Growth Is Not Always the Answer
Why is it always assumed that a city’s rate of growth is natural, or unavoidable, or simply that more growth is always better?
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.
Community Organizations Have to Talk About Police Violence Directly
It’s easy to quickly refocus the conversation around police violence on the problems our organizations are already set up to fix—here’s why we shouldn’t.
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...
Lessons from Post 9/11 America for a Post-COVID Society
A post-COVID society can look different from post 9/11 America if we reject racism, focus on the most vulnerable communities, and balance rapid response with long-term strategies that tackle systemic disparities.
The Gentrification Reality: A Response
We must continue studying and fighting gentrification, rather than abandon the concept altogether.
Can Community Development Solve the Municipal Budget Crisis?
Oakland, Calif., like many cities, is beginning an annual or biennial budget process and coming to terms with the stark realities of structural problems...
Housers: Now Is the Time to Buy Land
The coronavirus did not end the urban affordability crisis. To the contrary, it is only a matter of time before urban America’s restaurants, bars,...
Moving from the Inequitable Housing System We Have to the Housing System We Need
Three big, but basic, things that we could do right now to get us much closer to equity in housing.
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.
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.
Anti-Displacement Organizing Should Start Here
Organizing in AAPI communities has challenges, but their location and composition make them key in the fight against gentrification. Here's why.
Transportation and Fair Housing Part 1: We Need a Better Measure of Opportunity
Factoring in costs that tend to be lower in urban high-poverty neighborhoods, but not costs that tend to be higher there makes the H+T Index unsuitable as a tool for locating low-income housing.
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.
Trump’s Empty Shell of a Promise to Renters
Diane Yentel slams President Trump's latest executive order as "reckless and harmful."
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.
Some Thoughts On This Martin Luther King Jr. Day
On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, as one of the lucky ones who actually had the day off to reflect on this great...
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.
The Coronavirus Will Explode Achievement Gaps in Education
The achievement gap between low-income and other children is already equivalent to at least two years of schooling. Might the coronavirus shutdown expand that by another half year?