Chicago Changes How It Allocates Tax Credits to Improve Racial Equity
How did the Windy City expand the idea of advancing racial equity through low-income housing tax credits beyond where affordable housing is built?
Community-Police Partnerships After George Floyd
An interview with Mona Mangat, vice president of safety and justice initiatives at LISC. We talked with Mona Mangat, vice president of safety and justice initiatives at LISC,
Fixing the Harms of Our Eviction System: An Interview with Emily Benfer
Emily Benfer talks about what needs to change in our housing and eviction systems—not just now, but once the pandemic is past, the connections between health and housing, and how she came to be a go-to voice on the eviction crisis.
“Why Would a Hospital Do This?” Shifting Institutional Culture for Health Equity
Hanaa Hamdi is the director of health impact investment strategies and partnerships at New Jersey Community Capital, the state’s largest CDFI. Michellene Davis is...
Duluth Indigenous Groups Reframe Climate Work in Cultural Context
While many conversations about climate resiliency are well-intentioned, they often lack a perspective grounded in community control and cultural context. In this interview, Ivy Vainio and LeAnn Littlewolf from the American Indian Community Housing Organization explore how gardens, worm bins, and solar panels help reclaim agency for Duluth's Indigenous communities.
Racial Equity, Housing, and COVID: A Roundtable
Six regional and state housing advocates discuss the connections between uprisings over racial injustice, the pandemic, and the need for housing security.
The Case for Letting Developers Pay Not Build
The question of integrating affordable housing units required by inclusionary zoning on-site versus allowing developers to pay a fee to locate them off-site has long been a contentious one.
Harm Reduction Policing?
Shelterforce spoke with 2019 MacArthur fellow Lisa Daugaard about how her work in homelessness set her on her path, and how diversion programs can build political will to increase support for affordable housing and public health.
Youth Soccer on Transit Land
For the last 30 years, Atlanta nonprofit Soccer in the Streets has been removing the cost barrier to soccer by offering free programs and uniforms. Two years ago, it increased access to the sport by constructing soccer fields on unused land owned by the city’s transit authority.
Celebrating a Different Definition of “Safety”
Night Out for Safety and Liberation provides an alternative to annual police-sponsored community events, and is growing in popularity around the nation.
Is Success Making CDFIs Too Risk-Averse?
Shelterforce's Miriam Axel-Lute in conversation with Ed Gorman of NCRC on whether community development financial institutions (CDFIs) are taking enough risk, and therefore, falling short of their mission.
A Health Insurer and a CDC Collaborate to Move the Needle on Housing and...
David Adame of Chicanos Por La Causa, and Joe Guadio of UnitedHealthcare talk about the value of addressing social determinants and lessons they’ve learned.
Changing the Way We Think About Poor Rural Communities
Rural communities are very different places—separated by climate, geography, and often race. But in many other ways, these communities are far more similar than different.
Behind the Scenes of NCRC’s Gentrification Report
A conversation with an NCRC senior research analyst about the organization's report on gentrification, what its findings show and don’t show, and what the policy implications might be.
Housing Vulnerability Analysis: A Discussion
A pilot study on housing vulnerability has identified over 50 different housing tenures, each with different degrees of legal protection, political and advocacy support, and with very different types of risk.
Racial Diversity in Community Development Leadership: A Roundtable Discussion on the Field’s Past, and...
Several national organizations in the community development field have experienced transitions from white leadership to people of color.
The Connection Between Water, Justice, and Health
Our talk with Radhika Fox, the CEO of the US Water Alliance, about water justice and ways to build stronger communities.
Closing the Divide Between Fair Housing and Affordable Housing
The Regional Affordable & Fair Housing Roundtable pulled off something that has often been elusive—building enough trust between fair housing advocates and place-based community developers to lead to their signing on to a joint agenda.
What We Don’t Know About Development and Displacement
The data on the relationship between new development, affordability, and displacement is not nearly as clear-cut as advocates (of all persuasions) often imply.
Expanding Community Benefits Agreements to Events
Shelterforce spoke with Race Forward’s Leslie Grant-Spann to find out what it means to have a community benefits agreement for an event, and why it’s important to think about the local impacts of large events.