The path to winning a pro-equity, pro-growth majority involves more (not less) investment in fighting displacement.
State Policies Play a Central Role in the Fight Against Vacant Property
Abandoned and vacant properties seem like a quintessentially local problem. But state policies have a huge effect on how well municipalities can fight it.
Green Is Affordable
The affordable housing movement has not only accepted green building, but is making it integral to its work.
Conflict and Placemaking in Humboldt Park: Paseo Boricua
The area surrounding Paseo Boricua is not exclusive space, but in a gentrifying part of the city, it is undeniably—and perhaps unavoidably—contested space.
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: Is scattered-site rehab always more expensive than new construction?
A: No! A long-running program in Philadelphia is showing that scattered site rehab can be cheaper and have a larger revitalizing effect at the same time.
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.
Shelter Shorts, The Week in Community Development—Dec. 14
News from—and affecting—the community development world. This week: Corporate tax breaks at schools expense, social services shame, power grabs post-midterms, hospitals and communities, NYC residents speak out about Amazon, more.
It Takes Strong Roots to Achieve Climate Justice
Throughout 2018's six day Sol-2-Sol climate justice convening, indigenous people from the occupied U.S. territories and lands from around the world led many of the actions and activities, especially those directly impacted.
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.
Where Banks and the Public Agree on CRA . . . and Disagree
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.
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.