Community Development Field

Shelterforce’s Top 10 Articles of 2019

We're sharing the most-read Shelterforce posts of 2019. We hope you enjoy them all and share with anyone who may have missed them.

We wanted to share with you some of our most-read articles of 2019. They’ll be familiar to some of you and new to others. We hope you enjoy them all and please share with anyone who may have missed them.

We wish you a happy, healthy, and productive New Year! With your continued support, Shelterforce will be with you every step of the way.

 

An aerial shot of St. Joseph's Hospital in Paterson, New Jersey.

St. Joseph’s Hospital in Paterson, New Jersey.

10. NJ Pays Hospitals to Build Affordable Housing
By Amanda Abrams
The first of its kind in the U.S., a New Jersey initiative provides financial incentives to nudge New Jersey’s health care systems to provide affordable housing for low-income residents and frequent users of hospital services. Here’s how the program works. 

 

9. What is the Future of the Black Urban Middle Neighborhood?
By Alan Mallach
Both the nation’s racial discriminatory past and the economic realities of today are to blame for the current state of the housing market in longstanding African-American urban middle neighborhoods. But what does the future hold for them? Here’s why we should care.

 

Land sale poster c. 1910

8. Long Before Redlining: Racial Disparities in Homeownership Need Intentional Policies
By Lisa Rice
The racial wealth gap is probably best illustrated in the way our country has, and has not, provided access to the single most important determinant of wealth for the majority of people in the United States—home and land ownership. It started with . . . 

 

7. It Doesn’t Matter if Your Neighborhood Is Going to Eventually Gentrify
By Miriam Axel-Lute
“We could use some gentrification here.” Let’s never say this—we must refrain from debating the long-term likelihood of gentrification in distressed places. 

 

YIMBY Action members chant over activists of color during an counter protest in California.

YIMBY Action members.

6. YIMBYs: Friend, Foe, or Chaos Agent?
By Miriam Axel-Lute
The relationship between pro-building “Yes in My Back Yard” activists, longtime housing advocates, and anti-displacement organizers varies across the country, but has often been fraught with difficulties. Is there a way forward? 

 

5. Whose Affordable Housing Crisis?
By Alan Mallach
Being priced out of appreciating neighborhoods is not the housing affordability problem most Americans face. But they are facing one.

 

group photo

Carson met with a coalition about housing support after foster care.

4. HUD Approves Vouchers for Housing After Foster Care
By John Kelly
How did a group of former foster youths and advocates convince top federal housing officials to support housing for people exiting foster care? 

 

3. YIMBY, White Privilege, and the Soul of Our Cities
By Fernando Martì
The YIMBY narrative about why there is a housing crisis ignores history and serves to assuage new residents’ guilty feelings. But we can craft a new narrative together. 

 

Six tiny houses share a common deck.

Six tiny houses share a common deck in Lake Union Village.

2. Tiny House Villages in Seattle: A Response to Our Homelessness Crisis
By Sharon Lee
Three years in, an initiative to build tiny homes for Seattle’s homeless population is growing. What are some of the lessons the project can teach other cities? 

 

1. Why Voters Haven’t Been Buying the Case for Building
By Rick Jacobus
People often wonder what it is about supply and demand that voters can’t quite understand. One thing is for sure: It’s not because they’re stupid. 

 

Shelterforce has published more than 200 articles this year. Which was your favorite?

  • 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.

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

    September 13, 2024

    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.

  • View from an upper floor of a small-city street, with two- and three-story brick buildings lining the street, and cars parked on the curb. A brick chimney at the back of the buildings is set against a bright blue sky.

    Standing Up for Small CDCs

    August 28, 2024

    Neighborhood-scale community development organizations have community connections and trust that can’t be replicated by larger organizations, and they should be valued as the foundation of the field.

  • Affordable Housers Face Deepening Rental Arrears and Ballooning Expenses

    August 2, 2024

    Four years after the pandemic first wrought havoc on the American economy, nonprofit housers are being overwhelmed by rental arrears. Can they balance their social mission against their operational realities?