Community Foundations Move to Adopt a New Anchor Mission
According to the Foundation Center’s 2014 Key Facts report, community foundations today have nearly $65 billion in assets, more than 9 percent of all foundation assets ($715 billion). As noted at a recent White House conference, over 700 community foundations operate nationwide. Yet while the first community foundation in Cleveland was founded in 1914, their […]
Taylor: Establish Meaningful Consumer Protections
When Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) last week announced that he would move forward with a consumer protection bill without seeking Republican support on the...
Creative Placemaking: Honoring the Past While Welcoming our Futures
A discussion about honoring the history of a place while actively working to encourage its growth and foster positive change.
The Community Land Trust Movement Imagines Its Future
The 50th anniversary of New Communities was an opportunity for celebration and reflection—some of it critical—about the CLT movement.
Housing Advocates—Seize This Moment!
I’ve been working to address housing affordability since the late 1970s. There has never been this much media and public focus on the issue.
A Historic Partnership in Creative Placemaking
NACEDA recently announced our selection as a National Endowment for the Arts Our Town award recipient. The award will...
A View from the Other Side of the Funding Proposal
During my time on a CDC's board, my expectations and assumptions have been challenged. This change in perspective and experience has offered me some interesting observations and lessons.
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.
Moving Beyond Place-Based Community Organizing
How to train organizers to work across various communities, not just neighborhoods.
Nonprofit Funding in San Diego Under Threat
San Diego’s sunny beaches and beautiful college campuses can be deceptive. The city's soaring housing costs force university students...
Interview with Shelley Poticha, Director of Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities
Shelterforce speaks with Shelley Poticha, director of HUD's Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, about implementing sustainable policy at the federal level while encouraging local innovation, keeping down the cost of green housing, and effecting change while dealing with federal government bureaucracy.
3 Reasons We’re Not Reaching Rural Communities
Rural communities are being ignored. Again.
As discussion of the federal sequester and fights over funding dominate the news channels as well as policy discussions,...
Housing Advocacy Group Gets $5M Anonymous Donation
From the National Low Income Housing Coalition
The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) announced today that it had received an anonymous $5 million donation...
Endangering Community Investment with Tax “Reform”
There wasn’t one Republican senator who was willing say tax reform aimed at growing our economy should augment, not diminish, community investment.
Building Communities From the Inside Out
In distressed communities across the United States, savvy organizers and leaders are rediscovering ancient wisdom about what builds strong communities, and then developing new...
CDCs and Creative Placemaking: Who Should Learn from Whom?
Feb 2013: I'm attending a small conference in Miami. With me are over 150 participants—all folks deeply committed to their communities,...
A Crisis of Culture (Again)
From the removal of confederate statues throughout the South to the controversial actions by football players during the national anthem, we, as a nation,...
Live Blogging From NCRC 2010 Conference
Rooflines will be live blogging from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s 2010 National Conference beginning Wednesday, March 10. Join us here at Rooflines as...
Happy Thanksgiving!
To All Shelterforce Rooflines readers and contributors: The Shelterforce staff is thankful for you and your words that inspire, challenge, and inform. We wish you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving holiday. We'll return to our regular blog publishing on Monday. (Photo credit: Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P., CC BY-NC 2.0)
Who Gets to Live Where, and Why? The Answer May Be Settled By Our...
Why housing messaging is backfiring and recommendations on how to change course.