Miriam Axel-Lute
Miriam Axel-Lute is editor of Shelterforce and associate director of the National Housing Institute. She lives in Albany, New York, where she serves on the Community Development Alliance board.
How Organizing for Justice Helps Your Mental Health
How do social justice, organizing, and mental health interact? Shelterforce chats with clinical social worker Dawn Belkin Martinez to find out.
Tiny Homes for the Homeless—Would You Host a Village?
Imagine if hosting a transitional tiny home village became the norm for all suitable vacant land—dare I say even an expectation?
New York City Becomes a Hotbed of Community Land Trust Innovation
New York seems poised to move the concept of community land trusts in new and exciting directions.
Trickle Up Housing: Filtering Does Go Both Ways
Here's something we don't talk about enough: developing affordable housing in a tight, high-cost market also increases overall affordability through filtering! Just in the other direction—it trickles up.
Not If But When: A Disaster Preparedness Conversation
Against the back drop of 2017's California wildfires, a quickly organized session took place to discuss disaster response and recovery from the perspective of being a housing organization.
What to Do When ICE Comes to Your Buildings
If you own and/or manage affordable housing, do you know what to do if ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) shows up on your doorstep looking for someone? If you haven’t thought it through yet, now’s the time.
The Problem with “We Have to Do Something”
This summer, Eve Ewing, a sociologist of race and education at the University of Chicago, wrote an article called “The Chicago Negro and the...
Housing Justice Organizers March Against White Supremacy
Housing is on the radar of racial justice activists.
Editor’s Note: Racial Justice — Beyond Good Intentions
Race affects everything in American society. Working to fight racial injustice is a large part of what the community development field does. And yet, that doesn’t get us off the hook.
Who Will Lead Community Development Corporations?
Community development corporations are surprisingly short on executives of color. Why? And how can the field do better?
Terrorism in Charlottesville — And Possibly Your Town Next
The Trump-era increase widespread racial terror, as was on display in Charlottesville, is going to affect community developers' work at least as much as as his legislative and funding agenda.
Could Public Art on Utility Boxes Displace Communication?
What's not to like about colorful art on utility boxes? Well, in some places that drab infrastructure might be performing informal community functions...
Facebook Dips Its Toe Into Funding Housing
There was much speculation last year about whether and how Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg would enter the affordable housing space. We got our first peek today . . .
How a Risk-Averse Hospital and a Risk-Taking CDC Built a Functional Partnership
Shelterforce recently spoke with Angela Mingo of Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the Rev. John Edgar of Community Development for All People to learn more about their health/housing partnership and how it came to be.
Look Outside the Box with Health and Housing Partnerships
Though it seems the connection between health and community development is on everyone’s lips these days, the two sectors are really still at the beginning stages of learning how to work together.
4 Reasons to Retire the Phrase “Inner City”
On a recent trip to Seattle, I picked up a copy of the weekly paper The Stranger. As I was browsing the news briefs,...
High Cost of Affordable Housing Is Not CDCs’ Fault
You know what doesn’t help lower the cost of affordable housing? Spuriously blaming some of the organizations that are working hardest to create it in the most difficult situations.
After Paying for Housing, How Much is Enough for Basic Necessities?
We need some standards to explain what “enough” means. Here's a breakdown of the Family Budget Calculator, the Self-Sufficiency Standard, and the Housing Poverty Measure.
Doctors Join the Fight Against Speculators
Around the country, health care institutions have started to employ lawyers onsite to help patients fight landlords for better housing conditions or qualify for housing subsidies (plus a range of other legal supports that will generally have direct effect on their health).
How Should We Measure Housing Affordability?
The simplicity of the 30 percent standard is also its downfall. We don’t expect people of differing incomes or family sizes to pay the same percentage of their income in taxes—why would the same percentage work for housing costs?