Peter W. Salsich, Jr., J.D.
McDonnell Professor of Justice in American Society Emeritus
Education
A.B., University of Notre Dame, 1959
J.D., Saint Louis University School of Law, 1965
Research Interests
Professor Peter W. Salsich joined the SLU LAW faculty in 1969 after two years with the Missouri Office of State and Regional Planning, a year in private practice and a year as a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society of St. Louis (now Legal Services of Eastern Missouri (LSEM)). For more than 30 years Salsich has devoted his scholarly work to exploring the relationship of land use laws to affordable housing and urban redevelopment.
While a Legal Services attorney, Professor Salsich collaborated with former state representatives Charles Valier and Jack Schramm in the drafting of legislation to create the Missouri Housing Development Commission (MHDC). The Missouri General Assembly approved the commission in 1969 and Professor Salsich became its first chair. Since its inception, MHDC has invested almost $4 billion in the production of affordable rental housing and provided homeownership opportunities for thousands of families covering every county of the state.
Publications and Media Placements
Professor Salsich is a co-author of casebooks in Housing Law, Land Use Regulation, Property Law and State and Local Government Law, as well as more than 30 articles. He currently teaches Property Law, State and Local Government Law and Housing and Community Development, and has taught Contracts, Land Use Control, Legal Profession and Real Estate Transactions, as well as interdisciplinary courses, Urban/Housing Issues Symposium and Social Responsibility and the Professional. He has taught a Comparative Land Use and Development Law course in the Law School’s Madrid program. In addition to his teaching duties, Salsich has served as the associate dean for academic affairs and student services and has a joint appointment in the Department of Public Policy Studies in the College of Public Service.
Professional Organizations and Associations
Professor Salsich is the former chair of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Commission on Homelessness and Poverty, former chair of the Ecumenical Housing Production Corporation (now Beyond Housing, Inc.) and former board president of LSEM. He is also a former editor of the ABA’s Journal of Affordable Housing and Community Development Law. Salsich was chair of former Mayor Freeman Bosley’s Housing Task Force and a member of the Mitchell-Danforth Task Force on the Low Income Housing Tax Credit. He served as co-chair of the FOCUS St. Louis Affordable Workforce Housing Task Force.