Neighborhood Change
As community demographics shift and there’s neighborhood change, what are the issues affecting longstanding and new residents alike? When is change desirable, and when is it undesirable? How can it be turned to the benefit of those who need it most?
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Clybourne Park on Stage, Housing Inequity in Real Life—A Post-Show Reflection
Clybourne Park—a play exploring race, real estate, and community tensions—can set the stage for discussion on the lasting impacts of housing discrimination, gentrification, and the fight for affordability. What lessons can we take from the past to shape a more just housing future?
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First a Park, Then a Citywide Land Trust in D.C.
Douglass Community Land Trust began with a desire to prevent a new park from displacing neighborhood residents—but it soon got much bigger.
Continuing the Legacy: Keeping Longtime Residents in Their Communities
Legacy residents often have deep social ties in their communities, and when they move, it can often weaken the fabric of the neighborhood. How is one Baltimore housing provider keeping these longtime residents in their respective communities?
‘Gentrification’ Is Not the Real Problem
The conversation about gentrification continually repackages a set of debunked theories as reality and it obscures a set of real crises that need fixing.
The Assumptions Behind Place-Based Programs Can Hinder Their Success
Examining eight common assumptions underlying place-based work shows that even when avoiding the pitfalls of no change or gentrification, the work is challenging.
The Dark Side of Community Preference Policies
Community preference policies give existing residents first dibs on subsidized housing built in their neighborhoods. But what happens when these policies are applied to communities that are exclusive, well-off, and majority white?
Looking Back: Democratic Philanthropy, Newark on the Rise, the Surplus Land Campaign, and More
In this first installment of updates to Shelterforce articles of old, we find that market dynamics are different in many places we’ve written about, but many of the organizations fighting the good fight are continuing to do so, even in changed times.
Fixing the Harms of Our Eviction System: An Interview with Emily Benfer
Emily Benfer talks about what needs to change in our housing and eviction systems—not just now, but once the pandemic is past, the connections between health and housing, and how she came to be a go-to voice on the eviction crisis.
Can We Curb Crime by Cleaning the Corner?
As communities discuss reeling in their police departments, Flint, Michigan and Binghamton, New York have turned to another tool to reduce crime.
Health Care Institutions Must Acknowledge Their Role in Neighborhood Change
If those in health care seek to develop new ways to help patients stay in their homes, they must also find ways to temper how they affect communities in which they reside.
‘Opportunity Areas’ Shouldn’t Just Be Places With A Lot of White People
Why do we think moving to white neighborhoods will solve our problems?
NJ Tenant Organizing—Looking Back at the Film Techos y Derechos
A decades-old tenant organizing film—now in digital form for the first time—is still relevant today.
Arts for Community Control: Planning an Arts and Innovation District Without Displacement
Jason Moreno first learned about redevelopment efforts taking place in his Boston neighborhood on a sunny summer afternoon in July 2018 at his local outdoor basketball court. Dudley Street Neighborhood […]