Two of the most intractable problems in urban America are schools and housing.

With housing prices still skyrocketing, how can people with modest incomes or just starting out in their careers afford to live in cities? It's a problem confronting many Americans, and we'll talk about some solutions with Reese Fayde, CEO ofÊLiving Cities.

Living Cities is a nonprofit consortium of 17 major financial, philanthropic and public sector organizations committed to increasing the vitality of cities and urban neighborhoods, and improving the lives of people who live there. Reese previously ran her own real estate development and consulting firm in New York. She was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Design.

If any problem is tougher than affordable housing in urban neighborhoods, it is schools. Can public schools work in our cities? Can they produce high performing students? The record is not encouraging, but this week's guests are trying to turn that around through an effort calledÊNew Leaders for New Schools. They are Billy Kearney, who heads the Memphis NLNS program, principal Rita White, who's been at Egypt Elementary in Memphis since 1998, and resident principal at Egypt Elementary Patrick Washington.

New Leaders for New Schools is attracting, preparing, and supporting the next generation of school leaders to tackle the challenge of making education work for urban schoolchildren. The program now operates in New York, Chicago, the Bay Area of California, Washington, D.C. and Memphis.

We'll talk about how to change urban neighborhoods with affordable housing and schools that work on "Smart City."