Under Fire, Aldermanic Prerogative Is Turned to Democratic Ends
Long used to maintain segregationist and discriminatory policy, aldermanic prerogative is now being wielded in a more inclusive way.
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...
Congress Can’t Give House Room to Paulson’s Section 8
Listening to Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson testify before the Senate Banking Committee, I’m marveling at his insistence to Republican Sen. Mel Martinez,...
What You Need To Know About Financial Reform
Is the public in favor of regulating Wall Street?
A national survey conducted in March by the nonpartisan Pew Economic Policy Group found that 68...
An Opportunity Century? Election 2012, Social Justice, and America
As the election results sink in, partisans are busy debating what 2012 voting patterns mean for Republican and Democratic prospects...
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...
How Data Disclosure Will Help Prevent the Next Financial Crisis
It seems like an overstatement, but data disclosure can help prevent the next financial crisis.
In the run-up to the Great Recession, subprime and other...
Newly-Suspended HUD Rule Would Have Expanded Access to Neighborhood Opportunity
After years-long notice and comment periods, a final rule on using small area Fair Market Rents to determine housing choice voucher payment levels was supposed to take effect. However, the Trump administration has recently announced a two-year suspension of the rule.
Shelter Shorts, The Week in Community Development—May 11
Democrat’s Housing Proposal | Tracking SNAP Recipients Is a Bad Idea | Including Antiracism Practices Into The Housing First Model | An Asylum-Seeker Game? | Mick, Can We Rate You?
CDFIs Stepped Up During the Shutdown
CDFIs across the country were trying to do what they could to ease the effects of the recent government shutdown. Here is just a partial list.
Katrina: A Political Disaster
The handling of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath underscores the human disaster resulting from the ascendancy of right-wing ideas and corporate domination of the federal government, which extols market forces, individualism and private charity over public responsibility and the common good.
Interview with Ron Faris, Ocwen CEO
We speak with Ocwen CEO Ron Faris about why principal reduction makes business sense and some of the myths that get perpetuated about it.
ACORN Rates State Attorneys General on Foreclosure Prevention Leadership
While America has been waiting for Congress and state legislatures to get their act together on the foreclosure crisis, some state attorneys general have...
The Urban (Policy) President?
We anticipated this, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that an Obama administration will contain a Department of Urban Policy.
According to a Washington Post blog,...
House Subcommittee Votes to Eliminate Housing Trust Fund
A House subcommittee voted to stamp out the National Housing Trust Fund this week, signaling a very difficult road ahead for fund advocates. Of...
Three Ways the President’s Budget Benefits HUD
For low-income families that need affordable rental housing, the news from Washington in recent years has been bleak. Yet, while...
Jerry E. Abramson, Louisville Kentucky’s Progressive Mayor on Housing and Community Development
Housing is a serious issue in Louisville, Kentucky. Last October was Affordable Housing Month, a month sponsored by the Metropolitan Housing Coalition (MHC) that...
Ferguson: No One Should Be Surprised
This op-ed originally appeared in the St. Louis Post Dispatch on October 8, 2014. Recent events in Ferguson constitute the logical outcome of forces spelled out in 1968 by the National Advisory Panel on Civil Disorders, better known as the Kerner Commission. The report warned of a “permanent division of our country into two societies: […]
Endangering Community Investment with Tax “Reform”
There wasn’t one Republican senator who was willing say tax reform aimed at growing our economy should augment, not diminish, community investment.
HUD Continues to Retreat From Fair Housing Duties
In the name of “local control,” the federal agency has abandoned enforcement of civil rights law because it believes it's too troublesome.