Core problem
Communities need more homes, but the best form and location vary with household demand, land, infrastructure, transit, affordability, and climate impacts. A simple label such as "missing middle" does not tell a planner, nonprofit, or developer whether a particular neighborhood needs duplexes, apartments, townhomes, accessory units, senior housing, or another option, or whether current zoning allows it.
Build challenge
Build a decision-support tool that matches places with plausible housing types and explains the tradeoffs. The model should compare demand, physical feasibility, affordability, displacement risk, infrastructure capacity, access to opportunity, and marginal carbon emissions. It should present scenarios rather than declare a single objectively correct neighborhood or housing type.
Success looks like
A user can compare at least two housing scenarios for a real place, see why the tool ranked them differently, change normative weights, and understand which conclusions are data-driven versus value judgments.