Practitioner Voice

With attention—and funding—focused on new housing supply over preservation and operations, even mission-driven nonprofit affordable housing managers are struggling to maintain decent conditions in older affordable housing.

Research explores residents’ experiences with and observations about community development organizations in four cities.

In an era of runaway housing costs, the Supreme Court is going to decide whether it’s illegal to not be able to afford them.

A church with a shrinking congregation sold its land to SquareOne Villages to develop the Peace Village Co-op, a 70-unit housing development that’s both a community land trust and limited-equity co-op. How does combining these shared-equity homeownership models work?

Between 2011 and 2022, the number of nonprofits with shared-equity programs and CLTs increased by 30 percent. Here’s a look at the diversity of their programs and portfolios, and who’s benefiting from their rise.

A survey of Cambridge, Massachusetts, residents found that residents of affordable units in inclusionary housing properties reported frequently experiencing bias, especially from management. Here’s how we can change that.

The assessments that evaluate a bank’s lending practices have improved, but there are several missed opportunities for reform. For one, the new rules won’t incorporate a racial analysis into lending examinations.

Homelessness rose by 12 percent between 2022 and 2023. Blaming drug use and immigration for the increase distracts us from the real causes.

Arrangements in which LIHTC tenants share in the development’s financial benefits, or become partial or full owners, are rare—but some properties have pulled them off. This scan of several examples shows the possibilities—and the conditions needed for them to succeed.

Memphis is struggling with a dwindling population, driven in part by a high crime rate and disinvestment in low-income areas of the city. What are local organizations doing to turn this around?

Traumatic events, and the ongoing traumas of vacancy and disinvestment, can be strongly associated with the places where they occurred. In Cleveland, several organizations are bringing new function and meaning to traumatized spaces.

In 2022, a government task force released an action plan about combating bias in the appraisal industry. How can CDFIs fight back against the damage caused by under-appraisals?