Season of Change
At the apex of the civil rights and social justice movements, a new type of organization, the community development corporation (CDC), was created. CDCs were charged with addressing the massive […]
Hallmarks of Success
In Lawrence, MA, a group of residents had what should have been a simple request: that the city improve its trash collection in their neighborhoods. That need led to a […]
Raising Voices
In 1990, Atlanta’s per capita income was below that of its metro area. But in 2004, after years of encouraging professionals to move to the city’s downtown and neighborhoods, its […]
New Movements for a New Era
Three decades ago, a group of activists came together to create a social justice movement to organize poor and working-class people around the issues of homes and communities. Learning the […]
Shelter Shorts
Housing Fund Gets Hijacked Housing advocates should have been smiling when the U.S. House of Representatives voted on Oct. 26 to require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to allot some […]
Moving Toward the Market
Most of us work in nonprofit organizations; many in community development corporations. In our nonprofit world, our “customers” are rarely the ones who pay our salaries. We rely instead on […]
Planning for Success
In an essay last month, John Norquist, president of the Congress for the New Urbanism and former mayor of Milwaukee, asked, “Is Gentrification Really A Threat?” (Planetizen.com). Citing three recent […]
Learning Lessons
Two seemingly disparate events occurred in the past few weeks. In LA Antonio Villaraigosa just became the first Latino mayor of that city in a century. He won decisively by […]
Challenging Ourselves
Let’s start by saying what isn’t said often enough. Affordable housing and community development practitioners and advocates have done extraordinary work for many decades. CBOs and their allies have fought […]
It’s the Mission, Stupid
For the past four years, the Bush administration has been working hard to turn HUD into the Cheshire Cat – all grin, no programs. It has proposed block granting Section […]
Restoring the Commonwealth
Public housing is not a gift to those who cannot find shelter: it is an obligation of the commonwealth that asserts no person living in this country should be deprived […]
The Road to Power
This year, we’ve had to remove our blinders to the notion of “these united states” – a sentiment prescribed by our government since 9/11. This country is not united; it’s […]