. Daniel L. Engelberg, PhD, is the recipient of the 2026 Emerging Scholar Award for his paper “A Framework for Using Regional Scenarios in Racial Equity Planning.”

2026 Article of the Year

Actionable Guidance on and Overlooked Affordable Housing Market Segment

“The Implications of Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH) Sales for Residential Mobility” (JAPA, Vol. 92, No. 3) is the recipient of the 2026 Article of the Year Award.

Co-authors Taesoo Song, an assistant professor in Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning at Virginia Tech's School of Public and International Affairs, and Carolina Reid, associate professor Emerita of City & Regional Planning in the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley, developed a sophisticated model to examine this segment of the housing market. It combines proprietary parcel-level assessor data, consumer reference data tracing household mobility, and American Community Survey demographic data. The approach allowed them to build detailed profiles of NOAH stock in two urban regions: Los Angeles and the East Bay.

The results show that NOAH residents experience relatively frequent involuntary moves. The authors also find that increased participation by professional investors likely helps explain the sector’s recent growth in instability and precarity. At a moment of widespread housing insecurity, the research brings new attention to the risks facing residents whose homes may be affordable but are not protected by subsidy or long-term affordability requirements.

The paper “breaks new ground in a few different ways,” noted the JAPA awards committee, which noted that Song and Reid offer actionable evidence about a market segment that affordable housing policy often overlooks. The paper also moves beyond diagnosis, outlining measures local practitioners can initiate to help preserve stability, including transferring ownership to nonprofit organizations and adopting opportunity-to-purchase legislation. Together, the committee noted, the study’s innovative methodology, consequential findings, and practical recommendations make it valuable to planning scholars and practitioners alike.

2026 Emerging Scholar Award

Using Scenario Planning to Advance Equity Objectives

Daniel L. Engelberg is the recipient of the 2026 Emerging Scholar Award for his paper, “A Framework for Using Regional Scenarios in Racial Equity Planning” (JAPA, Vol. 92, No. 2). The paper begins with a simple but potent insight: “equity planning and scenario planning have been estranged.” Engelberg, who earned his PhD from Northeastern University and is now director of climate analysis at the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, responds by developing a framework designed to bring the two approaches together.

Drawing on comprehensive knowledge of both the equity planning and scenario planning literatures, Engelberg builds a practical proposal for integrating racial equity objectives into regional scenario planning. He then applies the framework to a case in which practitioners conducted scenario planning informed by equity goals, demonstrating how the approach can work in practice and where regional planning processes can be adapted.

The JAPA awards jury called the paper a “stand-out effort,” citing its combination of research vision, a carefully constructed framework, and a well-rendered evaluative case study. With what the jurors described as “fine economy,” Engelberg identifies concrete ways regional planners can adapt scenario planning processes to better integrate racial equity objectives.

Top image: Taesoo Song, PhD, (left) and Journal of the American Planning Association (JAPA) Editor Yan Song, PhD, (no relation) are pictured at a JAPA awards event held during the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning annual conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in early October. Photo courtesy of Meghan Stromberg.