Despite a CRA exam pass rate of 98 percent, the major thrust of bank comments is that they want easier exams with fewer moving parts and less uncertainty.
How to Fund Land Banks
The number of land banks grew dramatically in the wake of the foreclosure crisis. So has our understanding of how to successfully fund them.
Prescription for a New Neighborhood
Housing mobility can complement community revitalization for children with serious health challenges.
Art Matters–In Rural Classrooms and Beyond
I’ve spent nearly two decades working on the intersection of housing, community development, and public policy. I’ve seen the arts bring out the best...
Participatory Budgeting: Why Not Fix Everyone’s Sink?
Participatory budgeting offers a glimpse of how a more civically engaged society might work, but it’s also a distraction.
Q: Do inclusionary housing requirements make housing prices go up for...
A: No, they do not. Market-rate developers are business people. They charge as much as the market will bear. When housing prices go up . . .
New Money on the Block: Funders for Housing and Opportunity
A new funding collaborative, Funders for Housing and Opportunity, has just launched. The collaborative, officially a project of the New Ventures Fund, involves (so far) nine large and well-known foundations.
Public Land Should be Used for Public Good
When a vacant lot in Oakland was close to becoming the home of a 24-story, market-rate development, local activists worked together to prevent it from happening.
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.
Hey YIMBYs, Thanks for Listening
The path to winning a pro-equity, pro-growth majority involves more (not less) investment in fighting displacement.
Shelter Shorts, The Week in Community Development—Dec. 7
News from—and affecting—the community development world. This week: ride-hail drivers win living wage, NYT headline gaff, NJ police use of force exposé, Airbnb as developer, more.
Decommodifying Housing Without Reproducing American Apartheid
Though the idea of social housing is gaining traction among advocates and policy experts, the path of least resistance for its production in the U.S. is also the path of the perpetuation of residential racial segregation.
What Happens When a CDC Pivots to a Health-First Focus?
Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation in Cleveland finds that being an early adopter of a community health focus has its advantages.
Shelter Shorts, The Week in Community Development—Nov. 30
The country's political realignment, taking income protections national, CVS buys Aetna, cities can learn from Nashville, more.
Taking the Bus: Nonprofit Conferences and Integrity of Purpose
Nonprofits advocate for local transit spending, but annual conference logistics don't typically include bus route information for attendees.
Small Investments Can Yield Big Returns. Review of A Few Thousand Dollars
Over a dozen stories of how Americans from all different backgrounds have managed to leverage a few thousand dollars to lead lives that have helped thousands of other people, and strategies to reinvigorate a movement to influence asset building policy nationally.
Shelter Shorts, The Week in Community Development—Nov. 23
From hospital to housing, the toll of CA's wildfires, gerrymandering's famous enemy, Medicaid to the rescue, more.
What the Fight for Universal Rent Control in New York Can Learn from Prop...
Voters have set up an unprecedented fight between progressive housing groups and real estate interests. It will be a brutal fight. For proof of this, housing advocates in New York need only to look at California.
Getting Affordable Housing Near Good Schools
A new housing acquisition model is focusing on a specific criteria to increase access to opportunity for very low-income families.