Making Progress in the Preservation of Affordable Housing
During the last six months of 2003, one could easily make the case that the nation’s entire domestic priorities were summed up in five...
Anatomy of a Merger
The merger of two nonprofit housing development corporations in Nashua, New Hampshire, provides an opportunity to examine one path these organizations can take to increase the odds of survival.
East Harlem’s Bottom Line: Hope Community Development Corporation
Mark Alexander has a plan. At 46, he isn’t content with having more than tripled the number of apartments that Hope Community manages in...
Between Eminence & Notoriety: Four Decades of Radical Urban Planning
Between Eminence & Notoriety: Four Decades of Radical Urban Planning, by Chester Hartman, Center for Urban Policy Research, 2002. 405 pp. $29.95 (Paperback), $39.95...
So You Want to Be a Developer: Community Organizing Groups Consider Housing Development
The second week of October 2001 was a busy one for Nobel Neighbors, a community organizing group in Chicago’s West Humboldt Park neighborhood. It...
Going the Other Way: Adding Organizing to Development
Some groups move in the opposite direction from Nobel Neighbors, starting out with a development focus and adding in organizing for the same reasons...
Beyond Gentrification
For 15 years, the Fifth Avenue Committee (FAC) has worked to turn around the lower Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn – building affordable housing,...
Arts Build Community
CDCs now recognize that art and cultural activities can be useful tools toward building a community's identity, meaning, and spirit. But bank regulators have not yet reached a sufficient level of comfort with this new strategy.
CRA Survives Its Toughest Challenge
There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result. –Winston Churchill
The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) has survived the most serious attack in...
Preparing for Change
CBOs, particularly those involved in comprehensive community building efforts, need to do a better job of involving residents and other constituents in planning and...
Comprehensive Community Initiatives: Words Not Whacks
You've had it! You've tried your best to remain calm and reasonable in a conflict, but your last nerve has been plucked. What now?
WAIT....
Expanding the Scope of Community Development
More than four decades of suburban growth have moved demographic, political, and economic power from central cities toward their suburban counties. The change can...
Redefining Community Development
Part II: Collaborating for Change
(Click here for Part 1: New Partnerships)
Willie Mae Gaskin can't walk through the halls of the Warren/Conner Development Coalition (WCDC)...
Housing Advocate, Minnesota State Representative Karen Clark
Mention the word "housing" in the Minnesota state legislature, and you're likely to be referred to the office of Representative Karen Clark. Clark, a...
Comprehensive Community Initiatives: Redefining Community Development
Part I: New Partnerships
Driving through the Germantown neighborhood in Northwest Philadelphia is a study in contrasts. Huge stone mansions stand side-by-side with boarded and...
Interview with Melvin L. Oliver of the Ford Foundation
Melvin Oliver, vice president for asset building and community development at the Ford Foundation, talks about community development, black and white wealth, and racial inequality.
Getting the Lead Out: Controlling Lead Paint Hazards in Housing
Lead poisoning remains the foremost environmental health risk to American children, with just under one million children with elevated lead levels. While the average...
The Soul of the Neighborhood
Why do we call community-based development an "industry" rather than a "movement" these days? "Industry" is such a satisfyingly hard-nosed word. It says, 'we...
The Early Years
It was during 1973 that I first began thinking about a national publication for the housing movement. I was a legal services lawyer helping...
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...