Housing Advocacy
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Unlikely Partners: How Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago Came to Be
In the 1970s, anti-redlining movements were in full swing and the idea that activists, lenders, and elected officials could share power to revitalize communities and advance homeownership felt like a reach. But that was exactly my charge.
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Entrenched Poverty, Juxtaposed Against Occasional Pockets of Progress
Recently, more than 150 people from across the nation rolled along the backroads of the iconic Mississippi Delta, peering through bus windows at scene after scene of entrenched poverty juxtaposed against occasional pockets of progress that had been achieved against seemingly insurmountable odds. While there were signs of advancement, they were set against the backdrop of conditions that disproportionately plague these places—substandard housing, underperforming schools, inadequate access to quality health care, and limited private and philanthropic investment.
Failing The Equitable Development Test
I wondered whether the Americans who suffered the injustice of our most recent Great Recession haven’t already been not only forgotten but abandoned by the White House and Congress, despite their votes.
How to Build a Case for Community Development and Affordable Housing
In the new administration, housing programs will feel the pressure of budgetary cuts and tax reform. Advocates should be careful not to put down other programs in the process of defending their own, or everyone will lose.
CRA Should be Becoming Less Partisan. Instead, It’s More.
The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) is a law that requires banks to serve the credit needs, consistent with safety and soundness, of all communities, including low- and moderate-income communities. With […]
10 Ways to Speak Truth to Powerful Lies
How to engage, inform, and fight back against falsehoods. In an era of fake news, alternative facts, and downright lies, it’s a daily struggle to promote the continued […]
Where Do We Go From Here? Toward a New Freedom Budget
If, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, a “budget is a moral document,” then this budget is a reflection of the moralities of the boardroom, the eviction notice, the emergency ward, and the pink slip.
Homeownership Equity Depends on Racially Equitable Policy
Once again, we hear rumblings that housing finance reform, the wind-down of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the retooling of the mortgage marketplace are coming. A new administration—with allies […]
Who Counts as a “Homeless” Child? It Matters
Are children in foster care homeless? It might sound like semantics, but it really makes a big difference. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is the primary federal legislation designed to […]
Disclosure Remains Our Right
I was interviewed last month for a book on redlining that took me back to the ‘70s. Going through my file of the national newsletter DISCLOSURE, which I edited for Gale […]
How Data Disclosure Will Help Prevent the Next Financial Crisis
It seems like an overstatement, but data disclosure can help prevent the next financial crisis. In the run-up to the Great Recession, subprime and other abusive lenders made loans […]
Putting Housing Back at the Forefront of the National Conversation
Eric’s family purchased a Habitat for Humanity home in the Florida farming community of Immokalee, Florida, which among many other things, provided stability and quiet. Eric recently earned a full […]
Shelterforce Stands in Solidarity with #F17
Today, the Shelterforce/NHI office is standing in solidarity with the February 17th General Strike, a national day of action being observed […]