Who Owns That Vacant Building? Scan the Art to Find Out
In a brilliant mash up of classic protest/beautifying strategies and state-of-the-art data management, artists are painting murals on abandoned Baltimore buildings . . . complete with QR codes that bring […]
An Urban School Reduces Violence . . . With Nonviolence
When students feel like they are in jail when at school and the adults around them consider them all potential criminals, how do they act? In a word, badly. Happily, […]
Many Goals, One Field
What is a CDC? Many a meeting among those in the field has descended into argument about what is inside and outside the line. It was inevitable that in designing […]
What Is Community Development?
Over the following pages, our authors explore many aspects of the community development field, and especially the role of community development corporations in it. But we know you have opinions too. To set the stage, last year we invited our readers to take a survey about how they understood the community development field and community development corporations. The survey was promoted through our weekly newsletter and social media. We got about a hundred responses.
Too Big To Jail Redux: It’s Worse Than You Suspected
Anyone who worked with homeowners seeking mortgage modifications over the past years has made or heard some joke about the supposedly “lost” documents that their clients had to resubmit over […]
Losses and Wins in Supreme Court: How Does It Affect You?
All eyes have been on the Supreme Court this week, as it handed down decisions on the Voting Rights Act, Defense of Marriage Act, and California's Proposition 8. When we […]
Texas Tenants Win Protections
Way back in 1999 we asked what happened to the tenants' movement? Well, it never quite died, and it might be making a comeback. Last week we wrote about San […]
Tenant Jujitsu: Renters Fight Back in San Francisco, And Win
Shelterforce, as many of you know, began as a tenant organizing newspaper. Though we've evolved to cover a much wider range of topics, both within and beyond affordable housing, we […]
Reconnecting Jobs and Housing
National community development leaders discuss making the case for housing in a “jobs above all else” political environment.
DeMarco Replacement Named, CBO Supports Principal Reductions
We've heard noises before that President Obama might nominate Rep. Melvin Watt (D-N.C.) to replace Ed DeMarco as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the agency the regulates Fannie […]
Education Reform Backlash?
Today in New York state, third through eighth graders are wrapping up their second week of increased testing under the new Common Core standards. It did not go over very […]
Housing First, Or Housing Not-So-Fast?
Housing First, the model that says that homeless families need stable housing before they can address other problems in their lives, and which privileges things like rapid re-housing, rental assistance, […]