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Miriam Axel-Lute

484 Posts

Miriam Axel-Lute is CEO/editor-in-chief of Shelterforce. She lives in Albany, New York, and is a proud small-city aficionado.
Equity

Policing, Segregation, and Causation vs. Correlation

Racial disparities in police killings increase with segregation. Does this mean segregation causes racialized police violence?

Housing

Fair Housing Is Still the Law, Even if Trump Refuses to Enforce It

Repudiating the requirement to affirmatively further fair housing is another example of this administration’s race baiting and disregard for both the spirit and the letter of the law.

A semi-circular dial has a gradation from left to right of red to green, accompanying by 7 faces progressing from angry to smiling
Community Development Field

How Do We Change the Narrative Around Housing?

In-depth public opinion research points to ways to intensify support for housing justice policies—and to a few danger spots to avoid.

Community Development Field

Racial Equity, Housing, and COVID: A Roundtable

Six regional and state housing advocates discuss the connections between uprisings over racial injustice, the pandemic, and the need for housing security.

Construction of the 1296 Shotwell development looms over the Mission District
Housing

The Case for Letting Developers Pay Not Build

The question of integrating affordable housing units required by inclusionary zoning on-site versus allowing developers to pay a fee to locate them off-site has long been a contentious one.

Dozens of young people, mostly Black, gather with Capitol Hill in the background, holding signs that read "Black Lives Matter." Two stand in the middle with arms upraised as if speaking to the crowd.
Equity

Community Organizations Have to Talk About Police Violence Directly

It’s easy to quickly refocus the conversation around police violence on the problems our organizations are already set up to fix—here’s why we shouldn’t.

a person hold a #cancelrent sign in spanish.
COVID

What Would It Mean to Cancel Rent?

The growing organizing demand raises a host of questions for the affordable housing movement.

Housing

Nonprofit Housing Providers Face Down COVID-19

As organizers struggle to get strong eviction moratoriums passed and enforced around the country, there’s one sector where evictions during the pandemic were not on the list of options from […]

Rep. Ilhan Omar, who stands at a podium in front of an American flag, has proposed legislation that would cancel rents and individual mortgage payments nationwide to deal with the COVID-19 crisis.
COVID

Ilhan Omar Proposes Bill to Cancel Rent, Mortgage Payments During Pandemic

A bill announced today by Rep. Ilhan Omar would release tenants and homeowners from housing payments until the national emergency is lifted, and would make up the losses to landlords and lenders through a federal fund.

HUD Secretary Ben Carson smiles as his folds his hands in front of his chest.
Policy

HUD Urged to Make Tenant Income Adjustments Automatic by April 1

Preventing catastrophe when eviction moratoriums lift requires reducing tenants’ rent quickly—which advocates say is fully within HUD’s power.

A multicolored tent in house's front yard. A sign on the fence says "Moratorium on foreclosures and evictions" and a sign on the house reads "Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign"
Housing

The Many Fronts of COVID-19 Related Housing Needs and Measures

Stable housing is crucial during a pandemic. Front-line providers and local governments are moving to address the impacts, but they need more federal funds

Close up of a typewriter with the word "Regulations" typed out
Policy

Business as Usual: Trump Agencies Resist Calls to Suspend Non-Essential Rulemaking

Congressional leaders and community advocates are calling on HUD and financial regulators to suspend non-essential rulemaking. HUD appears to refuse.