Miriam Axel-Lute
Miriam Axel-Lute is CEO/editor-in-chief of Shelterforce. She lives in Albany, New York, and is a proud small-city aficionado.
Biden’s Renters Rights Blueprint: Meaningful or Not?
What should we make of the administration’s tenants rights announcement?
Taking the ADU Model to the Next Level, a Shelterforce and Next City Webinar
How can we get more accessory dwelling units built, keep them affordable, and make them forces for increasing racial equity?
Instead of Toys, These Organizers Want You to Give Rent Money
Rent for Moms is a fundraising campaign looking to help 50 single Black moms in select cities retain or obtain housing by Christmas. Under...
Inflation and the Consumer Price Index—Redirected Page
The article originally published at this url, "Inflation Is Raising Rents—But Not How You Think," has been removed because we have determined that it...
Tenants Rights: It’s Not a Moment, It’s a Movement
In "Tenant Power Returns," Shelterforce examines how the energy and focus in the housing world is returning to tenant organizing.
The Making of Co-op City, the Nation’s Biggest Housing Co-op
Co-op City in the Bronx is the size of a small city—as well as a decades old housing co-op and an island of comparative affordability. How did it come about?
Community Development Field Is Resilient, But on the Edge
New research shows that smaller community-based development organizations in particular are hanging on but facing financial challenges.
Upstate New York Shelter Workers Vote to Unionize
Though Joseph’s House is lauded for its non-judgmental and harm-reduction principles, the shelter’s staff say they need a larger voice in how it’s run.
What Is the Financialization of Housing?
It's a wonky term with real-life consequences. At its most basic level, the "financialization of housing" means treating a home like a financial asset first, and a place to live second. But there are many more perspectives.
Making Money Over Making Homes
Housing has become less about shelter and more about extracting profit. How has that way of thinking changed the market and what are housing advocates trying to do about it? In our new series—Homes or Cash Cows—Shelterforce explores the financialization of housing.
What Does It Take to Get ADUs Built?
In our new series—ADUs Explained—we’ll look at some of the major policy considerations in legalizing accessory dwelling units, how they get built and financed, and the role they can play in our affordable housing landscape.
Making Homeownership Work Better
Programs that help households of color buy homes haven't made much of a dent in the racial wealth gap. But some strategies could generate better outcomes for buyers.
Increased Homeownership Won’t Close the Racial Wealth Gap
Despite the hopes pinned on it, homeownership is currently too affected by racism at every turn to be an equalizer.
Rethinking the Racial Wealth Gap With Anne Price
A lot of conversations about the racial wealth gap focuses too much on homeownership as the only solution. It's much more complex. Shelterforce's Miriam Axel-Lute talks with Anne Price, president of the Insight Center for Community Economic Development.
Moving Beyond the Holy Trinity of Racial Wealth Gap Answers
We’ve been carrying out asset-building strategies for decades now, but the wealth gap has not shrunk. What needs to be done about it?
What Is NIMBYism and How Do Affordable Housing Developers Respond to It?
NIMBYism is often expressed as concerns about crime, congestion, schools, property values, and “quality of life.” But when developments are built these fears rarely come to pass.
Building Differently: Can It Reduce Construction Costs?
Experiments to lower construction costs, from reusing shipping containers to 3D printing walls, have been happening for years. But are any of these approaches able to provide meaningful savings at scale?
The Harbinger of the Modern Disaster Era: An Interview with Andreanecia Morris
From Katrina to COVID to Ida, the director of Housing NOLA talks about FEMA, communications systems, racism, and resiliency.
What Does ‘Gentrification’ Really Mean?
The word "gentrification" has become a widespread and highly debated term. We’ve found that there are (at least) four broad kinds of things that people mean when they say they are concerned about “gentrification."
Keeping Community Control as Community Land Trusts Grow
When a CLT grows, the “community” it represents can sometimes be more difficult to define. But to some extent it always was.