Three Local Policy Innovations that Promote Inclusive, Equitable Mixed-Income Communities
Making inclusion and equity a reality in more American metropolitan areas is possible. Doing so requires innovations in local, regional, and state policies related to mixed-income communities.
A Million Families at Risk
The Department of Housing and Urban Development proposes to rewrite the rules affecting the affordability of housing for over 1 million low-income families. Will HUD’s controversial proposal preserve affordable housing or cause significant displacement?
What Can Be Done When LIHTC Affordability Restrictions Expire?
The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program has helped create more than 3 million affordable units across the country. But if something isn’t done soon, thousands of those homes could be lost forever as affordability periods expire.
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.
The State of Vacant Property Registration
“Local Vacant Property Registration Ordinances in the U.S.: An Analysis of Growth, Regional Trends, and Some Key Characteristics,” by Dan Immergluck, Yun Sang Lee and Patrick Terranova. Working Paper, August 12, 2012.
Dan Immergluck and...
You Don’t Support Our Transit, But We Should Support Your Highway?
Overcoming pleas that such a measure will destroy small businesses – just as similar measures apparently have destroyed all small businesses in Chicago, New York and Paris – the Pennsylvania state legislature...
House Votes Down NSP3
The Republican-controlled House voted to eliminate the $1 million allocated by the third round of Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds this week, and while the NSP Termination Act is unlikely to pass the Democratically-controlled Senate,...
The Great Detroit Charrette?
Thirty percent of Detroit proper is now vacant land.
This was the news a few weeks back from The Detroit Free Press, the paper that announced last...
Private Sector Funding in Public Housing Would Compromise Quality
Peter Marcuse, a professor emeritus at Columbia’s School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and Shelterforce contributor, says that the infusion of private capital in public housing would almost certainly spell...
An Opportunity Century? Election 2012, Social Justice, and America
What lessons do the 2012 election results hold for those of us who are committed to expanding opportunity and protecting human rights?
Government on the Ropes—Nonprofits Step In
The loss of community development staff working at the City of Flint, Michigan, threatened the existence and continuity of many of its housing programs and services. Through partnerships forged...
The Foreclosure King Ascends to Treasury
There is considerable unease in the housing and community development world about the future of federal policy, including support for vouchers, fair housing, and other critical policies and programs. While the choice for...
The Community Reinvestment Act at 40: A Careful Review of the Reviews
A review of HUD's Cityscape issue, which is devoted to reviews and studies of the Community Reinvestment Act at its 40th anniversary.
Homeowners Reap Profits While Fueling Housing Crisis
The widespread critique of California's SB 827 got me thinking about why nobody talks about those really profiting from land use decisions that inflate their property values: homeowners.
What the Fight for Universal Rent Control in New York Can Learn from Prop...
Voters have set up an unprecedented fight between progressive housing groups and real estate interests. It will be a brutal fight. For proof of this, housing advocates in New York need only to look at California.
Pulling the Rug From Under Community Development?
Investments and funding motivated by the Community Reinvestment Act are more foundational to the work of community developers than is often discussed. But if regulations change the incentives for banks, the effects on communities will be dramatic.
A ‘Public Option’ for Low-Income Homeownership?
What the USDA could teach us about better federal homeownership policy.
Anti-Eviction Advocates Want the DOJ to Support the Right to Counsel Movement
The revival of an office within the Department of Justice that is focused on equitable legal representation has tenants’ rights advocates calling on the federal government to do more to strengthen the right to counsel movement.
Unfair Market Rents: How Inflation Is Skewing FMRs
"Fair market rents" are set by HUD and used to determine how much federal assistance programs will pay toward rent. But with rental costs rising so rapidly, they aren't keeping up.
Memos on How To Make Change From the Grass Roots to the Oval Office
From the grass roots to the Oval Office: Shelterforce contributors offer policy suggestions for the next president on how to make change.