Lessons from 20 Years of Enabling Tenants to Buy Their Buildings
As cities across the country consider giving tenants the right of first refusal, municipalities must be meticulous in crafting policies that preserve and expand tenants' ability to form housing cooperatives.
How State and Local Governments Can Avoid Mass Evictions
Beyond the immediate need to stop mass evictions, there is much more that state and local officials can do to facilitate housing stability in a longer-term transition out of the pandemic emergency. The time for those critical measures is now.
How to Get Racial Equity into Biden’s Infrastructure Plan
Congress has an opportunity it must not squander to acknowledge the racial inequity built into our failing infrastructure and put into operation the promise of equity in Biden’s infrastructure plans.
Blaming Redlining Is Too Easy
Expanding access to the housing market is unlikely to do much to close the racial wealth gap. Here’s why.
Redlining Would Be Relegalized by CRA Reform Proposal
In an attempt to make compliance easier for banks, regulators are proposing to incentivize the very thing the Community Reinvestment Act was written to fight.
A Tangled Web: The Problem with Fragmented Housing Assistance
We don’t really have a housing assistance system. We have hundreds of them. And that's part of why it's so hard to get rent relief out.
How Affordable Housers Perpetuate Past Harms, and How They Can Do Better
Some elements of affordable housing—from the development process to the way buildings are managed—are rooted in racist assumptions that dehumanize residents. Here are some simple ways you can be a better housing provider.
An Eviction Moratorium Is Not Enough—Suspend Rent
What will people do when they’re expected to pay back rent after the crisis is over? Eviction moratoriums are not enough to prevent a homelessness crisis.
Say It Ain’t So, Joe: Biden’s Ill-Advised Plan to Eliminate Exclusionary Zoning
A counterintuitive argument contends that from a housing justice perspective, the Biden administration's attack on exclusionary zoning is imprudent.
YIMBY, White Privilege, and the Soul of Our Cities
A common narrative being promoted about why there is a housing crisis ignores history and serves to assuage new residents’ guilty feelings. But we can craft a new narrative together.
Protecting the Community Reinvestment Act Is an Investment in Economic Justice
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation just released a set of proposed rules for the Community Reinvestment Act that threaten the very heart of the law.
Better Business, Better Food…Better Community?
At a grand opening for a new retail market operated by a farm family, celebrants posed for a group photo on the sidewalk and...
The Case for Building Tiny House Villages During the Pandemic
Tiny house villages cost less than extended hotel stays, can remain in place for years, and can help flatten the curve of disease transmission.
Look Close to Home for Construction Cost Savings
We don’t have to turn to fancy tech to lower the cost of building.
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.
We Told You So: Haphazard Rent Relief Rollout Shows Need for Rent Cancellation
Did we want to bail out corporate landlords or help renters? Because we’re doing the former.
Make Your Streets Livable!
An exciting new resource is available to community developers who want to make the streets in their neighborhoods more inviting to people on foot,...
On Housing, Democrats Sure Look Like Republicans
At one time, the Democratic Party stood for policies that successfully addressed the country’s chronic housing crisis. What changed, and why?
The Most We Can Do: A National Mandate for Housing Justice
As the United States wrestles with its long history of racial injustice, shared-equity programs stand as one solution to address inequality and exclusion in the realms of housing.
Two Americas On Display: DC & Las Vegas
I was struck by two hugely contrasting stories in Sunday’s Real Estate section of The Washington Post. If you want evidence that John Edwards’s...