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Editor’s Note

From Sustainability to Resilience

My first reaction to the emergence of “resilience” as a lens for viewing community development was mostly informed by skepticism.

Flooding in North Charleston, South Carolina
Policy

The Uncertain Flood Zone

Communities need accurate maps and more access to data to increase flood resilience—but right now FEMA’s not providing that.

Parks can be a key component of building resilience. Two women walk adjacent to Buffalo Bayou Park in downtown Houston, Texas.
Community Development Field

Designing for Climate Change

How can affordable housing be more resilient to extreme weather and better prepared to deal with the consequences of climate change?

Dripping faucet.
Interview

The Connection Between Water, Justice, and Health

Our talk with Radhika Fox, the CEO of the US Water Alliance, about water justice and ways to build stronger communities.

Big Pine Keys was hit hard by Hurricane Irma. More that 700 buildings, mostly homes, were destroyed or severely damaged.
Reported Article

Community Land Trusts in the Age of Climate Change

With the intensification of weather patterns resulting from climate change, community land trusts perform vital functions that help people recover.

Sol2Sol banner at the climate march
Organizing

It Takes Strong Roots to Achieve Climate Justice

Throughout 2018’s Sol-2-Sol climate justice convening, indigenous people led many of the actions and activities.

Apartment building in Virginia under construction.
Housing

When Affordable Housing Meets Free-Market Fantasy

Because affordable housing doesn’t yield acceptable profits to real estate investors, the only way a substantial amount of it is going to get built is if it’s publicly funded.

Smoke over California hills.
Community Development Field

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.

Environment

As the Arctic Icebergs Melt, So Does Political Opposition to Housing

The times they are a changin’, at least when it comes to San Francisco and Berkeley housing. What accounts for the pro-housing movement’s growing strength? Three factors, one of which may involve the president.

Review

We May Be Small, But…

Small, Gritty, and Green: The Promise of America’s Smaller Industrial Cities in a Low-Carbon World, by Catherine Tumber. MIT Press, 2012

Health

Forget Red and Blue States: Go Green for Better Jobs, Health, and Environment

How do you win an election in any red Southern state? If you are running as a senator, the conventional wisdom is you condemn government as an enemy of working families.

Interview

Phillip Henderson, President, Surdna Foundation

Phillip Henderson was only 38 when he took the helm at the Surdna Foundation seven years ago, becoming Surdna’s second director in what he calls its “modern era.” Henderson came to the family foundation from a career that had been focused on international philanthropy, but he applied many of the lessons he learned fostering civic engagement in post-Communist Europe to Surdna’s domestic grantmaking. Henderson sat down with Shelterforce to talk about aligning program with mission, cross-pollination between programs, and Surdna’s recent launch into the impact investing world.