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Reported Article

How Project 2025 Would Dismantle HUD

The Heritage Foundation’s “conservative playbook” isn’t new, but critics say the latest version’s policies and platforms are more discriminatory and dangerous than in the past.

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Reported Article

Housing Equity in Limbo—Why Hasn’t Biden Finalized an Update to AFFH?

Last year it seemed like a new Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule was imminent, but it never happened. And now it’s late enough in the term that if it were finalized, next year’s Congress could invalidate it.

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Reported Article

Will This Resident Group Get Full Control of the Complex They Helped Fix?

For decades, a group of Cambodian refugees worked to improve and upgrade their Stockton, California, affordable housing complex. While they technically own half of the property, they’re still waiting for HUD to approve their full ownership. Why hasn’t it happened yet?

Reported Article

VA’s Work to End Veteran Homelessness Is a Nationwide Model. Can It Translate for Civilians?

The VA’s program doesn’t completely meet the needs of all unhoused veterans, but it’s close. That stands in stark relief to the non-veteran population. 

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Reported Article

A Fifth of This Town’s Homes Were Saved from Demolition—And Kept Affordable

The decision to demolish Wellston’s public housing had already been made when residents and the mayor decided to fight for it, but persistence, luck, and a financing structure with some unusual twists brought them back from the brink.

multifamily buildings
Opinion

The FSS Program Was Expanded Beyond Public Housing Authorities—Here’s How It’s Going

In 2018, the Family Self-Sufficiency Program was expanded to privately owned properties receiving project-based rental assistance. Here’s a look at how early adopters have used the program to support residents, and the lessons they learned along the way.

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Practitioner Voice

Six Steps to Ensuring a Strong Right to Organize for Tenants

Getting solid legal protections in place will help tenants stick up for themselves more safely and effectively.

A room bare of furnishings except a mattress on the floor. The walls are yellow, the window frame is light green. The blinds are closed. There's a bare-bulb light fixture on the wall casting a glary light
Reported Article

Who Gets Tenant Protection Vouchers?

A program to stabilize residents whose subsidized housing is disrupted has also been used to support other highly vulnerable residents, but those uses are a matter of controversy.

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Opinion

Proposed AFFH Rule Doesn’t Address Renters Directly—But It Should

Renters’ rights are fair housing rights. Before publishing a final Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, HUD must specifically address the needs of renters. Here’s how.

Opinion

Public Housing Must Be a Part of Fair Housing Planning

Because their programs provide the most deeply affordable housing in the country, public housing authorities should be both supported in improving fair housing outcomes and held to account when they fall short.

A black and white photo of seven people protesting racial discrimination in housing on a street corner, as a 1950s-era Buick drives past. The signs read "Stop racial discrimination now!"; "I support open housing"; "Don't patronize picture floor plans"; and a hand-lettered sign says "There can be no innocent bystanders." Most of the people in the photo are people of color; two are hidden by their signs.
Reported Article

AFFH’s Bumpy Road to Overcoming Segregation

The Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule was intended to force communities to take action to address housing segregation and discrimination. How has the rule evolved throughout the years, and will a proposed new rule finally put some teeth into the legal concept?

Editor’s Note

AFFH: Third Time’s the Charm?

What’s the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing provision? How has it been enforced in the past? And what do fair housing advocates think of the proposed changes? Shelterforce’s new Under the Lens series—New AFFH Rules: What You Need to Know—explores that and more.