Practitioner Voice

Shelterforce has always been driven by the voices of the people in the housing field. Practitioner voice pieces are neither reported journalism nor standard opinion pieces, but articles that share knowledge, insight, or examples from people who work or research in the field.

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Supreme Court Considers Landlord Appeal That Could Overturn Tenant Protections

A legal case claiming that COVID-era eviction moratoriums were unconstitutional could spell trouble for tenant protections

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Practitioner Voice

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."
Practitioner Voice

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.

Whatever Happened to ...

Burdensome Documentation Requirements Keep NOLA Homeowners from Getting Home

The Road Home program was supposed to help thousands of families rebuild their homes after Hurricane Katrina. Instead, $33 million was left undistributed, and now the Louisiana Office of Community Development is suing homeowners who couldn’t rebuild.

Opinion

Community Engagement Can’t Be a Checklist

Are we engaging communities meaningfully, or are we just checking off boxes?

Practitioner Voice

Why Do Low-Income Residents Oppose Development Even When Displacement Risk Is Low?

There’s more than one way to be excluded from your community.

Indian Country homes
Practitioner Voice

Increasing Access to Affordable Housing in Indian Country

There is a strong desire for homeownership among Native households, but a set of obstacles specific to Native lands are getting in the way.

a manufactured home
Practitioner Voice

How to Temper the Influence of Private Equity in Manufactured Housing

The risk of onerous lot rent increases and the fear of eviction are more threatening than ever as private equity enters the manufactured housing market.

Snow-covered Downtown Chinatown in Philadelphia.
Practitioner Voice

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. […]

Practitioner Voice

Tenant Organizing From the Ground Up

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

Practitioner Voice

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 […]

Practitioner Voice

Who, Why, and How Communities Oppose Affordable Housing

The results of a survey of affordable housing developers in New York State and their experiences with communities that oppose affordable housing.

Practitioner Voice

NIMBY: Where, When, And to Which Developers It Happens

Looking at how affordable housing developers deal with community opposition, we tackle the issue of the timing of opposition and developer responses.