Associate Professor of Law Rosa Newman recently published articles in the Berkeley Journal of Black Law & Policy, and the Journal of Things We Like (Lots) (JOTWELL).
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Associate Professor of Law Rosa Newman recently published two pieces of scholarship examining how property law and housing policy, shape wealth creation, neighborhood development and access to economic opportunity.
In the Berkeley Journal of Black Law & Policy, Newman published “Public Housing Reimagined: Confronting the Racial Wealth Gap Through Section 8 Housing Subsidy Reform.” The article examines how federal housing policies contributed to racial disparities in homeownership and wealth accumulation and argues that Housing Choice Vouchers should be viewed not only as rental assistance, but also as a vehicle for sustainable homeownership. Drawing on historical analysis of federal housing programs and lending practices, Newman argues that government housing policies have played a significant role in shaping economic opportunity and wealth-building across generations. Newman proposes reforms that would enable more recipients of federal housing subsidies to leverage that assistance as a pathway to homeownership, helping expand access to intergenerational wealth-building opportunities.
Newman also published a review essay in JOTWELL, “Is Gentrification Always the Enemy?” In the essay, Newman examines University of Richmond School of Law Professor Carol Brown’s article “A Civil Rights Defense of Gentrification,” that challenges the conventional assumption that neighborhood reinvestment and gentrification inevitably displace existing residents. Newman highlights Brown’s argument that legal tools such as inclusionary zoning and affordability protections can allow redevelopment to occur in a way that promotes both opportunity and inclusion, and without widespread displacement.
Together, the two publications reflect Newman’s broader research agenda, which examines how property law and housing policy shape wealth creation, neighborhood development, and racial inequality, with a particular focus on the legal institutions that govern access to homeownership and economic mobility.
Newman joined the Elon Law faculty in 2022 and teaches Property, Wills and Trusts, and Real Estate Transactions. Her teaching and scholarship focus on property, real estate and housing law, with particular interests in housing and economic development. She earned her B.A. from the University of Chicago and a dual J.D./M.S. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Iowa.
Before entering academia, Newman worked in the commercial real estate development field for firms in Miami, Florida, and Charlotte, North Carolina, specializing in structuring multilayered financing for mixed-income, multifamily housing developments. That professional experience continues to inform her research and teaching. She later served as a Louis Westerfield Fellow at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.
Newman chairs the Legal Education Committee of the Uniform Laws Group of the American Bar Association’s Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Section (RPTE), serves as a contributing editor for JOTWELL’s Property section, and is a member of the Trusts Drafting Committee of the North Carolina General Statutes Commission. She also serves on the Executive Council for the Florida Bar’s Out-of-State Division and as a member of the Mecklenburg County Citizens Revaluation Commission.