What We Do

The Urban Displacement Project (UDP) is a research and action initiative of the University of California Berkeley and the University of Toronto. UDP conducts community-centered, data-driven, applied research toward more equitable and inclusive futures for cities. Our research aims to understand and describe the nature of gentrification, displacement, and exclusion, and also to generate knowledge on how policy interventions and investment can support more equitable development.

The goal of UDP is to produce rigorous research and create tools to empower advocates and policymakers, to reframe conversations, and to train and inspire the next generation of leaders in equitable development.

UDP is funded entirely by “soft money,” i.e., project-specific grants, and we exclusively hire UC Berkeley and University of Toronto students and postdocs for research assistance. We do not have any administrative staff. Because we are busy working on research, we are not able to respond to many of the requests we get for pro bono advice or presentations. Likewise, we are unable to supervise volunteers.