Professor Wenfei Xu of the UC Santa Barbara Department of Geography will teach GEOG 121: The Geography of Housing in Winter 2027. Students planning their winter schedules can add the course now.

The course treats housing as four things at once: shelter, a safe and stable place to live; the largest monthly cost for most households; the largest asset for most homeowners; and a location that sets access to schools, jobs, commutes and neighbors. These roles often conflict, since rising home values build wealth for owners while raising costs for renters. Race and class have long shaped where housing is built and who may live there. Students study how public and private actors, residents, and the activists and advocacy organizations who fought for fair housing, public housing and tenants’ rights shape each of these roles, and how past policy decisions continue to produce unequal outcomes.

Topics include redlining and segregation, public housing, gentrification, homeownership, renting and eviction, housing supply, homelessness, student housing and international housing models. Students will leave the course understanding why housing has become so expensive, how housing has shaped people’s lives, and what can be done to make it more affordable, stable and just.

Schedule
Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:00 to 3:15 p.m.
Lecture: Ellison Hall 3621
Lab: Ellison Hall 2616