5 Tips for Increasing Contractor Diversity
RATE YOUR CONTRACTORS
Consider creating “contractor report cards.” Chances are contractors bidding on a project have worked in your city before. Check to see how...
When We Debate Poverty, What Are We Really Arguing About?
This is Part 3 in a series about the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty. Click here for ...
A Partner, Not an Expert
Over the course of three decades in the development finance industry, I have learned that engaging and empowering those who have the greatest stake in their communities is the best way to achieve meaningful and lasting change.
“Confronting Suburban Poverty” Authors Respond to Critique
The release a few weeks ago of our book Confronting Suburban Poverty in America is provoking lots of discussion in the...
Conflict and Placemaking: Tactical Urbanism on Nicollet Mall
Earlier this year, the City of Minneapolis broke ground on a $50 million overhaul of Nicollet Mall, a 12-block centerpiece of its downtown. Like...
Are Big-Box Stores a Good Measure of Equity?
It’s been cause for celebration here in the DC region, and rightfully so, that suburban Prince George’s County, Maryland, has a new, high-end Wegmans...
Equitable Tax Reform Begins at Home(ownership)
Talk of tax reform has reached a fever pitch, but most Americans don't realize just how high the stakes are and what impact the final legislation could have on their own financial security for years to come.
Is It Time to Think About Post-Post-Katrina New Orleans?
Nine years on, New Orleans is a very different place from what it was like in the wake of...
All Aboard, America
The weekend before Barack Obama and Joe Biden take the oath of office, I can’t help but remark on the seeming missed opportunity for...
English Required for a Mortgage?
Language barriers pose an obstacle to fair access to credit, but this population is overlooked in fair credit discussions.Non-English...
This Is How We Should Measure Our Work (And Achieve Economic Justice)
This is Part 6 in a series about the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty. Click here for...
You May Not Realize How Poverty Works
We've been having a ongoing conversation here on Rooflines marking the 50th Anniversary of the War on Poverty about...
Serving the Community, In Their Language
From hiring priorities to translation headsets to making special requests of the phone company—the exciting and important work of...
The Felt Factor
With all this talk of sustainable communities, how come we tend to exclude, at least in conversation, the very thing that can educate community...
Recovery from the Grassroots
An interesting new planning document by the Sandy Regional Assembly was just released by a cross-section of grassroots groups, most based in New York...
…At Your Own Risk
Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey’s piece in The Wall Street Journal, “The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare,” touted his own company’s health insurance...
The Mess In Texas (Houston: We Have a Recycling Problem)
The New York Times reports that of the nation’s 30 largest cities, Houston, the fourth largest city behind New York City, Los Angeles, and...
An Old American Struggle, Always New
Color and Character is an introduction to the seminal and unresolved struggle over integration and racial equality in America.
Taking the Bus: Nonprofit Conferences and Integrity of Purpose
Nonprofits advocate for local transit spending, but annual conference logistics don't typically include bus route information for attendees.
Vulnerable Workers
Anti-immigrant laws and the lack of a solid path to citizenship leave immigrant workers vulnerable to exploitation—and harm the whole community.
It’s The Great Election, Charlie Brown
Halloween approaches and, as always, we’re found waiting for the Great Pumpkin, er, Election.
Immediately following the...
Citizenship Is an Asset
Naturalizing is a great way to improve opportunity, but it’s expensive. How can we open that door to more of the immigrants who qualify?
What Can 35.5 MPG Change?
Tuesday’s announcement from the White House regarding the president’s intention to direct EPA and DOT to jointly raise fuel-economy standards and reduce greenhouse-gas pollution...
I Want to Ride My Bicyle. I Want to Ride It Where I Like
It’s Bike to Work Day 2009 and I did not ride my bike to work. Why? I can’t.
I can ride a bike, and...
Rich Train Station Neighborhoods Need More Apartments
New Jersey’s extensive public transportation system is a source of envy for most other states, many of whose larger...
Stay Safe and Take Care of Each Other
Shelterforce hopes that all of our colleagues and friends in Hurricane Sandy's path are staying safe.
We...
Bostic on Green Finance: Investing in Sustainable Outcomes
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta has posted a brief, informative interview with Raphael Bostic, HUD Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research, on...
A Rail Line Toward Community Development
Amid the growing acknowledgment that strong centers make healthier regions, it’s increasingly clear that the argument for providing opportunities for transit oriented development, or...
Filmmaker Needs to Look at the Whole Picture
I Got Schooled: The Unlikely Story of How a Moonlighting Moviemaker Learned the Five Keys to Closing America’s Achievement Gap, by M. Night Shyamalan. Simon & Schuster. 306 pp. $25.00 (hardcover). Purchase here.
Poverty Today Looks Completely Different and That’s Important
This is Part 1 in a series about the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty. Click here for ...
The “What If” Scenario
At the third and final presidential debate, when John McCain proclaimed that, Acorn, the darling target of conservative advocacy groups like FOXNews, could have...
Got a House? Cast Your Vote.
Sounds scary, right?
With the foreclosure crisis ushering over a million people into homelessness in the last two years, we’re seeing, again, political machinery...
The Increase in Suburban Poverty Could Be a Good Thing
Family poverty has spread beyond its traditional geographic boundaries, and our institutions and policies need to adapt to this...
Persistently Poor Regions Would Welcome a Little Gentrification
It is often said that you get what you pay for. Clearly, too little is being paid to create positive change in America’s most vulnerable places.
Katrina: A Political Disaster
The handling of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath underscores the human disaster resulting from the ascendancy of right-wing ideas and corporate domination of the federal government, which extols market forces, individualism and private charity over public responsibility and the common good.
Shelter Shorts—The Week in Community Development, April 27
Climate Gentrification | A Marijuana Tax for Housing? | Homeownership Alone Can't Close the Wealth Gap | Illegal ICE Raids on Farms | Keeping An Eye on Opportunity Zones | More...
Interview with Ai-jen Poo, Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance
Ai-Jen Poo has been organizing with domestic workers for over 15 years, helping in New York to win some of the first statewide labor protections for occupations often exempt from labor laws, and expanding this campaign to a nationwide vision for a strong caregiving workforce and infrastructure for elder care. In 2014 she became a MacArthur Fellow, but this was hardly her first award.
Housing Justice Organizers March Against White Supremacy
Housing is on the radar of racial justice activists.
Building Multiculturally
One culture’s idea of the ideal house is different from another. Luckily, floor plans are adaptable.
Habitat Retrofits Oakland Brownfield for LEED-ND Pilot
Habitat for Humanity’s East Bay affiliate is retrofitting a brownfield into 54 affordable homes on two acres of land in Oakland, Calif. With excellent...
Seattle Neighborhood Planning
At first glance, the Neighborhood Planning Program in Seattle, Washington, sounds like a remarkably progressive idea. Begun in 1995, the program is one of...
Sprawl’s share of US housing starts has declined dramatically, says EPA
A new report from the US Environmental Protection Agency documents a dramatic shift in the pattern of new development in the nation over the...
Shelter Shorts, The Week in Community Development—Oct. 12
News from—and affecting—the community development world. This week: fast food swamps, Seattle has too many apartments, criminal justice, basic income pilot, more.
One Less Truth-Teller
Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Democrat of Ohio, died yesterday after suffering a burst brain aneurysm.
Tubbs Jones, 58, was the first black woman to...
Solar Installation Gives New Power To A Community
Located in the southeast quadrant of Washington, D.C., Parkchester Apartments was not unlike some other affordable housing developments in the city. Property owners had come and gone without making adequate investments in the nine-building complex, and residents had all but given up when its tenant association voted to bring in its current owner, The NHP Foundation (NHPF), in 2015. Within months, residents began to see signs of improvement. Top on the list of changes was the realignment of Parkchester’s environmental footprint.
Solar for the People
So this story started off sounding so promising.An affordable housing complex put solar panels on its roof!Also, it's affordable...
Attitude Reflects Leadership
Recently I was honored to receive the Ned Gramlich Award for Responsible Finance during the Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) Conference in Denver. To be recognized by the national association of investors dedicated to aligning capital with justice was a humbling experience—one made more so by the courageous legacy of the late Federal Reserve Bank Governor […]
Crossing Neighborhood Boundaries
Equitable regions are stronger, healthier regions for everyone. This is becoming more and more of a bedrock understanding within our...
Be It Ever So Humble
In the American idiom of good things, the importance of “home” and “community” cannot be challenged. The associated images – mom, apple pie and...
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...
Reintroducing America to Itself
Tonight, the first evening of the Democratic convention, America was reintroduced to its grass roots. Some memorable moments:
Jimmy Carter addressed the hall via video...
Rebellion Spurs Opportunity and a New Housing Movement
How a Baltimore collaborative plans to make shared-equity housing a significant sector in the local housing market.
Civil Rights Organizations on Hurricane Relief Efforts
Throughout what we know will be a long recovery over the coming weeks, months, and years, Shelterforce hopes to share the stories of the...
Integration—We’ve Been Doing It All Wrong
I recently had a revelation about the American approach to racial integration: We've been doing it all wrong, and it's had disastrous effects on African Americans.
Race and Class: Katrina vs. Iowa
Concentrated poverty and hypersegregation generate wide-ranging costs in almost every major U.S. city, particularly for less favored populations. New Orleans clearly fits this description....
Doesn’t Voter Fraud Require Actual Voting?
John McCain’s peculiar, over-the-top attacks on ACORN were initially a little hard to take seriously. Even when he kept on, it just left us...
A New Way to Do Affirmative Action?
I was prepared to dislike Sheryll Cashin’s Place, Not Race, just based on the title. However, the author largely won me over.
HUD & DOT Team Up To Promote Sustainable Communities
This is awesome. Here is an excerpt from yesterday’s joint press release from HUD and DOT:
“WASHINGTON — U.S. Department of Housing and Urban...
How Exactly Does One Measure Economic Justice?
This is Part 5 in a series about the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty. Click here for...
Let’s Transform the Zip Codes
The counties and parishes in the Mid South characterized by persistent poverty have the highest unemployment rates, the lowest performing schools, and the worst health.
3 Good (and 3 Not-So-Good) Uses for HUD’s New Data on Location Affordability
HUD and the Department of Transportation recently released the Location Affordability Portal, a new website designed to share information...
Getting Beyond Growth at Any Price
The Resilience Imperative: Cooperative Transitions to a Steady-State Economy, by Michael Lewis and Pat Conaty. New Society Publishers, 2012, 400 pp., $26.95.
I must admit...
Commuter Rail�s Promise
The battle over what sort of transportation projects to include in the economic stimulus package centered around whether to emphasize...
Going Green
The last week of June turned out to be Sustainable Development Week unofficially in Chicago as a convergence of events spread the word on...
Where Banks and the Public Agree on CRA . . . and Disagree
Despite a CRA exam pass rate of 98 percent, the major thrust of bank comments is that they want easier exams with fewer moving parts and less uncertainty.
As Cities Prosper, Poor People Relocate to Suburbs
The number of low-income people living in suburbs increased 67 percent between 2000 and 2011, altering longstanding perceptions of...
The $9 Jar of Artisanal Pickles: Equity and Local Food
Sustainability is about thriving, not just surviving. We will not thrive if we are poorly paid martyrs to a good cause, and thus, in a healthy, diverse and vital food system, some of our efforts might need to be directed to those who can pay nine dollars for a jar of pickles.
Hungry for Housing
New Deal Ruins: Race, Economic Justice and Public Housing Policy, by Edward G. Goetz. Cornell University Press, 2013, 256 pp. $23.95 (paperback).
Purging the Poorest: Public Housing and the Design Politics of Twice-Cleared Communities, by Lawrence J. Vale. The University of Chicago Press, 2013, 448 pp. $27.50 (paperback).
Giving New Meaning to “Green” Transit
In the US, we tend to think of public transportation as inherently green, which of course it is compared to...
Section 3: It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way
Section 3 was a truly creative idea when it was inaugerated in 1968: Let's give low-income residents the first crack...
Home Again
With the help of its local community development corporation, a Boston neighborhood comes to terms with its transformation as a beloved church, long a treasured part of the community is reborn as housing.
The Justice Gap
The post-Katrina work of legal services lawyers shows that if you care about equity, legal aid belongs high on the list of crucial disaster recovery programs.
Our Window of Opportunity Is Open–Let’s Tackle Poverty Now
Every few generations, the stars align to create the potential for monumental, transformative social change. Turns out we’re in just such a moment right now when it comes to tackling poverty in the United States. I don’t blame you for being skeptical. Economic inequality is growing, big corporations are consolidating their political power, and our […]
Where We Live Affects How Much We Drive and What We Can Afford
The Urban Land Institute has produced a remarkable report that examines in depth how where we live affects how much we drive, and consequently...
This Book Changes Everything
Book Review: This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein
Rail Time Enthusiasm
Summoning the ghost of Eisenhower, President Obama announced yesterday “a new era in American train travel” involving an $8 billion “down payment” for, and...
English Required for a Mortgage?
Language barriers pose an obstacle to fair access to credit, but this population is overlooked in fair credit discussions.
Keeping Everyone Afloat: Is Universal Basic Income the Answer?
Advocates and organizers who deal with the needs of the poor often say it's not really a housing/food/training issue, it's an income issue. So what would happen if we just addressed income?
Transforming the market for development location
One of the most popular tags on the blogging site of my organization, NRDC, is “market transformation.” I’m a believer. Not everything...
A Fair Housing Agenda for 2008 and Beyond
With more than 3.7 million instances of housing discrimination occurring annually and segregation remaining a central feature of the nation’s housing markets, fair housing...
Sorting Through What Sustainability Means
It’s interesting how language shifts slightly over time to reflect new ways of thinking. I recall a few years ago reading that some people...
Funding the City
Property taxes were set up at a time when cities were regional centers of wealth. Times have changed. We need to another look at how we're funding cities.
Urban Planning Needs More Women
As a feminist who loves labeling herself with the word feminist, I get stuck in a lot of frustrating conversations with those who...
A Tale of Two Infrastructure Projects
Living in Central New Jersey, I’ve had a ringside seat for the last few years to one of the...
Plans for Housing in the Age of Climate Change Should Include This Tool
As extreme weather patterns in our country become less of an anomaly, the plight of people living in storm-prone...
“Inequality Happens?” Hopefully Not
In a recent Rooflines post, Sarah Treuhaft holds up new, reputable data that finds that inequality is not a circumstance of economic success, after all, but that it actually has a dampening effect. Specifically, the widening gap between the poor and lower middle class (households in the bottom 40 percent of the income distribution) and […]
Absence of Eviction Court Recordings Leaves Tenants Vulnerable
In a court division where a family can lose their home after a two-minute trial and only 12 percent of tenants have lawyers, Cook County's lack of eviction court transcripts—with no court reporters or digital recording equipment since 2004—has serious repercussions for tenants.
Rich Neighborhood in NYC Actually Gets a “Noxious” Use
A core environmental justice fight has long been the fair distribution of necessary nuisance uses throughout a city. Poor neighborhoods tend to be over-burdened...
Where’s the Map for Social Inequity?
I spent the day at a workshop on July 9 called, “Post-Sandy: The Effect on the Urban,” held at New Jersey Institute of Technology...
Airbnb, Test Your Hosts for Bias
Airbnb, as with some other of its fellow peer-to-peer “disruptive” tech solutions, has come under fire from a few...
Hope…of Curbing Climate Change
When the Environmental Law and Policy Center was founded in Chicago 15 years ago, cell phones that could get clear reception or send images...
Transit Initiatives Boosted by Employers
It’s been clear for several years that more people than ever support public transit. In vote after vote, people...
Tassafaronga Village: Affordable Green, Gold and Platinum in East Oakland
Oakland, California’s Tassafaronga Village is a new mixed-income, green neighborhood development that is bringing a high degree of environmental excellence to a traditionally underserved...
Watching This Movie is an Act of Patriotism
Since I concluded my book review of Joseph Stiglitz’s The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our...
How the Community Reinvestment Act Can Help Flint
The audacious and callous decisions leading to the tragedy in Flint, Michigan are cruel and beyond comprehension. What is needed is an all-out effort...
Good News for Voting Rights
A three-judge panel blocked Texas's voter ID law today, stating the law would curb voter turnout and would foist “strict,...
Los Angeles Should Expropriate This Land and Give It to Tenants
Though slumlords are not directly to blame for our nation's wealth disparities, they profit from them. Seizing their property and giving it to tenants would produce a more just and equitable outcome than what has been practiced in the past.
2 Easy Ways HUD Could Bring More NOLA Homeowners Home—With Money It Already Has
Donna Bartholomew’s mother moved to New Orleans as a young woman and bought a home in the Ninth Ward. Over the years, raising...
The Geography of Carbon Emissions from Driving, with Maps
The Center for Neighborhood Technology is releasing today a new series of GIS-based maps showing where carbon emissions from driving are the highest in...
Shelter Shorts—The Week in Community Development, April 13
Really, YIMBYs? | TOD Without Displacement | Tracking 80 Million Evictions | MLK's Campaign, Revitalized | Airbnb Hastening Demise of NOLA Culture? | Bike "Borrowing" for Equity | More