Miriam Axel-Lute

Housing and community development have been glaringly absent from both of the presidential campaigns and all of the debates this election season, as many Rooflines bloggers have pointed out. But […]

I’m on the road this week, with stops in Chicago, Kalamazoo, and San Antonio. I left Chicago this afternoon by train, getting a great view of the skyline as we […]

As a parent, I try to teach my children that “I told you so” is rude, and generally unhelpful in building relationships. But in the world of politics, policy, and […]

Are you part of Mitt Romney’s 47 percent? As we go to press, the furor over the leaked fundraising video in which the Republican presidential candidate dismisses nearly half the […]

In the spring of 2008, as the country plunged into the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression, Keith Ellison, a freshman Democrat representing Minnesota’s 5th Congressional district, took to […]

I wrote on Monday about ESOP's mortgage strikers. The concept made me think of the student debt strike efforts. At first glance, those not following what's happening in higher education may […]

Shelterforce began as a tenants' rights newspaper, and our early years were full of accounts of rent strikes—a powerful weapon to get reluctant landlords to make repairs or otherwise improve […]

In our Winter 2011 issue on capital markets and neighborhood stabilization we reported on some programs to buy mortgages and modify them and/or to facilitate short sales. These programs were […]

Occupy Wall Street launched one year ago Monday, September 17, 2011. This past Monday, people converged on Manhattan's financial district to mark that anniversary and continue to raise issues about […]

There has been a steady rising interest in urban agriculture over the past several years—from urban farms to community gardens to backyard chickens. Some of this is coming from concern […]

I was proofreading our second installment of The Answer earlier this week, which happens to be on whether shared-equity homeownership builds assets. (Sneak preview: It does! But we'll soon give it […]

  This past Monday, I attended a large anti-fracking rally here in Albany, NY, aimed at convincing Governor Cuomo to ban the practice. For those not living in an area […]