Practitioner Voice

A tightly cropped black-and-white view of stone Ionic columns at the entrance to a courthouse. Words are carved on the lintel over the columns; visible in this photo are "and blessing."

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 pair of "Groucho Marx" glasses resting on a raspberry-colored table.

Land Owned by LLCs More Likely to Be Vacant

NYC's land speculators use LLCs to evade legal responsibility while sitting on vacant property.
A group of people standing on steps, most holding signs saying "Yes on Rent Control" while at left a man speaks into a microphone. Behind the people, faintly visible, is a large holiday tree with red and silver ornaments.

How We Won Rent Control in Pasadena, California

Never underestimate the power of—and need for—a ground game.
A colorful scene showing many kinds of houses including some that look like flying saucers. The residents include animals and aliens. In the foreground, a group of people and animals hold up a banner proclaiming "Neighborhoods are for everyone!"

Why Oregon Created Its Own AFFH Rule

For more than a decade, fair housing advocates in the Beaver State had been looking for ways to connect housing and land use planning to promote the affirmatively furthering fair housing rule. Here’s how Oregon created its own state-level policy, and what’s to come.
An ad for Shelterforce's webinar, "Fighting Back Against Corporate Landlords." We had four speakers.

Fighting Back Against Corporate Landlords—A Shelterforce Webinar

Shelterforce recently hosted a conversation about how to fight, and win, against corporate landlords and their extractive business models. Watch the video or read the transcript.
On a bulletin board or thick cardboard backing are taped 11 clippings of news headlines, cartoons, and newsletter covers, all about the tenant organizing movement of the 1970s and '80s.

The Rise and Fall of the National Tenants Union

The National Tenants Union fought for tenant rights in the 1970s and early 1980s. One of the union’s founders reflects on the organization and what we might learn from those times.

Corporate Landlords Profit from Segregation, at Cost of Black Homeownership and Wealth

As more and more affordable homes are gobbled up by corporate landlords, prospective Black homebuyers are seeing opportunities for homeownership dry up.

The Cost of Not Going Co-op

Buying your mobile home park could save you money: Residents fare better when they cooperatively own their parks.

Press ‘Record’ To Catch Fair Housing Violators—If You Can

Fair housing testers often go undercover to expose discriminatory housing practices, but laws prohibiting recording conversations hamper investigations

A Way for Investors to Save Affordable Housing, Not Harm It

Investors have helped preserve more than 1,700 affordable housing units in the Washington, D.C., metro area.

Tenant Screening Companies Profit from Eviction Records, Driving Housing Insecurity

Sealing eviction records at the point of filing is an urgent step toward dismantling harmful tenant screening practices.

How Tax Assessments are Racist

Between biased property appraisals that undervalue Black-owned properties and biased tax assessments that levy an unfair burden, homeowners of color are flanked by a double-whammy of racism.

Making Affordable Housing Easier to Find

We talk a lot about needing more affordable housing—but the affordable units that do exist can be very hard to locate, which hampers fair housing.

Property Tax Relief Programs Don’t Reach Many Homeowners of Color

Property tax relief programs can be essential for helping older and lower-income homeowners keep their homes. But access to them isn’t universal, or equitable.

Doing “The Right Thing” Won’t Close the Racial Wealth Gap

Solutions to address racial wealth inequality have often focused on behavioral changes and individual choices, minimizing efforts to dismantle structural barriers to wealth accumulation for Black Americans.
A black-and-white photo showing a large group of milling people near a sign that reads "Crestwood Hills/For information regarding this property/Mutual Housing Assn. Inc."

The Cooperative Struggle Against Redlining

Many people are familiar with redlining, but less well known are the handful of cooperatives that sprouted up following WWII with a bold mission: providing integrated, community-owned housing.

Community Engagement Can’t Be a Checklist

Are we engaging communities meaningfully, or are we just checking off boxes?
Snow-covered Downtown Chinatown in Philadelphia.

In Spite of HUD, Fair Housing Process Can Help Communities

Last year, Philadelphia was one of the first cohorts to go through the AFFH process, a fair housing assessment mandated by HUD to discover impediments to opportunity in the city. Others have written excellent...

Tenant Organizing From the Ground Up

Gentrification is not the inevitable result of economic development, but the result of fundamentally unjust economic development policies.

A New Perspective on Housing Tenure

Those of us who work in housing and housing policy know how complicated housing tenure can be. The most common forms of tenure, which describes the legal status under which people have the right...