The current HopkinsLocal effort, a three-year program launched in September 2015, is also clearly a response to the death of Freddie Gray and the events that followed.
What Does “Community Control of Land” Mean?
When we put out a call for essays about the meaning of community control of land, we expected we might get a handful of responses. Instead we got dozens and dozens, coming from all different parts of the country, from residents and researchers, activists and advocates. We clearly touched a nerve.
Smaller Cities Are Laboratories for Change
In smaller cities it is typically much easier to engage high levels of leadership, get traction for strategies that are more visible, engage the wider community, build trust, and scale solutions more quickly than in larger areas. Here are a few examples.
Regrets of an Accidental Placemaker
Had I unintentionally contributed to the gentrification of my neighborhood and other neighborhoods around Washington, D.C.?
Participatory Budgeting: Why Not Fix Everyone’s Sink?
Just like a focus group or any mechanism intended to give us a voice, participatory budgeting can offer a glimpse of how a more civically engaged society might work. But it’s also a distraction from the actual mechanisms of power, and can reinforce or even worsen existing inequalities.
Q: Why Don’t People Who Get Rental Assistance Get a Job?
A: More than half are elderly or disabled. Of the rest, most of them do have a job! Ninety-four percent of rental assistance receipts are ...
A Year Later, Can the Grenfell Tower Fire Be a Catalyst...
Shelterforce asked author and housing worker Glyn Robbins what led him to view U.K. and U.S. housing policy as intertwined, how public protest stifled the Conservative Party’s 2016 Housing Act, and what’s changed in the wake of Grenfell.
Housing, Not Warehousing—A Victory 10 Years in the Making
Warehousing is one of real estate’s best-kept secrets, and a crucial piece of how the housing market can keep supply low and demand high. One New York City organization rallied to prove warehousing still posed a problem, and pushed the boundaries of what was politically possible.
Advocacy for Social Change: Coalitions and the Organizations that Lead Them
Many books discuss the corrosive effect of money in politics and lobbying organizations, but few are devoted to how those representing the have-nots organize on a national level to fight for laws and regulations that seek to empower communities.
Shelter Shorts, The Week in Community Development—June 22
U.S. Increases Numbers of Families in Crisis | Hooray-Lots of People Have (Low Wage) Jobs! | Arts + Public Health | Seattle Caves to Corporate Interests | Converting Motels Into Supportive Housing
HUD Was Wrong To Suspend This Important Tool For Racial Equity
On May 8, 2018, three fair housing groups took action to preserve an important tool for community empowerment and equity.
Shelter Shorts, The Week in Community Development—June 15
History In San Francisco | Confusing, But Good News From Carson’s HUD | An Eviction Program Disguised As Public Safety | A National Health + Housing Model Is Completed | More...
Shelter Shorts, The Week in Community Development—June 8
Development Without Displacement in Buffalo | A Slow Death for the CFPB? | The Simplicity of White Flight | An "Opportunity" Zone For Who? | Automating Wage Theft | More...
Here’s Why Costa-Hawkins Repeal Would Be Revolutionary for Housing in California
Rent control is one of the foremost demands of grassroots movements organizing around housing justice today. To activists across the country, from Los Angeles...
Shelter Shorts, The Week in Community Development—June 1
An International Housing Crisis | Adaptive Reuse in Orange | The Best Places For Bees | First TOD, Now TOG | An Incentive To Desegregate Schools | More...
Shelter Shorts, The Week in Community Development—May 25
First Steps Act Looks Like Wrong Direction | Dodd-Frank Rollback | Money For Social Determinants | Chicago Housing Segregation | More...
Measuring the Right Things: “Mobility from Poverty” Is More than Finances
How would you measure someone making progress toward escaping poverty? If you've been tuned in to the asset-building movement you might look at their accumulation of assets and preparation for a financial emergency. You might also want to look at cash flow. But can poverty-fighting be solely measured by money?
Why San Francisco Outdoes New York City on Tenant Rights
New York City has been outpaced by San Francisco in protecting tenants since the latter adopted rent control in 1979. While protections for the city's tenants have steadily weakened and even disappeared since the 1990s, San Francisco’s rent control and eviction protection laws have expanded and strengthened.
The Not-So Hidden Truths About the Segregation of America’s Housing
Our conversation with The Color of Law author Richard Rothstein on uncovering truths about our not-so distant history of federally mandated racial segregation in housing.