Planning

In Brazil’s settlements, or favelas, residents risk displacement due to unclear property title—but getting clear title could price them out of the community. Could community land trusts offer a solution to this dilemma?

Several groups are serving as mediators for faith-based development, helping congregations access funding, navigate long-term development processes, and avoid developer exploitation.

After a years-long, tenant-led effort, Louisville will use a new tool to analyze whether a proposed housing development can meet a neighborhood’s housing needs and income levels. If it doesn’t, the city won’t subsidize it.

When Baltimore got funding for a round of school renovations, the state directed it to design schools that would also advance neighborhood revitalization—and it learned some lessons about why that’s not always so simple.

Who gets to benefit from neighborhood revitalization efforts, and at what cost?

History often feels like a depressing account of the worst things people can do to each other. But a recent book contains reminders that nothing is inevitable, and sometimes people have done better than we’re doing now—even in terms of housing and social equity.

In several western states, state-owned trust lands were created to support schools and other community benefits.

Traumatic events, and the ongoing traumas of vacancy and disinvestment, can be strongly associated with the places where they occurred. In Cleveland, several organizations are bringing new function and meaning to traumatized spaces.

Laws meant to restrict professors from discussing how race has shaped public policy could target the factual discussion of housing policy and its history—but professors say they don’t intend to go along.

An appreciation of the life and work of Chester Hartman, a radical planner in the service of a vision of social justice.

Amid widespread rent increases, directing public land to affordable housing could allow people to stay in their communities, as well as reduce commutes and employee turnover.

Holmdel, New Jersey, moved its affordable housing to flood-prone land, raising a question about planners’ ethical obligations to speak up against such moves.