Amanda Abrams

Housing funding programs are notoriously fragmented. One way to make limited housing dollars go further is to improve the systems that distribute them.

Tierra Colectiva, a community land trust in the Denver neighborhoods of Globeville and Elyria-Swansea, combines community organizing, traditional CLT development, and more unusual roles in a large affordable housing development.

Thousands of companies offer tenant screening tools that promise to make life easier for landlords and property managers. But reports show that the data these companies use is often riddled with errors and relies on information that has no bearing on whether someone will be a good tenant.

For decades, a group of Cambodian refugees worked to improve and upgrade their Stockton, California, affordable housing complex. While they technically own half of the property, they’re still waiting for HUD to approve their full ownership. Why hasn’t it happened yet?

During the pandemic, community development organizations had to work double-time to adapt to residents’ needs. For some, that work yielded important lessons about better helping their communities, permanently.

When a St. Louis-based group convened public housing residents to talk about infant mortality, they discovered a serious housing issue that affected tenants’ health. To the organization’s credit, they didn’t turn away from the problem.

Buncombe County in North Carolina was one of the first places in the U.S. to support reparations for Black residents. So why is the county not doing a better job of addressing property tax inequities that directly impact residents of color?

Two years after the pandemic began, community development organizations reflect on what’s changed and how they’re moving forward. Some are still in crisis mode; others are refocusing their work.

Seventy-one percent of jobs that pay $40,000 and above require a four-year degree, says Maurice Jones. That requirement is “having a huge, huge adverse impact on Black talent earning their way into the middle class.”

A few cities in the U.S. are addressing homelessness by experimenting with different financing vehicles that are helping to preserve and construct more supportive housing.

Could rural hospitals build on existing social services work by investing their assets to advance their communities’ health? Examples from Kansas, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Virginia show some possibilities.

While rent relief might not be their mission, organizations are focusing on the immediate needs of residents. But with all of their staff and monetary resources being used to plug holes, some organizations believe they’re a few months or another crisis away from financial disaster.