Joe Flood (born 28 July 1950) is a policy and data analyst. He has made contributions to mathematics, housing and urban economics, urban indicators, slums, climate change and genetic genealogy. He worked in CSIRO from 1977 to 1993, where he was one of the first scientists to apply for external consultancies, winning about 25 research projects undertaken for all levels of government in Australia during 1984-93. His research contributed to several major changes in Australia’s housing policy, specifically the expansion of Rent Assistance, now Australia's largest housing programme. With university partners, he established the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) in 1993.