Hearts of the Neighborhood: “Third Places”
Several years ago, the family-owned florist two buildings down from my house closed. There was great consternation in the neighborhood about what would happen to the building. The small red […]
Elizabeth Warren Embarrasses Bank Regulators
If you haven't watched this yet, you probably want to. Here's the Huffington Post synopsis. How do you think Elizabeth Warren's presence on the Senate banking committee is going […]
Stories of Community
Several years ago, the family-owned florist two buildings down from my house closed. There was great consternation in the neighborhood about what would happen to the building, which turned out […]
Healthy Futures Fund to Connect Health and Housing Practitioners
Building affordable housing with integrated health services. Health centers in low-income neighborhoods.These are goals of a $100M investment fund.
Fighting Displacement Fights Crime
There's an utterly fascinating recent post by John Roman on the Metrotrends Blog of the Urban Institute called “Gentrification Will Reduce Crime and Violence—But Only if Poor People Stay.” The […]
HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration Launches
It took a few iterations, but HUD last week officially rolled out a demonstration project designed to showcase its plan to address the capital needs backlog in public housing by […]
How Do You Respond? Section 8 and Crime
In 2008, a sensationalistic article in The Atlantic tried to draw a causal connection between tenants with housing assistance vouchers being dispersed from demolished public housing in Memphis and increased […]
Alcohol: Scourge of the Neighborhood or Revitalization Tool?
Community developers have had, and perhaps still have, a mixed relationship with businesses that serve alcohol. On the one hand, many have struggled to bring their neighborhoods back from a […]
Stumbling to Solidarity
It’s been an exciting year in labor organizing, between the Chicago teachers strike, Port of Oakland shut downs, Wal-Mart walkouts, and New York City’s multi-chain fast food workers’ walkout. Healthy, […]
“Doing What They Do Best”: Lessons of Occupy Sandy
Many people have passed around the article “Occupy Sandy Emerges as Relief Organization of the 21st Century,” in the weeks since hurricane Sandy. It's a good read and worth some […]
“Costs of Place” Still Rising
Every once in a while, it's useful to take stock of the big picture numbers and trends that form the backdrop for all of our work. In the latest issue […]
Marijuana Legalization and Tenant Screening
Jokes abound about the legalization of marijuana use in Colorado and Washington. But it's not always a laughing matter. Affordable housing advocates have been passing around this link on the […]