Michael Lens is Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy, Chair of the Luskin Undergraduate Programs, and Associate Faculty Director of the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies. Professor Lens’ research and teaching explore the potential of public policy to address housing market inequities that lead to negative outcomes for low-income families and communities of color. This research involves zoning and land use, segregation, housing subsidies, and eviction. Professor Lens regularly publishes this work in leading academic journals and his research has won awards from the Journal of the American Planning Association and Housing Policy Debate.

His book Where the Hood At: Fifty Years of Change in Black Neighborhoods, was published in November 2024 by the Russell Sage Foundation. (Amazon) (Russell Sage – use promo code Lens for 20% off).

In ongoing research, Professor Lens is using microdata to study housing mobility, whether and how accessory dwelling units are affecting housing costs, and how planning reforms in California are achieving fair housing outcomes.  

Professor Lens’s research has received funding from the MacArthur Foundation, Arnold Ventures, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Hilton Foundation, and Wells Fargo, among other sources.

Professor Lens teaches courses on quantitative analysis, poverty and inequality, community development, housing policy, and research methods.

For an appointment, please send an email to mlens@ucla.edu.

SELECTED BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS

Book: Where the Hood At: Fifty Years of Change in Black Neighborhoods, was published in November 2024 by the Russell Sage Foundation. (Amazon) (Russell Sage – use promo code Lens for 20% off).

Zoning, Land Use, and the Reproduction of Urban Inequality. Annual Review of Sociology 48 (1): 421–39. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-030420-122027 

Built-Out Cities? How California Cities Restrict Housing Production through Prohibition and Process. Journal of Housing Economics 63, 101982. 

With Paavo Monkkonen and Michael Manville https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhe.2024.101982. 

It’s Time to End Single-Family Zoning
Journal of the American Planning Association
With Michael Manville and Paavo Monkkonen
https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2019.1651216.

Renter Nonpayment and Landlord Response: Evidence From COVID-19. Housing Policy Debate 33(6), 1333–1367. 

With Michael Manville, Paavo Monkkonen and Richard Green. 

https://doi.org/10.1080/10511482.2022.2085761.   

Public Policies To Address Residential Segregation And Improve Health. Health Affairs. 

With Justin Steil

https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hpb20230321.466701/full/  

Extremely Low-Income Households, Housing Affordability and the Great Recession
Urban Studies 55(8): 1615-1635
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0042098016686511

Spatial Job Search, Residential Job Accessibility, and Employment Outcomes for Returning Parolees
Demography 54: 755-800
With Naomi Sugie
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13524-017-0549-3

Job Accessibility Among Housing Subsidy Recipients
Housing Policy Debate 24(4): 671-691
Best Paper of 2013-14, Housing Policy Debate
https://doi.org/10.1080/10511482.2014.905966

The Limits of Housing Investment as a Revitalization Tool: Crime in New York City
Journal of the American Planning Association 79(3): 211-221
Best Article of 2014, Journal of the American Planning Association
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-017-0549-3 

American Murder Mystery Revisited: Do Housing Voucher Households  Cause Crime?
Housing Policy Debate, 22(4): 551-574
https://doi.org/10.1080/10511482.2012.697913