Immigration and Community Development Corporations
How do CDCs transform—or not—along with the communities they serve?
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...
Using Multiple Community-Based Land Trusts to Save Farmland
Agrarian Commons closely resemble community land trusts, but they are unique in that they work collectively to provide long-term affordable and equitable access of small and mid-sized farms.
Keeping an Optimistic, Yet Watchful Eye on the Ball
It looks like President Obama and his administration kept most of the great ideas explored with the Grow America Act, last year's transportation initiative. The total investment is increased to $478 billion and expanded to six years in the latest iteration of the budget released yesterday. A few of the best pieces for low-income communities […]
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.
There is No “Culture of Poverty”
This is Part 2 in a series about the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty. Click here for ...
More Suburban Poor? Think Again
What do Lynn, Brockton, Lincoln, Westwood, Watertown and Revere have in common?According to a new report by the Brookings...
Smart, Sustainable Development Can Aid Economic Recovery
Whatever Wall Street does next, we’re going to have to find more efficiencies in our economy. Consumers are going to have less to...
Can Using a Racial Equity Lens Increase Capital in Communities of Color?
If CDFIs adopted traditional appraisal standards to determine loan amounts, they'd make very few loans in the communities they were founded to serve.
Common Sense Is Community Development’s Most Powerful Ally
The title of this post proved itself to be true for us in Duluth, when local organizations got together to address the growing need...
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.
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...
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...
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.
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.
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...
An Important Piece of the Puzzle: A Response to “Some of Us Shall Not...
In her recent Shelterforce online review of We Shall Not Be Moved, my book about post-Katrina recovery efforts in five New Orleans neighborhoods, Lydia Pelot-Hobbs...
Toward a Politics of Love: Thoughts for Pride Month
During the closing plenary of our recent National Convention, Alex Tom from the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA), when talking about...
Rising Tides, Rising Costs
In the face of climate change, flood insurance rates are rising. But program rules, and the history of who has been shunted into the floodplains, means the brunt is being bore by those least able to absorb it.
The Urban, Dystopian Blame Game
Like any number of small- and big-screen thrillers, the film’s engagement with 9/11 is diffuse, more a matter of inference and ideas (chaos, fear,...