While the world is a very different place than it was just a few months ago, Shelterforce is keeping busy, doing what we’ve always done—bringing you stories that both inform your work and help you advocate to others.
Over the past two months we have published stories about what is required to make an eviction moratorium effective, various ways housing policy must change in the wake of COVID-19, and the challenges nonprofit housing organizations face as tenants struggle to pay rent. Our story about a man illegally evicted in New Orleans produced great results: five hours after the article was published on our website, he got his home back. His story highlights the need for better enforcement of tenant laws.
We’re committed to doing the best for all our readers and the field we serve, and that’s why we’ve made the difficult decision to cease our quarterly print publication so that we can focus our time and resources on producing more—and better—stories, and getting them online more quickly, where the vast majority of our readers already are.
We know many of our readers subscribed to our print magazine as a way to show their ongoing support for Shelterforce and our mission. But you don’t need a print magazine to do that!
We invite you to be counted among the ranks of Shelterforce devotees by supporting us on Patreon and becoming a “Shelterforian”! Along with knowing you’re helping to keep us strong, by signing up, you can get access to things like behind-the-scenes insights into what we’re up to and even chats with our editors. But most of all, you’ll know you’re helping to keep the independent voice of community development speaking loud and clear.
We thank you for believing in our work. Housing policy is central to the pandemic response and recovery, but the challenges, lessons, and opportunities that were there in January are all still there as well. We’ll be with you as you navigate these waters. We look forward to continuing this journey together as we keep bringing you stories and voices at the intersection of policy, practice, and theory in affordable housing and community development.
—Shelterforce Staff
I am sorry to see this change but understand the realities of moving off of a print edition.
My first issue I remember was from 1982 when it was in a newspaper-format. I was unemployed working at a social change group in Providence. There was an ad from the Progressive Planners for a Summer Institute at Tufts University. I attended that Summer Institute on Local Economic Development with Richard Shramm. It was career changing for me. Shelterforce has been a critical part of my toolbox of knowledge threads supporting a new generation of Houser and CED practitioners. I will miss the hard copy of receiving that Shelterforce in the mail. I look forward to what’s ahead.
Here I am a year later discovering this change. Time for me to donate. I may not have even had an active subscription at the end of the run, so I missed the change. I treasure my hard copy issues of Shelterforce and would pay some serious coin to someone who would like to sell a decent collection of back issues. I’m glad the mission continues, and I will look forward to the regular emails.