Winning Back the Government’s Love (and Money)
If people grapple with real budget trade-offs, they might appreciate government spending more, and redirect it to programs that benefit their communities.
“Money Must Serve, Not Rule!”
In November 2013, Morgan Stanley launched its Institute for Sustainable Investing and announced that within five years it was aiming to manage $10 billion in client assets targeted to “impact investments.” Goldman Sachs followed...
We Must Find the Legacies of Racism Within Our Own Organizations, Too
We can’t begin to disentangle the racial dynamics of the institutions we want to fix if we are unwilling to get to the root of the same dynamics in our own organizations.
Thinking Gray—And Positive
When I think about all the boards and committees I’ve served on, the clean-up days and neighborhood association events and protests I’ve attended, I picture a lot of gray. Not skies, but hair. Older...
A Nation—and Neighborhoods—of Immigrants
The story of neighborhood populations changing with waves of migrants is a classic part of the history of American cities. We are, as most school children have heard, a nation of immigrants—some voluntary, some...
Impact Investing Resources
If you want to explore impact investing further, here are some places to start.
The Changing Model of CDCs
Staying relevant in a changing economy will push CDCs to place importance on green initiatives, sustainability, and out-of-the box funding methods.
Health Care Confronts Challenge to Shift from “Volume to Value”
Health care, as we all know, is a big business. U.S. hospitals alone have $782 billion in total annual expenditures, which is roughly five percent of gross domestic product. Hospitals also purchase an estimated...
The Value of the Local Touch
Last November, we surveyed readers about what they thought the rise of high-capacity nonprofit housing developers meant for neighborhood-based community developers that use real estate as a tool in their work. Specifically we asked...
Community Development Corporations at a Crossroads
For nearly half a century, community development corporations (CDCs) have been a tool of choice for organizing and implementing grassroots economic development programs. Emerging in the aftermath of the civil rights movement, CDCs represented...
Why Was ShoreBank Allowed to Fail?
In August, when the FDIC seized ShoreBank of Chicago, it represented the demise of the oldest community development bank in the United States. The bank, according to its Web site, will carry on as...
Looking Forward
In 1975, the founders of Shelterforce took a leap of faith. They understood the profound problems facing distressed communities struggling to find decent housing and opportunity. They started a publication that would examine and...
Address Merger Concerns Before the Merger
The Virginia Housing Coalition (VHC) and the Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness (VCEH) both began in the early 1980’s as grassroots statewide advocacy organizations. They supported each other’s work and had their own policy...
Taking a Sustainable Approach
Over the next 36 years, the biggest issue facing community developers will be energy. Many experts say we have already hit peak oil production and the evidence that climate change is upon us is...
Housing for Families, Not Just Households
It’s time to do away with a mortgage-industrial complex that turns “families” into “households” with income earners, credit scores, and debt ratios.
People and Places 2015: Not Your Average Community Development Conference
I go to a lot of conferences. I enjoy them, generally, as places to get to talk to all the great people doing great work in the field. But also sometimes they can blur...
A Ground-Up Approach in a Top-Down World
Community development in the last 20 years has been hindered by the perpetuation of real estate as a vehicle for wealth creation.
Fair Housing and Community Developers Can Work Together
Two organizations in New Jersey show that with a good working relationship, a balanced approach to healthy communities and housing choice for all can be more than pretty words.
Tackling Uncomfortable Issues, With Enthusiasm
A national organization enthusiastically embraces the varied backgrounds and experiences of attendees at its convention, the theme of which was “Moving Forward, Rising Together.”
