Democracy at Work
Thanks to the collaborative work of many nonprofits led by the Alliance for Justice, last year’s efforts to limit funding to community-based organizations who engage in nonpartisan electoral work like voter registration failed at...
Educating Consumers Against Predatory Lending
In October 2001, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition established the National Anti-Predatory Lending Consumer Rescue Fund (CRF) to help victims of predatory lenders. CRF also assists homeowners at risk of foreclosure who have made...
Promoting Consumer Education Policy
Several institutions across the country are working to promote policies that will expand consumer education and financial literacy opportunities for low-income people. Predatory lending and mortgage loan assistance are often at the forefront of...
OTS Reverses Course
Thanks in good part to a change in leadership, the federal Office of Thrift Supervision announced in September that it is reversing its regressive 2005 decision to cut CRA enforcement. Under previous director James...
No Smoking Gun
It seems that HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson has been heard urging his staff to steer contracts toward people who like President Bush. But since an investigation by HUD’s inspector general into the matter could...
The Seven Basic Principles of Universal Design
Equitable. Useful to people with all sorts of abilities. Provides the same means of use for all; does not segregate any user; makes the design safe and appealing to all.
Flexible. Accommodates a wide range...
Why Merge?
Since its inception in the late 1960s, the community development corporation (CDC) industry has grown dramatically, totalling 4,600 CDCs in 2005, according to a census conducted by the National Congress for Community Economic Development...
A Surprising Payoff in California
Inclusionary housing (also called inclusionary zoning) is gaining popularity in California. It requires for-profit developers to build a percentage of affordable housing in all new developments. Yet some housing activists are skeptical of inclusionary...
Identity Crisis
Shelters and food pantries are lifelines for homeless people. But soon they may be out of reach. When in May the House passed the Federal Housing Finance Reform Act (HR 1427), which allots approximately...
Snapshots of Some Initiative Successes
A mother of two young children, Maria started babysitting to supplement her family’s income. Even though she worked hard, she barely made any money until joining a Latina support group of the Child Care...
What’s Rural?
Definitions of “rural,” especially as devised to determine eligibility benefits for federal programs, can make anyone dizzy. Rural advocates take issue with the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) latest way of defining Metro...
Shelter Shorts
Not a Pretty Picture at HUD
The Department of Housing and Urban Development recently contracted with Connecticut artist Daniel Mark Duffy to paint portraits of HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson, as well as his four predecessors...
Straight-Talk Express?
If you think “nightmare” when you hear about Chicago’s high-rise public-housing projects, Beauty Turner wants to take you for a ride. Turner’s “ghetto bus tour” acquaints sightseers with the vanishing world of the city’s...
The Heart of the Story
CNBC’s “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer’s now-famous summertime tirade about the collapse of the subprime markets captivated media pundits and bloggers, as well as close to 2 million YouTube viewers. With his soliloquy about...
Getting it Done
An AmeriCorps program that brings together talented young people and community-development groups seeking greater capacity is making a difference in Indianapolis.
Struggling in the Crescent City
Grass-roots advocacy groups and community-advocacy organizations are taking the lead in restoring housing in New Orleans.
Suffer the Little Children
Why is it that no good policy goes unpunished in the Bush administration? Since its inception in 1997, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-Chip) has provided health insurance to millions of kids whose...
Credit Where Credit is Due
I wholeheartedly agree with Peter Dreier that housing activists should join with others to support policies that would lift the working poor (and other poor people) out of poverty. I also agree that the...
Martinez Makes Amends
Housing advocates are wondering if Mel Martinez had a conversion on the road to the Capitol. His record as HUD secretary merited failing grades on affordable-housing production and homelessness. Since his election to the...
Half-Truths on the Hudson
Through the rose-colored glasses of USA Today, Jersey City looks fabulous. America’s newspaper ran a feature article describing how the Hudson County city-long before “The Sopranos,” the butt of a thousand Jersey jokes and...
