Vincent Reina

Vincent Reina is a Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania's Stuart Weitzman School of Design. He serves as Founder and Faculty Director of the Housing Initiative at Penn (HIP) and Editor-in-Chief of Housing Policy Debate.

His educational background includes:

• PhD in Public Policy and Management from the University of Southern California
• MBA from New York University
• MSc in Comparative Social Policy from the University of Oxford
• BS in Urban Studies from Cornell University

Reina's research centers on urban economics and housing policy, with emphasis on affordability crises, equitable development, and subsidized housing preservation. His work bridges academic rigor and practical policy implementation through large-scale urban interventions, including randomized control trials of cash-based housing assistance programs and multi-city emergency rental assistance evaluations. Current projects address systemic barriers in neighborhood access, energy cost burdens for low-income households, and lead exposure in urban development contexts.

His contributions have been recognized with several prestigious awards:

• Article of the year by the Journal of the American Planning Association
• Association of Public Policy and Management’s Best Dissertation Award
• Rising Scholar Award by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning

Reina has directed major policy initiatives including Philadelphia's first citywide housing plan, Cincinnati's community-wide housing strategy, and Cleveland's Ten-Year Housing and Investment Plan. As Senior Advisor for Housing and Urban Policy in the White House Domestic Policy Council (2022-2024), he shaped national responses to housing supply challenges and fair housing advancement. His HIP initiative conducts nationwide evaluations of 220+ emergency rental assistance programs in partnership with the National Low Income Housing Coalition and NYU Furman Center.

He directs the Housing Initiative at Penn (HIP), which operates as a national policy laboratory collaborating with 15+ cities and states to develop evidence-based housing solutions through interdisciplinary research teams combining planning, economics, and data science expertise.