Reforming Zoning in a Racist Market Still Worth It
In a racist society, markets cause racist housing outcomes, but nonetheless the influence of land use regulation shouldn't be ignored.
How the Inflation Reduction Act Can Protect Low-income Renters From Climate Change
Climate change is an especially large threat to low-income residents. The Inflation Reduction Act offers a chance to act.
Biden’s Renters Rights Blueprint: Meaningful or Not?
What should we make of the administration’s tenants rights announcement?
Bordering Towns in LA County Clash Over Their Homeless Policies
Local governments often come to different conclusions about how to address homelessness within their respective city borders. Varying approaches only exacerbate the problem.
How Atlantic Yards Failed to Deliver Affordable Homeownership (With a Hakeem Jeffries Cameo)
Atlantic Yards demonstrates that developers' promises must be backed up in contracts, otherwise economic and political cycles can undermine them.
The Shift to Using More Electricity Will Change How Affordable Housing Is Built
Policymakers and building designers have gone from pushing for energy efficiency to focusing on reducing carbon emissions by using more electrical-based systems. What are some of the benefits and challenges of going all-electric, and how can affordable housers move forward?
Press ‘Record’ To Catch Fair Housing Violators—If You Can
Fair housing testers often go undercover to expose discriminatory housing practices, but laws prohibiting recording conversations hamper investigations
How to Retrofit the Housing Economy
Are policy changes enough to address the housing problems we face?
When Landlords Hide Behind LLCs
It’s difficult to know who owns a property because corporate landlords and investors tend to structure their business as limited liability companies, or LLCs.
Unmasking the Property Owners
There’s a reason land ownership is a matter of public record—but at the moment the records we have aren’t actually doing the job.
How the Federal Reserve’s Monetary Policy Drives Housing Inequality
If high home prices and rents are hallmarks of inequality, the actions of the Federal Reserve should give us pause. Its policy interventions have had profound effects on housing prices.
A Way for Investors to Save Affordable Housing, Not Harm It
Investors have helped preserve more than 1,700 affordable housing units in the Washington, D.C., metro area.
The Financialization of Housing and Its Implications for Community Development
Over the last two decades homeowners and investors have increasingly treated housing as a financial asset, like stocks or bonds. How has this changed the housing market for the worse, and how can we fix it?
Considering Geographic Equity
When we talk about equity, we’re typically talking about individuals or neighborhoods. But what about the imbalance in power and access to resources between entire metropolitan areas?
Tenant Screening Companies Profit from Eviction Records, Driving Housing Insecurity
Sealing eviction records at the point of filing is an urgent step toward dismantling harmful tenant screening practices.
Dear CDFI Colleagues: It’s Time to be Transparent About Salaries in Job Postings
Companies that value meritocracy perform worse with pay equity when their internal policies do not align with their public-facing statements regarding pay.
Two Paths to Density: Profit vs People
As communities across the country begin promoting density to address the affordable housing crisis, they must grapple with how that housing will be built, and for whom.
Restorative Housing Policy: Can We Heal the Wounds of Redlining and Urban Renewal?
Our fair housing laws enshrine an approach that prohibits us from explicitly referring to race, even in programs intended to undo the harm caused by racism. Now restorative housing policy is attempting to directly confront this history.
Are Urban Planners Staying Silent on Climate Gentrification?
Holmdel, New Jersey, moved its affordable housing to flood-prone land, raising a question about planners' ethical obligations to speak up against such moves.
Putting in the Labor to Support Affordable Homes
With notoriously high housing costs in San Francisco pushing workers across occupations out of the city and into long commutes, the value of alliances between housing advocates and labor organizers are becoming increasingly clear.