Shelterforce: Essential Reporting on Affordable Housing Shelterforce

Two bearded, bespectacled men pose for an ussie, both holding door tags urging residents to attend public hearings on rent reduction. The man on the left is wearing a white T-shirt that says "For the Many" under a blue jacket. The man on the right has on a gold sweathshirt and ball cap.

Kingston Agreed the Rent Was Too Damn High—So It Lowered It

October 11, 2024 | Luca GoldMansour

Rent stabilization typically limits the amount that rent can go up every year—but a newly appointed rent guidelines board in Kingston, N.Y., took it a step further.

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A mariachi speaks to residents in a Boyle Heights community after a landlord attempts to raise their rent by 60 to 80 percent. The group participated in rents strikes and negotiated a fair rent increase with their landlord.

Interview

LA Tenants Union Founders Call on Renters to Fight Back

October 10, 2024 | Roshan Abraham

Tracy Rosenthal and Leo Vilchis talk about their new book, “Abolish Rent: How Tenants Can End the Housing Crisis,” their victories and struggles within the tenant movement, and some lessons for others fighting for change.

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The upper part of the Supreme Court building in Washington, seen from the ground and showing only the tops of the columns and the frieze at the peak. Seen against a blue sky with small cumulus clouds.

Opinion

SCOTUS Hamstrings Federal Agencies, a Blow to Housing and Health Equity

October 4, 2024 | Zachary Travis

The Supreme Court has overturned the legal precedent Chevron deference. Without the authority to interpret ambiguities in regulations, the critical work of HHS and HUD could suffer.

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Featured Tag

elections

More with this Tag

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Where the Harris, Trump Campaigns Stand on Housing

October 2, 2024 | Frances Nguyen

Here's how each candidate has responded to (or ignored) five key housing issues: low supply, accessible homeownership, tenant protections, rent control, and homelessness.

In focus in foreground is a tower of small blocks atop which is a tiny model of a white house with gray pitched roof. Behind the house is a white man in a business suit, out of focus except for his hand, which is holding one of the blocks supporting the house, as if to pull it away.

How Project 2025 Would Dismantle HUD

September 26, 2024 | Shelby R. King

The Heritage Foundation’s “conservative playbook” isn’t new, but critics say the latest version’s policies and platforms are more discriminatory and dangerous than in the past.

A "Rent is too high" flyer in South Minneapolis.

Minneapolis, St. Paul Voters Say ‘Yes’ to Rent Stabilization

November 15, 2021 | Edward G. Goetz

Despite an all-out effort by the housing industry to stop them, two rent stabilization initiatives were given the green light following this month’s vote.

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Busy scene of striking tenants, of mixed ages and skin tones, most holding signs. Signs say "Stop landlord greed/Unionize" and "Every tenant deserves a union" and "Not one cent for the slumlords." Others are round "universal no" signs showing rodents, broken staircases, flooded bathrooms.

Reported Article

Could This Rolling Rent Strike Make the Feds Protect Tenants?

October 4, 2024 | Aaron Fernando

Organizers aim to catalyze a crisis to pressure a major federal housing regulator to lock in tenant protections.

View from across the street of three 1950s-style working class bungalows. No people or cars are in the photo.

Homeownership

House Poor: Low-Income Homeowners Struggle in the Shadows

September 27, 2024 | Daniel McCue

While renters and homebuyers’ challenges dominate the headlines, they aren’t the only ones wrestling with maintaining decent housing.

A row of about 10 people with other people behind them, most in blue T-shirts and holding up hand-drawn posters saying "Keep Dallas Affordable," "Affordable Housing 4 Veterans," "Todos Mereden Vivienda," and a few others with messages not readable at camera distance.

Practitioner Voice

How a Dallas Housing Coalition Won Bonds for Affordable Housing

September 19, 2024 | Bryan Tony and Kate Gustafson

Dallas’s bonds aren’t usually used for housing. A new coalition of advocates changed that.

About 25 people in a range of skin tones pose for a photo, all smiling. Most are in cool-weather jackets and two wear surgical masks. A woman at right is wearing a plastic apron. Behind the group are hand-done posters with messages of kindness and love.

Reported Article

What Started as Emergency Housing Could Offer a Model for Ending Homelessness in Delaware

September 17, 2024 | Frances Nguyen

Four years ago, New Castle County bought a hotel to provide safe housing for its most vulnerable residents. That property evolved away from purely emergency housing to a very different, more holistic, model of care.

Aerial view of the capital city of Montpelier, Vermont. Leaves in bright fall colors, and three church spires among the small-city houses and building of brick and clapboard.

Reported Article

States Are Using This Tool to Keep LIHTC Housing Affordable for Longer

September 13, 2024 | Roshan Abraham

Some state finance agencies are using qualified allocation plans, or QAPs, to extend affordability of LIHTC housing beyond 30 years and increase tenant protections. Here’s a look at where it’s happening.

Opinion

We’re Approaching Social Housing Wrong

September 10, 2024 | Kristen Hackett

Components common to most U.S. social housing proposals are bound to replicate problems we already have.

Featured Under the Lens

Dual Crises: Housing in a Changing Climate

Americans are struggling more than ever to find and maintain housing they can afford. The climate crisis is only making things worse. In this series, Shelterforce takes a deeper look at the intersection of housing and climate change, and the threat a changing climate poses to the nation’s stock of affordable housing. What are some of the possible solutions and challenges to confront that threat?

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A digital artwork shows two scenes, separated by a white dividing line. On the left, there are white and black buildings in a green field, a blue sky, and a wind turbine in the background. Silhouettes tug and push on the dividing line. On the right, buildings sink in water and trees are on fire against an orange background. The text reads "Dual Crises: Housing in a Changing Climate."

Shelter and the Storm: Housing and Climate Change are Intertwined

July 24, 2024 | Lara Heard

We're taking on these intersectional crises in our latest Under the Lens series.

A smiling woman wearing a white t-shirt and black shorts extends on arm to the sky while the other touches an air conditioner that shit in the trunk of a car.

Beating Extreme Heat as a Community

July 30, 2024 | Jill Webb

U.S. cities don't provide residents with enough protection against heat, the deadliest weather-related killer in the world. But in NYC, one organization came together to distribute ACs to neighbors in need.

What Makes Affordable Housing ‘Green’?

August 1, 2024 | Roshan Abraham

There's no one way to determine what makes "green" housing. Here's a breakdown of the standards and considerations used by the affordable housing industry.

View from middle distance of small village in Alaska under wide cloudy blue sky. The most visible building are low, pitched-roof, red buildings. Beyond them are clustered other houses. The foreground is a flat, snowy or icy ground, possibly a road.

Retreating From the Coasts Makes Sense, But Our Current Approach Isn’t Working

August 6, 2024 | Tim Robustelli and Yuliya Panfil

As flooding, sea level rise, fires, and other climate impacts increase, we'll need to move about 20 million Americans by 2100. Here's how we can rethink managed retreat to get ahead of the rising tides.

Webinars

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State & Local Policy
How Policy Can Help Tenants Purchase Their Homes, a Webinar

July 3, 2024 | Miriam Axel-Lute and Steve Dubb

Laws that give tenants the ability to purchase their own apartments are popping up across the country. In this webinar, a panel of folks who have been reporting on, fighting for, and using these policies offer their perspectives on this powerful anti-displacement tool.
Community Development Field
Her Story, Her Power in Community Development: A Shelterforce Webinar

April 3, 2024 | Shelterforce Staff

Five women from diverse backgrounds who span the country—Missouri, New Mexico, Hawaii, California, and Texas—got together with Shelterforce to talk about the community development field and their work in it.
LIHTC
LIHTC: Are Little Changes Enough? A Shelterforce Webinar

March 15, 2024 | Miriam Axel-Lute

There are reforms and expansions of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit afoot. But some in the field argue that we need to change the tax credit model of financing housing more deeply—or move away from it entirely. Join scholars and organizers as they discuss these issues and explore a path forward.
Disability
Getting to More Accessible, Affordable, Inclusive Housing, a Shelterforce Webinar

March 1, 2024 | Miriam Axel-Lute

Four disability advocates and experts explain what’s needed to house Americans with disabilities and some of the work that’s being done to get there.