Philip Garboden

Academic background

Phil’s work examines how the decisions of supply side actors (landlords, tenants and developers) are shaped by domestic housing policies and how these decisions impact their lives of poor tenants. He is a mixed methods researcher, leveraging statistical analysis, ethnography, and in-depth interviewing. After graduating from Swarthmore College in 2002, Phil spent several years working for a nonprofit organization designed to help ex-offenders achieve gainful employment in the construction and trades while simultaneously growing survival entrepreneurship in high-poverty Latino and Black neighborhoods in North Philadelphia. Upon relocating to Baltimore so his wife could attend medical school, Phil dabbled in progressive political work in Washington, DC, and helped manage a website that promoted charitable donations in lieu of wedding registries. He consequently entered an MPP program, developing a love for housing policy, which he pursued in a PhD/MSE program at Johns Hopkins University. He moved to Oahu in 2018 with his wife, Dr. Caitlin Engelhard, and three children (Clifton, Helena, and Susannah Mary).