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Community Development Field
Shelterforce considers “community development” to be an extremely broad term. But there are still many conversations about the ways in which that broad work happens. Comprehensively or in coalitions of specialized organizations? Locally or regionally? Place or people? While the answers to all of these are usually “both,” there are many conversations to be had about “how.”
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Unsupported Housing: When Stability Isn’t Enough
As the country’s mental health, substance use, homelessness, and affordability crises collide, traditional affordable housing providers say they’re being pushed to fill the gaps left by underfunded supportive systems—without the money, staff, or resources to do so.
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The Most We Can Do: A National Mandate for Housing Justice
As the United States wrestles with its long history of racial injustice, shared-equity programs stand as one solution to address inequality and exclusion in the realms of housing.
We Need a Federal Housing Agency
Our politics have made an artificial divide between the public and the private sectors when it comes to housing. It’s time to do better.
Lasting Affordability Is the Path to Resilience
We now have a unique opportunity, generated by a combination of life-threatening conditions and focused political will stemming from the Black Lives Matter movement, to re-prioritize local housing policies and resources.
How Do We Change the Narrative Around Housing?
In-depth public opinion research points to ways to intensify support for housing justice policies—and to a few danger spots to avoid.
Did Ithaca Really Cancel Rent?
In early June, residents and organizers successfully pressured the Ithaca Common Council to pass a resolution that requests that the state grant them the authority to cancel rent in response to COVID-19. Contrary to many headlines, it didn’t actually cancel rent—yet.
Racial Equity, Housing, and COVID: A Roundtable
Six regional and state housing advocates discuss the connections between uprisings over racial injustice, the pandemic, and the need for housing security.
Community Organizations Have to Talk About Police Violence Directly
It’s easy to quickly refocus the conversation around police violence on the problems our organizations are already set up to fix—here’s why we shouldn’t.
A Transformative Experiment in Alaska
What do mimes, micro-units, and honoring Alaskan Natives have in common? Artists. The Cook Inlet Housing Authority’s work with artists helped the organization realize new markers of success and furthered its housing goals.
What Prior Disasters Have Taught Housing Advocates About How to Respond to COVID-19
When it comes to helping people maintain or recover their housing, hurricanes and fires aren’t as different from a pandemic as one might think.
What Would It Mean to Cancel Rent?
The growing organizing demand raises a host of questions for the affordable housing movement.
Nonprofit Housing Providers Face Down COVID-19
As organizers struggle to get strong eviction moratoriums passed and enforced around the country, there’s one sector where evictions during the pandemic were not on the list of options from […]
Using Inmate Labor to Build Affordable Housing
How do we balance the need to provide job training to those incarcerated with the need to ensure that prisoners are not exploited for their work?