Mar/Apr 1999
Issue #104
The Rise and Fall of Eastside Community Investments
In the past few years, we’ve seen a number of surprising failures of both big and small CDCs. One of the most surprising and disturbing was the fall of Eastside Community Investments. One of the original Title VI organizations, ECI was rightly held as a model for its vision, scope, and effectiveness. Carol Steinbach presents the story of ECI’s fall and uncovers some warning signs for the whole industry. In companion pieces, Robert Zdenek identifies eight key characteristics of effective CDCs and Mark Weinheimer distills the lessons in capacity building derived from the $250 million, 10-year National Community Development Initiative. These lessons are more than just casual observations. The CDC industry must pay close attention, before additional surprises befall us.
Dennis West on ECI’s Rise and Fall
Did Eastside Community Investment push the envelope too far? We did a whole lot of things right for a long time. In spite of what happened, there’s a pretty remarkable […]
The 8 Habits of Highly Effective CDCs
1 CDC leaders must be aware of their own limitations and recognize they’re responsible for developing staff and building institutions. Any entrepreneurial venture – not just a CDC – can […]
Boosting the Capacity of CDCs
Despite documentable growth in the number and capability of community development corporations (CDCs) across the country, many observers of the field still believe that limitations in the abilities of individual […]
New Hope for Public Housing?
America’s hulking public housing towers have provided a shifting symbol through the years. When built, they symbolized a generous system, giving comfort to Americans who needed help finding shelter. They […]
CDCs, Social Capital, and Housing Quality
In a deteriorated section of Brooklyn, New York, one building stands out on the block. It is newly renovated and better kept than surrounding properties. The CDC that owns it […]
From Movement to Industry and Back Again
A remarkable thing has happened over the past three decades. Throughout the country, in urban and rural communities, nonprofit community-based development organizations (CBDOs) such as CDCs, faith-based groups, and community […]
Shelter Shorts
Landlord Must Accept Section 8 The New Jersey Supreme Court said in March that landlords cannot refuse to participate in the Section 8 program if one of their tenants becomes […]
Ten Common Sense Ways to Fill Your Development Funding Gap
One of the most challenging stages of any affordable housing project is securing the final subsidies that make the project financially feasible. The difficulty lies with the fact that at […]
Remaking Public Housing
Charter Oak Terrace: Life, Death and Rebirth of a Public Housing Project, David Radcliffe. 194 pp. Hartford, CT: Southside Media, 1998. As housing authorities across the country attempt to transform […]
Strategy Shift Yields Jobs from Marriott
A local organization affiliated with National People’s Action, a 27-year-old coalition of grassroots neighborhood groups, won a public meeting with Chicago Police Superintendent Terry Hillard in February. One of the […]
1,000,000 Homes at Risk
Sweeping changes in national housing policy have put hundreds of thousands of public and federally assisted (Section 8) housing units at risk. These drastic policy changes – driven by congressional […]
Community Development Legislative News
From the National Low Income Housing Coalition President Submits HUD’s FY2000 Request The Clinton administration submitted its FY2000 budget request to Congress on February 1. The FY2000 HUD budget emphasizes […]