Neighborhood Change

As community demographics shift and there’s neighborhood change, what are the issues affecting longstanding and new residents alike? When is change desirable, and when is it undesirable, and how can it be turned to the benefit of those who need it most?

Featured posts

Making a Pipeline for Vacant Building Rehab

Neighborhood Change Tamara E. Holmes -
Baltimore’s Vacants to Value program sparked revitalization block by block with a few key legal powers and partnerships.

How to Fight Vacancy? Do It All

Neighborhood Change Ian Beniston -
The fight against vacancy in Youngstown, Ohio, shows us that we shouldn’t rely on a single strategy—everything is needed at once.

Transforming Vacant Land Into Community Assets

Neighborhood Change Andrew Butcher -
Vacant land activities can be low cost and high impact; the price of failure is not steep, but the return on investment can be high.

How to Fund Land Banks

Neighborhood Change Tarik Abdelazim -
The number of land banks grew dramatically in the wake of the foreclosure crisis. So has our understanding of how to successfully fund them.
A once-vacant lot in Philadelphia that has been cleaned.

Greening Vacant Lots: Low Cost, Big Effect in Philly

Neighborhood Change Maggie Loesch -
A Philadelphia program is cleaning up abandoned lots, helping formerly incarcerated residents get jobs, and improving the overall health and well-being of neighborhoods.

Public Land Should be Used for Public Good

Organize! Vanessa Riles -
When a vacant lot in Oakland was close to becoming the home of a 24-story, market-rate development, local activists worked together to prevent it from happening.
Residents of four historically African-American neighborhoods hold up a sign that reads "This Land is Our Land! #TentCityATL"

The Right to Stay Put

Neighborhood Change Dominic Moulden, Gregory D. Squires, and Aristotle Theresa -
There is much work to be done around housing and equitable development, but the solution is not simply to move people around. A key challenge is creating real choice.
porch party

Sitting on a Porch Can Be Good for Your Health

Health Joanna Taft -
To help combat isolation and reweave the connecting fabric that had been lost, a neighborhood arts center launches an initiative that eventually became a movement.
speech conversation balloons

Starting Conversations with Public Art

Arts and Culture Joyce Fernandes -
An arts collaboration comes up with a creative spark to facilitate discussions about neighborhood change.
westlake mural

Shelter Shorts, The Week in Community Development—Aug. 24

Shelter Shorts Shelterforce Staff -
Philly's Fight for Affordable Housing | HUD Targets Facebook In Complaint| An Eviction App | A "Massive" Multifamily Housing Fraud
Kennetha Patterson of Homes for All in Nashville speaks on a megaphone during Renter’s Week of Action.

Tenant Power: Organizing for Rent Strikes and Landlord Negotiations

Housing Lillian M. Ortiz -
In the face of high rent increases and substandard housing, many tenants are realizing they are not alone in their landlord troubles and are joining together to push for building-level wins, and policy change.
Chicago resident Tom Gordon speaks to a crowd. He, as well as other organizers, are fighting for a citywide community benefits campaign.

Chicago Activist Convention Shifts Focus to Community Benefits Campaign

Neighborhood Change Annie Howard -
Standing on a truck in front of a group of several hundred protesters, Tom Gordon expressed a feeling shared often at the ONE Northside...
Some of the Seattle's historic and longstanding neighborhoods, like Chinatown/International District with high proportions of color are seeing displacement of residents.

Seattle Takes Ownership of Its Displacement Challenge

Neighborhood Change Vinita Goyal -
Seattle is tackling displacement by aiming to reduce the systemic and structural barriers in connecting marginalized populations to opportunity.
A man and a woman stand in front of a chalkboard sign that reads "This House Could Be ..."The man is writing on the board, as many others have done. Some of the suggestions for what the house could be include a community gathering space and a senior center.

Rebellion Spurs Opportunity and a New Housing Movement

Housing Peter Sabonis -
How a Baltimore collaborative plans to make shared-equity housing a significant sector in the local housing market.
An African-American man and woman stand happily outside on their front porch. The woman is wearing a red coat and a black and white hate, while the man is reader a read Oakland A's hat and a black jacket.

Getting Ahead of Gentrification in the South Side of Columbus

Housing John Edgar -
More than a decade after several groups came together to improve substandard housing in the South Side of Columbus, signs of gentrification and forced displacement are beginning to emerge. Can something be done so current residents can afford to stay in their neighborhoods for years to come? The short answer is yes.
homeless camp under bridge

Shelter Shorts—The Week in Community Development, May 4

Shelter Shorts Shelterforce Staff -
A Trauma-Centered Approach to Youth Violence in Cleveland | We May Know Who Benefits From Port Covington | What Housing Crisis? | Clearing Homeless Encampments in Philadelphia | Restaurant Tax for Affordable Housing
Black Panther newsletter from 1969

What Black Panther-inspired Gift to Oakland Should Have Looked Like

Neighborhood Change Miriam Axel-Lute -
Disney's Black Panther-inspired gift to Oakland children is great, but there is a way it could be better.
Barcelona apartment buildings

Shelter Shorts—The Week in Community Development, April 20

Shelter Shorts Shelterforce Staff -
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...
store closing

The Displacement Crisis of Immigrant-Owned Small Businesses

Economic Development Lena Afridi -
Growth of new business is a sign of a robust economy, but New York City’s true success hinges on ensuring that all residents have access to opportunity and community resources.
Mabel Duffy, Myrtle Stern, and the May Day marching band occupy a major intersection in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh.

Game of Chance: Mass Eviction in Pittsburgh

Feature Jason Vrabel -
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.
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