Federal Policy

Strict zoning policies keep housing unaffordable. But there are strategies governments can implement to change exclusionary housing policies and promote the construction of more affordable housing.

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.

Dorothy A. Brown’s The Whiteness of Wealth breaks down the deleterious effect our tax code has had on Black lives. Crown, 2021, 288 pp., $27 (hardcover); $17 (softcover).

Nonprofits struggle to understand how to respond to the ban on “divisive concepts” in their training and protect their federal funding.

some communities in the United States seem much better than others at attracting grants and financing for community development—even after adjusting for their relative needs. Here are some of the surprising trends:

If it seems like we’re approaching a domestic policy pivot point, it might be because we are. Since Nov. 9, we’ve been thinking about the near- and long-term implications of […]

On Nov. 8, Donald Trump was elected to be our nation’s 45th president. In an attempt to understand his rise, a familiar narrative has emerged in which so-called “elites”—the media, […]

This post is part of a Shelterforce series called Letters to the Next President. In cities across the country, our communities face crises of housing affordability, dangerous and unsustainable infrastructure, […]

Though they haven’t made them central to their campaign, Clinton and Sanders have each released affordable housing platforms.

Last week we looked at the House appropriators, this week we are moving across the Hill to the Senate appropriators who oversee funds made available to housing and community development […]

Washington is a really confusing town in good times and an almost indecipherable town in surreal times like these. In order to make sense of the work that I do […]

As they rebuild from the financial meltdown of 2008, policymakers can finally craft measures to guarantee healthy communities and secure homes for all Americans.