Opinion

How do you describe the people you work for and with, or the neighborhoods you work in? Do you use primarily “deficit-based” language like “distressed,” “at-risk,” “vulnerable,” “blighted,” “high crime,” […]

CLTs’ dependence on external grant funding to acquire land and maintain their operations make them particularly susceptible to mission drift. Coming in with this knowledge, organizers may still be able to use the tool adequately or opt for other collective land ownership strategy.

“We could use some gentrification here.” Let’s never say this—we must refrain from debating the long-term likelihood of gentrification in distressed places.

Using homeownership as an asset-building mechanism and retirement plan might not be a great thing for our society.

A common narrative being promoted about why there is a housing crisis ignores history and serves to assuage new residents’ guilty feelings. But we can craft a new narrative together.

It’s not because they’re stupid. If we want to convince people, we need to stop yelling and start listening.

We have a limited number of dense core neighborhoods where getting around without a car and without a lengthy daily commute are possible.

Nonprofits advocate for local transit spending, but annual conference logistics don’t typically include bus route information for attendees.

In discussions around closing the racial wealth gap, we should be reminded that a very large portion of wealth gained by white Americans should be seen as ill-gotten.

At the Aug. 1, 1968 signing ceremony, President Johnson proclaimed “Today, we are going to put on the books of American law what I genuinely believe is the most farsighted, the most comprehensive, the most massive housing program in all American history.” He was right. 

As housing activists and academics who conduct research on issues of housing and displacement, we have encountered major problems with Eviction Lab’s practices.

Participatory budgeting offers a glimpse of how a more civically engaged society might work, but it’s also a distraction.