Shelter Shorts—The Week in Community Development, April 20
NIMBYs, YIMBYs, PHIMBYs-Oh My! | Can Algorithms Make Equitable Cities? | Retail Segregation Takes a Toll | E.R. Visits and "Tough" Neighborhoods | Enough Innovation Already | More...
It’s Time to Build New, Mixed-Income Public Housing
An interview with Ryan Cooper, co-author of the report (with Peter Gowan), Social Housing in the United States, about current approaches to government intervention in the rental market, the politics of home ownership, why public housing needs to be mixed-income, and envisioning a society that provides adequate, affordable housing to all of its citizens.
Remember Slavic Village? It’s Back
A Cleveland neighborhood made famous as an epicenter of the foreclosure crisis works its way back to stability. Here’s how.
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
A Marketplace for Health and Housing to Exchange Money—Has the Time Come?
Why would there be a need for a marketplace that values health? The answer is simple: our current “investments” in health are not working.
HUD Secretary Ben Carson and His Perverse Actions on Fair Housing
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the passage of the federal Fair Housing Act, HUD Secretary Ben Carson is doing all he can to undermine its mission.
The Amazon Opportunity to Revitalize Urban Communities
It's not too late for cities competing to be the next home to Amazon to raise the issue of employer-assisted workforce housing.
Shelter Shorts—The Week in Community Development, April 6
Gentrification Is Bad For One's Health | Housing Teachers-At School | Protecting Space for Local Business | TOD Doesn't Have to Displace | Community Artists Win in Court | More . . .
Displaced Portland Residents Given Priority for Homeownership
A Portland policy gives priority for housing funded by the city’s housing bureau to residents who were displaced, are at risk of displacement, or are the descendants of families who were displaced due to urban renewal in North and Northeast Portland neighborhoods.
Ask Yourself: Who Do Anti-Rent Control Policies Serve?
Whenever you hear (or read) anti-rent control arguments, ask the question: who benefits from banning rent control? And who is hurt?
Interview with Michael Bodaken, retiring director of the National Housing Trust
Shelterforce took the occasion of Michael Bodaken's retiring from the National Housing Trust to speak with him about how he got into housing, some of his favorite projects, and his recommendations for the field going forward.
Dear Business School Professors: You’re Wrong, Rent Control Works
A university study on rent control makes three crucial mistakes in its assessment of the policy's effect on San Francisco's housing market. Housing advocacy organization Tenants Together sets the record straight on rent control's role, and who is actually to blame for the city's unaffordability.
What—and Who—Is a “Nuisance”?
Why are nuisance ordinances proliferating nationwide, and who is disproportionately affected?
New Money on the Block: Funders for Housing and Opportunity
A new funding collaborative, Funders for Housing and Opportunity, has just launched. The collaborative, officially a project of the New Ventures Fund, involves (so far) nine large and well-known foundations.
Believe in CLTs? Make Them Sustainable
Though much fanfare is showered on the CLT model, land trusts often struggle to get off the ground because very little support is available for those trying to create one or for existing CLTs looking to expand.
How Poorly Maintained Bank-owned Homes Harm Black and Latino Communities
Bank-seized properties in these communities of color have higher rates of neglect, and the situation has prompted a lawsuit.
Housing Advocacy Needs Housing Voters
Methods from a successful organizing campaign from the past can inform the basis of a new electoral constituency around housing.
The Big Red Herring: The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) Will Help Predators Identify...
HMDA is the key to preventing predatory behavior, not the cause of it, so how can an economics professor from George Washington University claim that HMDA can facilitate large-scale identity theft?
A Case of Construction Eviction in Queens
How tenant and rent protections failed the residents of eight rent-stabilized buildings in Queens.
Not Just Partners, But Neighbors: Health Care in Affordable Housing Developments
Offering on-site health care in housing developments makes sense. But developing and managing housing and health care facilities can be very different. How do you make them work together?
Game of Chance: Mass Eviction in Pittsburgh
In Pittsburgh, hundreds of Penn Plaza residents were given 90-day eviction notices after their building was slated for demolition. The mass eviction was well known throughout Pittsburgh, but few knew what was happening inside the building.
Why Health and Housing Partnerships Are Hard
Housing managers and health providers are natural partners for health care programming, but misunderstandings and institutional mismatches can get in the way.
Bringing “Zombies” Back to Life
With funds from a settlement between the New York State Attorney General and major banks, 76 New York state municipalities are working to get abandoned and deteriorating homes back into productive use.
What If We Didn’t Have to Beg for Community Benefits?
Perhaps publicly owned land should be developed for the community first—and market-rate developers should be asking us for access to part of it.
Duty to Serve: A Boon for Shared Equity Homeownership
Shared equity homeownership programs just had a big win.
Oft-Quoted Studies Saying Gentrification Doesn’t Cause Displacement Are “Glaringly Stale”
Oft-cited study concerns 1990s renters already paying huge portions of their income on housing.
Could Rent Control Come Back?
It was only two and a half years ago that Jake Blumgart opened his article, "In Defense of Rent Control," by saying: "Rent control...
Affordability at a Cost: What We Can Learn from Mobility Patterns
East New York has historically been one of the most affordable neighborhoods in New York City. But an influx of wealthier newcomers and rising prices citywide is beginning to change that.
Say It Loud: Renters’ Rights are Civil Rights!
Private developers and public agencies are finally investing in neighborhoods near transit and jobs—where many low-income communities of color have lived for generations—and as a result, are being pushed out just as resources in their neighborhoods are increasing.
Housing Post-Election: Holding City Leaders Accountable
Now that the 2017 election season has concluded, here is a recap of their outcomes, and where affordable housing policy could go in some cities.
Adding Housing Doesn’t Overcrowd Schools
Adding housing doesn't correlate with increased school enrollment, according to a new study. But will housing advocates be able to make use of this information?
In California, a Victorious “Fix” for Inclusionary Housing
It’s time for more states to do what it takes to pass enabling legislation for inclusionary housing, adding this valuable policy tool to the fight for more affordable housing opportunities.
Proposed Changes to the Mortgage Interest Deduction: Some Simple Facts
The discourse around proposed changes to the federal tax system, especially between talk show pundits and economists and politicians—each with their own allegiances—is devoid...
Q: Do Rent Regulations Make the Housing Crisis Worse?
A: No! Despite common fears, decades of evidence shows that rent regulation doesn't restrict housing supply and quality.
Feel free to print and distribute! Click...
Back in the Game: CDFIs Help 1- to 4-Unit Rental Housing Rebound in Chicago
After the housing crash, Chicago’s 1- to 4-unit rentals weren’t bouncing back in many neighborhoods. Three CDFIs came together to make it happen.
Myths and Misconceptions About Demolition in Cleveland
Demolition can generate emotional reactions, especially in places with a history of urban renewal. But critics of demolishing any vacant homes are ignoring the evidence.
Housing on the Political Agenda in U.S. Elections
No longer an issue that’s hard to rally people around, affordable housing—especially inclusionary housing—is getting talked about in local elections across the country.
Rowhouse Repairs for Health in Philadelphia
In Philadelphia, health care professionals and housing advocates are working together to deliver home repairs to low-income homeowners.
The Overselling of Rapid Re-housing
Rapid re-housing, originally a strategy to prevent homelessness for households experiencing a temporary financial crisis, is now being promoted widely as a broad solution. But in a high-cost area, it's possible it might do more harm than good.
How Organizing for Justice Helps Your Mental Health
How do social justice, organizing, and mental health interact? Shelterforce chats with clinical social worker Dawn Belkin Martinez to find out.
Tiny Homes for the Homeless—Would You Host a Village?
Imagine if hosting a transitional tiny home village became the norm for all suitable vacant land—dare I say even an expectation?
When Bad Names Get in the Way of Good Policy
Today, America is a place where symbols are often more important than the causes or deeds they describe. With social media and the 24-hour...
Your “Opportunity” Map is Broken. Here Are Some Fixes
If we are truly going to reduce our housing policy objectives to the realm of goals related to “opportunity,” I would like to offer some guidelines for its proper use.
New York City Becomes a Hotbed of Community Land Trust Innovation
New York seems poised to move the concept of community land trusts in new and exciting directions.
Trickle Up Housing: Filtering Does Go Both Ways
Here's something we don't talk about enough: developing affordable housing in a tight, high-cost market also increases overall affordability through filtering! Just in the other direction—it trickles up.
Block by Block, the Renters Movement is Growing
“The string of victories in 2017 are a direct product of renters building power on the ground. Renters, faced with a historic housing crisis, are getting organized to change immediate conditions on the ground and build a movement to transform the way land and housing are treated in the country.”
Four Simple Fixes for Mandatory Inclusionary Housing
For the past two years I’ve worked as a housing lottery project manager for a small affordable housing developer and have found that, in spite of De Blasio’s bold initiative, the program often fails to efficiently and adequately serve the very people for which it has been designed.
Newly-Suspended HUD Rule Would Have Expanded Access to Neighborhood Opportunity
After years-long notice and comment periods, a final rule on using small area Fair Market Rents to determine housing choice voucher payment levels was supposed to take effect. However, the Trump administration has recently announced a two-year suspension of the rule.
Which Agencies Should Pay to End Family Homelessness?
When families have stable housing, the benefits are widespread. And perhaps that has been the problem.
What to Do When ICE Comes to Your Buildings
If you own and/or manage affordable housing, do you know what to do if ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) shows up on your doorstep looking for someone? If you haven’t thought it through yet, now’s the time.
A Policy Agenda for Manufactured Home Owners
In Minnesota, ten mobile home communities have closed in the past twenty-five years, and no new ones have opened. This uncertainty affects nearly 3 million Americans who are residents in the nation’s 50,000 manufactured housing communities. While most of these homeowners own their own homes, they rent the land, leaving them vulnerable to dramatic rent increases, arbitrary rules, and even eviction.
Renter Week of Action in Pictures
This past week, renter advocacy groups staged coordinated demonstrations in over 45 states to disrupt business as usual, including stand-ins at the personal residences of corporate landlords, banner drops, neighborhood tours of the housing crisis, and creative actions at city halls. With the help of #RenterWeekofAction convener Right to the City, Shelterforce has compiled photos from several such demonstrations throughout the country to highlight their scope.
Despite Progress, States Have Work to do to Ensure Access to Affordable Rental Housing...
If expanding access to homeownership can reverse the trends of growing racial wealth inequality, why are we seeing so many states roll back the supports that make homeownership possible?
Hurricane Evacuees are Forcibly Evicted in Miami
More than 60 Miami families, many undocumented, have been homeless since last week’s hurricane and were forcibly removed last night by local officials.
California Takes Historic Step Toward Affordable Housing for All
Amid a housing crisis in California, legislators last week approved a historic package of bills that will shape the future of housing policy in...
10 Ways to Talk About Inclusionary Housing, Differently
We need to talk about inclusionary housing in a different way that circumvents common misperceptions and creates a new narrative for policymakers in moderate markets and more conservative political climates. Here are 10 messages to help frame your conversations.
We Are All NIMBYs…Sometimes
If we built enough housing, we would still need subsidized housing for many people, but market prices would be low enough that most people could afford them. But we’ve chosen not to. And the reason we give for that choice, more than any other, is that we are trying to preserve or improve the character of our communities.
In Spite of HUD, Fair Housing Process Can Help Communities
Last year, Philadelphia was one of the first cohorts to go through the AFFH process, a fair housing assessment mandated by HUD to discover...
Sustainable for Whom? Large-Scale Sustainable Urban Development Projects and “Environmental Gentrification”
Absent a fundamentally new approach to redevelopment planning that places housing affordability at the center of the process, large-scale sustainable development projects are likely to become engines of what has been termed “environmental gentrification.”
If We Want the Arts in Baltimore, We Need Its Artists
Artists have left their mark on Station North and paved the way for an arts district, but the organically-developed communal live/work spaces that play such a vital role in helping make Baltimore an arts mecca are an endangered species.
Housing Is Health: Ballot Initiatives in California Approved
A conversation with three county supervisors who were instrumental in moving affordable housing ballot measures forward in the California Bay Area by bringing in the health factor.
The “Greeding Out” of Affordable Housing
There have been a number of stories in the papers over the last two months that, from my perspective, are connected. Unfortunately, their common denominator is the demise of affordable housing caused by the malignant neglect of government at all levels.
Facebook Dips Its Toe Into Funding Housing
There was much speculation last year about whether and how Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg would enter the affordable housing space. We got our first peek today . . .
Just as I Suspected, Paying Rent Is Racist
Every month millions of Black Americans hand over half of our livelihood to the descendants of those who forcefully brought our ancestors here to work for free. Essentially, America is in the business of charging its captives rent.
7 Policies to End Family Homelessness
Improving the well-being of homeless children and their families led Enterprise Community Partners, Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York, and New Destiny Housing to convene a Family Homelessness Task Force comprised of over 40 organizations.
How a Risk-Averse Hospital and a Risk-Taking CDC Built a Functional Partnership
Shelterforce recently spoke with Angela Mingo of Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the Rev. John Edgar of Community Development for All People to learn more about their health/housing partnership and how it came to be.
More Than a Fad: Tiny Houses Save Lives, Provide Dignity
After seven years of advocacy from housing activists, the city of Seattle unanimously passed an ordinance permitting tent encampments or tiny house villages on city-owned or private property.
20 Years Later, What HOPE VI Can Teach Us
Affordable housing programs are at great risk of elimination under the current administration. In this uncertain climate, what can we learn from a program that leveraged private interest while aspiring to be a protector of affordable housing?
Why Giving Up on Homeownership Is Giving In
These ideas aren’t new, but pulling them together in a collective, coherent way will push back against those who, like their predecessors of 80, 70, 60 and 50 years ago, would deny long-term stability to those for reasons more than just the color of their money.
These Changes to Tax Credit Criteria Are Breaking Up Concentrated Poverty
A recent examination by New Jersey Future has found that strategic changes in the way federal funds are allocated for affordable housing in the state have meant that many more affordable housing projects have been directed away from high-poverty neighborhoods and toward areas that offer greater economic opportunity.
A Jobs-Housing Fit
The Bay Area can benefit from a clearer framework for understanding what the housing needs of our region actually are and evaluating how housing production is meeting those needs. A Jobs-Housing Fit is that framework.
To Save On Medi-Cal Costs, a Bid to Help Homeless Patients With Rent Money
California lawmakers consider devoting an additional $90 million to subsidize rent for homeless patients.
How To Do Affordable Housing When Your Government Is Being A Jerk
The “proposed” cuts to federal spending on affordable housing programs have become promises in the weeks since preliminary FY18 budgets were presented in March....
After Paying for Housing, How Much is Enough for Basic Necessities?
We need some standards to explain what “enough” means. Here's a breakdown of the Family Budget Calculator, the Self-Sufficiency Standard, and the Housing Poverty Measure.
A New Kind of Foreclosure Crisis Is In The Making
Some community development organizations think the foreclosure crisis is over, but there’s a new emergency within the more vulnerable segments of our population—and it is hitting the elderly particularly hard, says Lou Tisler, who recently left Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) of Greater Cleveland after 12 years as executive director. That new crisis is tax foreclosures—the sale of a property due to unpaid tax liabilities.
How the Bay Area Got $2 Billion for Affordable Homes
San Francisco Bay Area voters approved bold new investments in 2016 after housing advocates--part of the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California--ignited a successful electoral strategy for the general election. Here's how it worked.
Thoughts on the Unnatural Occurrence of Cheap Housing
Community development corporations and affordable housing developers have an opportunity to prevent displacement, preserve affordability, and improve the habitability of neglected housing.
Will Limited-Equity Cooperatives Make a Comeback?
Federal programs and cultural attitudes that helped launch a majority of the large limited-equity co-ops across the nation are long gone, but at a smaller scale, this model of resident-controlled, long-term affordable housing may be experiencing new interest.
How to Build a Case for Community Development and Affordable Housing
In the new administration, housing programs will feel the pressure of budgetary cuts and tax reform. Advocates should be careful not to put down other programs in the process of defending their own, or everyone will lose.
When Deep-Income Targeting Doesn’t Hit the Mark
Deep-income targeting, where the focus is on housing those with the lowest incomes, can mean dramatically different things to affordable rental housing developers in different states, and even in different market areas within the same state.
The Secret History of Area Median Income
AMI is typically used to determine whether a person is eligible for housing assistance. But in a large and wealthy area like the New York City metro, the resulting definitions of “low income” are often skewed, leaving out those who really need the help.
The 30 Percent Rent-to-Income Ratio Doesn’t Add Up in NYC
The 30 percent standard only ‘works’ in calculations where it is irrelevant. The residual-income approach, on the other hand, can turn what all too often becomes an abstract and theoretical discussion into a series of researchable questions.
Housing Need Is Even More Skewed by Income Than We Thought
Measuring only for cost burden overstates the housing needs of higher-income people and understates the extreme need at the lower end.
In Defense of the 30 Percent of Income to Housing Affordability Rule–In Some Cases
At an individual level, the 30 percent standard and the residual-income standard can produce very different results. But as a regional measure of affordability problems, they’re not so far apart.
Affordability: The 30 Percent Standard’s Blinders
Using a simple cost-to-income ratio to measure affordability doesn’t give us a good picture of who is really burdened by housing cost. We need a different approach.
How Should We Measure Housing Affordability?
The simplicity of the 30 percent standard is also its downfall. We don’t expect people of differing incomes or family sizes to pay the same percentage of their income in taxes—why would the same percentage work for housing costs?
Vision, Not Just Critique
In the Spring 2017 issue of Shelterforce, we talk about something that comes up daily for many people working in the community development field—what does housing affordability mean? Crafting practical policies to back up our vision requires that we be thoughtful about all of the pieces.
Lawn Sign Liberalism
If you live anywhere with a substantial resistance to the current administration's attacks on immigrants, you may have seen...
Regulation and Housing Supply: Where the Left & Right Agree (Sort Of)
We gathered some people who have done a lot of thinking and studying on regulation to discuss what it might look like to actually remove obstacles that get in the way of developing less expensive housing options responsibly. What's possible? What are the trade-offs?
El Caño Vive, La Lucha Sigue! Community-Controlled Land in Puerto Rico
In the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. elections, communities throughout the United States began experiencing a new wave of civic participation, organizing, and activism....
Tenant Organizing From the Ground Up
California is home to over 16 million renters— about 45 percent of the population—and the majority are low-income people...
VASH and LIHTC Can Work Together to Support Veterans in Housing and Beyond
Earlier today, the U.S. Senate advanced Ben Carson's nomination to lead the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development...
Making It Easier to Build Won’t Generate Affordable Units
It is often convenient to blame city planners for the affordable housing crisis. Sadly, this blame is often misguided because planners do not produce housing.
Why Aren’t We Building Middle Income Housing?
In a previous Shelterforce blog post, I argued that we cannot give up hope that the market will build middle-income housing. Granted, over the past...
Should Online Shopping Change How We Use Space?
Should ground-floor use go from retail to housing? In San Francisco, the closing of once-popular San Francisco restaurants and the decline of...
Housing and The “Flyover” Mentality
Right around the New Year, an article by Wired’s Emily Dreyfuss popped up on one of my newsfeeds titled,...
Tenant Protections Are a Cornerstone to Solving the Housing Crisis
I’ve read far too many think pieces, op-eds, and reports that neglect the role of tenant protections as a...
New Bills Would Enforce Ignorance on State of Housing Opportunity
The 115th Congress has just gotten underway and already several of its members have launched an attack on some...
Houston, It’s Time to Stop Accommodating Segregation
Overall, Houston, Texas, is one of the most statistically diverse cities in the country. But at the neighborhood level,...
Fair Housing is NOT War on the Suburbs
The Obama administration’s revised Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule has recently come under fire—again—by the new administration. Attacks...