Land Banks Are Not a Silver Bullet
We were very excited to hear that after many years of organizing, Philadelphia succeeded in winning a municipal land...
Fighting Foreclosure On All Fronts
While national coverage has subsided, a handful of immigrant families in Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood are still fighting to stay in their foreclosed apartment building, and their story is simply part of a larger struggle in the country's third-largest city.
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.
Small is Beautiful – Again
The shrinking cities movement imagines revitalization without growth - and housing advocates take a hard look at what that means for the poor.
Poem: “Gentrification”
I have seen a neighborhood eat itself for dinner
Greening Vacant Lots: Low Cost, Big Effect in Philly
A Philadelphia program is cleaning up abandoned lots, helping formerly incarcerated residents get jobs, and improving the overall health and well-being of neighborhoods.
Revitalizing Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine (Part 2)
Last week I wrote the first installment of my miniseries about Cincinnati’s remarkable Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. As I wrote then, this distinct and historic...
What Is Gentrification, Anyway?
Say the word “gentrification” in a room of community development practicioners and you're likely to get a cacophony of responses.
Alan Mallach sparked a debate...
Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine, On the Verge
Cincinnati’s historic and very centrally located Over-the-Rhine neighborhood is poised to become one of America’s greatest revitalization stories, in the process creating a national...
How CDCs (and TIFs) Might Help Create Equitable Public School Districts
As many parents know instinctively, and economists have shown, there’s a reason why the housing cost in many communities is...
Why Are Community Development Lenders Financing Charter Schools?
The choice to support privately-operated, publicly-funded schools puts these lenders at odds with many of their usual political allies and constituencies. So what’s the motivation?
If You Build It: A Story of Transformation Through Education
“If You Build It,” a new film directed by Patrick Creadon, explores what happens when teachers urge students to...
Charter Schools, Gentrification, and Weighted Lotteries
Charter schools in gentrifying neighborhoods have the power to exacerbate the inequity that exists between low-income residents and wealtheir newcomers. How can they use their power to instead ensure their student populations are as diverse as the neighborhoods they operate in?
From Eyesores to Assets: CDC Abandoned Property Strategies
To save a neighborhood that’s in danger of going down, you can’t simply add new homes. You have to put the process of decline in reverse
A Community-Centered Perspective on Displacement
In some communities, diverse economic networks have been and remain critical to the ability of community members to survive and thrive.
Why Can’t Harlem Stop Gentrification?
In his May New York Times editorial, “The End of Black Harlem,” Michael Henry Adams portrays the historic African-American...
Myths and Realities About Cycles: Avoiding the Inevitability Trap
About a year ago I wrote a post about Paul Krugman and whether building luxury housing could mitigate the...
Interview with HUD Secretary Julian Castro
Shelterforce got a chance to speak with Secretary Julian Castro about some of the current ways in which he’s working to make HUD a force for good in people’s lives, and what steps there are left to be taken.
Who Is It For?
A Washington, D.C. nonprofit undertakes a redevelopment project and tackles the issue of cultural displacement.
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.”