Newark, NJ, Mayor Tries Eminent Domain for Underwater Homes
Newark’s newly-elected mayor Ras Baraka has taken a bold step to address one of the city’s and state’s most serious...
Rescue Communities Now!
In last week’s media blitz of trying to explain our financial crisis, the clearest description I saw was a Chattanooga Times Free Press cartoon,...
Building a Better Housing Policy
Shelterforce editor Alice Chasan talks to Jonathan F. Fanton, president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, about an ambitious new project aimed at reframing the national conversation about why housing matters.
The Barney Frank Challenge
Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the house Financial Services Committee, sits down with Shelterforce to discuss consumer protection, the future of Fannie and Freddie, the role of FHA, and rental housing and offers a challenge to advocates looking to effect change on the federal level.
2014 Budget is Weak on Help for Americans’ Financial Strength
President Obama’s budget lays out a strong starting point for rebuilding American opportunity. He preserves our historic commitment to...
As Affordable Housing Units Expire, Los Angeles Lags in Preservation Efforts
As thousands of affordable housing units expire, L.A. lags behind other cities in its preservation efforts. But one group of tenants may be victorious.
“Political Lift”: An Interview with Rep. Keith Ellison
As we head into the election home stretch, pieces of Rep. Keith Ellison's interview with Shelterforce in our latest issue keep coming to mind. Ellison...
Why Doesn’t Rural Housing Get Any Respect?
President Trump's 2020 budget once again proposes to eliminate, or sharply cut, most rural housing efforts and some other USDA rural programs.
‘Ohana-Based Approach to Incentivized Youth Savings
How can we measure the impact of incentivized youth savings beyond just financial impacts?Hawai‘i Island ‘ohana participating in the...
Missing Priorities In HUD/DOT Sustainable Communities Initiative
At a US House of Representatives hearing last week on “Livable Communities, Transit Oriented Development, and Incorporating Green Building Practices into Federal Housing and...
How to Prevent the Next Mortgage Crisis
Yes, we need to finally achieve certainty in our housing finance system. But not the way most people are suggesting.
How Rent Control Promotes Racial Equity
Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, our long-standing housing affordability crisis called for universal rent control as a baseline protection.
Can’t Sue ‘Em? You Can Move Your Money
Local governents, frustrated (there’s an understatement for you) with the devastating effects of massive foreclosures have tried suing lenders for essentially offering defective products,...
Watching History On The Big Screen
So much of this country’s history has been watched on television — lunar landing, Beatles on Sullivan, Dwight Clark’s “The Catch” from Joe Montana...
Which Agencies Should Pay to End Family Homelessness?
When families have stable housing, the benefits are widespread. And perhaps that has been the problem.
Here’s Why Costa-Hawkins Repeal Would Be Revolutionary for Housing in California
Rent control is one of the foremost demands of grassroots movements organizing around housing justice today. To activists across the country, from Los Angeles...
Ask Yourself: Who Do Anti-Rent Control Policies Serve?
Whenever you hear (or read) anti-rent control arguments, ask the question: who benefits from banning rent control? And who is hurt?
Mock the Vote
Since the Justice Department axed nine U.S. attorneys, all eyes have been on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, but the scandal began with a GOP strategy to stifle grass-roots registration of poor minority voters.
NSP Funding Gets “Compromised”
While Senate Democrats and Republicans were looking to compromise on what is now a trimmed-down, $780 billion stimulus package, it looks like some key...
Data Drives the Movement for Economic Justice
A government report concludes that residents of low- and moderate-income Census tracts have as much access to bank branches as residents in middle- and upper-income tracts in rural areas and large metropolitan areas. Yet access to bank services for low- and moderate-income consumers is still being lost. Why is that?