Organizing and the Community Land Trust Model
What happens when organizers win a campaign for community control of land? That depends a lot on the choices they make about how to exercise that control.
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.
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 Revitalization Trap
Place-based initiatives won’t address the kinds of injustice and poverty that community development was formed to fight.
With responses by Brentin Mock and Miriam Axel-Lute.
Building the Cars of the Future . . . in Detroit
How the nonprofit Focus: HOPE is helping to bring manufacturing jobs back to Detroit, and the Detroiters who need them.
How to Prevent the Next Mortgage Crisis
Yes, we need to finally achieve certainty in our housing finance system. But not the way most people are suggesting.
Learning to Stretch
Community development corporations find ways to embrace new immigrant communities and new challenges.
Serving the Community, In Their Language
From hiring priorities to translation headsets to special requests of the phone company—the exciting and important work of serving multicultural, multilingual populations.
Building Multiculturally
One culture’s idea of the ideal house is different from another. Luckily, floor plans are adaptable.
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?
Immigrant Integration Services Must Aim to Build Assets
Financial coaching and small business development services should be right up there next to learning English.
Protecting Immigrant Workers
The Texas construction industry is a good example of what happens when immigrant workers rights are not respected. But this organization is fighting back.
Profile of the Immigrant Population
Knowing who is immigrating here, and where they are settling, has implications for policy.
English Required for a Mortgage?
Language barriers pose an obstacle to fair access to credit, but this population is overlooked in fair credit discussions.
Vulnerable Workers Mean Vulnerable Communities
Anti-immigrant laws and the lack of a solid path to citizenship leave immigrant workers vulnerable to exploitation—and harm the whole community.
Not Just Any Job
Community lenders and local governments wrestle with how to encourage—or simply require—that jobs created with their support provide real pathways to opportunity for those who need them most.
Staying Ahead of the Age Wave
Groups working with older adults, including many community developers, are crafting a range of creative interventions, from home modifications to service-enriched housing models, to allow seniors to age in place. Will it be enough?
The Benefits of Aging in Manufactured Housing Communities
As places for low- and moderate-income Americans to age in place, manufactured housing communities present an impressive array of advantages—and some financial risks.
Safe Banking for Seniors
To support older adults to safely age in community, we need to consider what they need out of banking—and what they need to be protected from.
Meeting the Housing Needs of an Aging Population
Our aging population is more economically and ethnically diverse than any before, and will require a greater and more varied inventory of housing stock.