Sam Lutzker
Biography
Sam Lutzker is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at UCLA. He is a community-engaged researcher of urban poverty and its governance, with a focus on homelessness and housing. His dissertation, “Vehicle Living in Los Angeles: An Ethnography of Homelessness, Home, and the Local Politics of Criminalization and Care,” follows a diverse range of vehicle residents as they navigate informal shelter, social services, law enforcement, and shifting neighborhoods.
Sam studies a wide spectrum of homelessness and housing, having worked on projects about people living in vehicles, tents, makeshift shelters, interim housing (e.g., hotel programs), and permanent supportive housing. He’s published solo and with collaborators in a range of publications, including Radical Housing Journal, Metropolitics, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Knock LA. His research has been funded by the American Sociological Association, Haynes Foundation and UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality & Democracy.
Sam believes that research and organizing can benefit mutually, and is currently engaged in projects with Venice Justice Committee, the National Vehicle Residency Collective and the Los Angeles Tenants Unions. He was previously involved in projects with the After Echo Park Lake Research Collective, the Lived Experienced Advisory Board of Silicon Valley and Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid. At UCLA, Sam coordinates the Urban Sociology Working Group and enjoys mentoring undergraduates.
Prior to graduate school, Sam worked on projects about race and labor at Columbia University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Innovative Theory and Empirics (INCITE) and was a Princeton in Asia fellow in China. He received his BA in Sociology and East Asian Studies from Columbia University.
When not engaged in research or teaching, Sam loves biking and eating around LA with friends.
Fields of Study
Urban Sociology, Housing and Homelessness, Ethnographic and Mixed Methods, Community-Engaged Research, Public Policy.
Publications
Peer-review Scholarship:
Peters, Deike and Sam Lutzker. 2025. “A Crisis of Habitation in LA’s Last Remaining Wetland.” Metropolitics. (https://metropolitics.org/A-Crisis-of-Habitation-in-LA-s-Last-Remaining-Wetland.html)
Roy, Ananya, Annie Powers, Ashley Bennet, Sam Lutzker and Hilary Malson (on behalf of After Echo Park Lake Research Collective). 2022. “Continuum of Carcerality: How Liberal Urbanism Governs Homelessness.” Radical Housing Journal. (https://radicalhousingjournal.org/2022/continuum-of-carcerality/)
Reports:
Pruss, Graham and Sam Lutzker (in collaboration with Lived Experience Advisory Board of Silicon Valley). 2023 San José Recreational Vehicle Resident Survey Final Report. 2023. Submitted to the City of San José, CA.
After Echo Park Lake Research Collective. 2022. Dis(Placement): The Fight for Housing and Community after Echo Park Lake. UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy report. (https://challengeinequality.luskin.ucla.edu/2022/03/23/displacement/)
This report has been covered by international media, including The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/23/los-angeles-echo-park-un…
Public Scholarship:
Roy, Ananya and Sam Lutzker. 2022. “How the brutal clearing of an L.A. homeless encampment can teach S.F. what not to do in the Tenderloin.” San Francisco Chronicle. (https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/How-the-brutal-cle…)
Lutzker, Sam. 2021. “Op-Ed: Cancel parking fines for unhoused people who live in their cars.” Los Angeles
Times. (https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-05-19/homeless-cars-parking-t…)
Lutzker, Sam. 2021. “Is Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas ‘Champion of the Homeless Population?’
Depends who you ask.” Knock L.A. (https://knock-la.com/mark-ridley-thomas-anti-homeless-campinglaws/)
Lutzker, Sam. 2021. “‘Project No Key’: How Punitive Policies Hamper California’s Efforts to House the
Un-Housed.” Knock LA. (https://knock-la.com/project-roomkey-punitive-policies-ce8d59c534fb/).
Awards & Grants
- American Sociological Association Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, 2025
- Haynes Lindley Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, 2023-2024
- Mellon Foundation Scholar-in-Community Seed Grant, 2023
- National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP) Honorable Mention, 2021
- UCLA Excellence in Teaching Award, 2021-2023
- UCLA Graduate Summer Research Mentorship (GSRM) 2021
- UCLA Graduate Research Mentorship (GRM) 2020-2021
- UCLA Graduate Summer Research Mentorship (GSRM) 2020
- UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy Graduate Student Working Group Funding
- Housing Justice Public Scholarship Series, 2021-2022
- Informal Tenancy Working Group, 2021-2022
- Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid, 2020-2021
