Affordable Housing + ABCD — The crucible in which “Us and Them” becomes “Us” is a short, story-driven talk about what can happen when affordable housing is treated not just as shelter, but as shared civic infrastructure. Drawing on Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD), the talk shows how housing can become a place where residents, neighbors, service providers, and institutions stop being separate categories and start acting as a community with mutual stake and agency. Using real-world examples, it reframes affordable housing from a system that manages need to a platform that surfaces assets, builds trust, and turns proximity into belonging—where “us and them” is transformed, through daily practice, into simply us.

The CPID Talks are aimed at fostering a dialogue about interesting work being done that is relevant to the public interest design field by inviting speakers from a wide variety of disciplines to share their work. This talk will be held in the in the CPID Office School of Architecture at PSU (Shattuck Hall 201). Following the talk, attendees are invited to participate in a discussion on the work. We hope you'll join us.