Jul/Aug 2000
Issue #112
Resident Empowerment
In our lead article, we look at the latest offensive in the war on poverty, being fought in scores of cities and rural areas around the country. The Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Community Initiative (EZ/EC), administered by HUD (and USDA in rural areas), aims to improve economic opportunities for the poor, using tax credits and grants. So after decades of false starts, inconsistent commitment, and underfunding, are the people finally in charge? Also, a look at two types of the growing number of programs in financial literacy and housing counseling, and an overview of life in manufactured home parks and the policies that affect it. And George Knight reflects on his many years of service at the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation.
Learning the Ropes
At first, John Taylor, education coordinator for Chicago Commons Employment Training Center, had doubts about the idea of partnering with a local bank for a financial education program. The Center’s […]
Rekindling Hope in the American Dream
The East Baltimore neighborhood where Bette Ramsey lived with her adult daughter and 10-year-old grandson was a war zone, complete with drug dealers, gunfire, and crack houses. The Ramseys were […]
George Knight
After nearly 25 years with Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation (NRC), and ten years as its executive director, George Knight is leaving NRC this September. Knight has been a tireless and outspoken […]
Homeowners, and Tenants Too
Coachella Valley’s 200 mobile home parks provide the only available housing for many agricultural workers in Riverside County, California. But living in the parks, which often lack electrical, water, and […]
Empowerment – From Rhetoric to Reality?
At its outset, the community development field was about resident empowerment. From the War on Poverty to the forging of the community development corporation industry, the goal has been – […]
Shelter Shorts
You can lead housing to the candidates, but… On June 24th, attempting to draw Vice-President Al Gore’s attention to housing issues, the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) placed a house in […]
Money Doesn’t Always Win
“You know, LeRoy, money always wins.” At those words, LeRoy Lemos sprang into action. Lemos, a community activist and director of the PODER Project in Denver, Colorado, was organizing against […]
Finding Ways to Cover Administrative Costs
This fall, at a philanthropy conference at the White House, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton said emphatically that if the philanthropic sector was serious about making the world a better […]
Community Development Legislative News
New Bill to Establish National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Senator John F. Kerry (D-MA) introduced S. 2997, the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2000, on July 27. Stressing […]
Neighborhood Principles For Smart Growth
Across the country, Americans have become frustrated with the way their communities are growing. People are troubled by increasing gridlock, vanishing farmland and open space, and a loss of a […]
Urban Decline and the Global Economy
Mollie’s Job : A Story of Life and Work on the Global Assembly Line, by William M. Adler, Scribner, May 2000. 352pp. $27.50. To understand the link between urban decay […]
Remembering a Housing Hero
Houser: The Life and Work of Catherine Bauer by H. Peter Oberlander and Eva Newbrun. University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, 1999. 320 pp. $85 cloth, $29.95 paper. (Paperback available […]