Peter Dreier
Peter Dreier is professor of politics at Occidental College and has contributed to Shelterforce since the 1970s. He served for many years on the board of the National Housing Institute and was a founder of the Massachusetts Tenants Organization in the 1980s and has worked with housing activist groups since then.
NYC Tenants Don’t Want Tourists
Tenants in New York City are getting fed up as growing numbers of tourists camp out in their buildings. Landlords have taken to evicting...
Reagan’s Legacy: Homelessness in America
While the media looks fondly at President Reagan's accomplishments two decades ago, they all but ignore the devastating affects his policies left on the poor.
Enraging the Right
It’s not everyday that a powerful right-wing think tank takes aim at a grassroots organization – after all, there are many groups working in...
Renewing Bonds
President Harry Truman's pledge to address the postwar housing shortage and the problem of urban slums played a key role in his 1948 presidential...
Growing Together:
After civil unrest shook the streets of Los Angeles in 1992, local low-income communities of color enjoyed what Andy Warhol once described as fifteen...
A Brief Triumph for Progressive Housing Policy
Modern Housing for America: Policy Struggles in the New Deal Era by Gail Radford. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. 273 pp.
Until the Depression,...
I’m a Tenant and I Vote!
New York's Republican legislators learned a lesson in June: Hell hath no fury like a New York City tenant scorned. Just when it seemed...
Public Housing: What Went Wrong?
Public Housing: What Went Wrong?
The best-kept secret about public housing is that most of it actually provides decent, affordable housing to many people. Properly...
Start Your Engines: The Housing Movement and the Motor Voter Law
The Motor Voter law, which associates voter registration with drivers licenses, can improve voter turnout and could have important ramifications for the housing movement.