May/Jun 2005
Issue #141
Coalition-Building and Engagement
Antonio Villaraigosa recently became the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles in a century, and won decisively by engaging with every demographic segment of the city. LA has seen such progressive coalitions in action for years. And in Washington a bipartisan bill, H.R. 1461, emerged from the House Financial Services Committee that could generate up to $1 billion a year for the production of low-income housing. Like Villaraigosa’s victory in LA, the success of H.R. 1461 did not come out of a vacuum. For years, advocates in D.C. and in municipalities, regions and states throughout the country have been engaging in campaigns to influence their elected officials to support affordable housing production. These two things, coalition building and engagement, were key to both of these victories and thread through the articles in this issue.
Cleveland’s Housing Court
In the fall of 1999, Tony Brancatelli and the Slavic Village Development Corporation turned to Cleveland’s Housing Court when it sued the owner of 11 severely neglected houses in its […]
Listening to the Community: A Park Designed Through Dialogue
The early housing development work in the 1990s of Hope Community Inc., a CDC based in a neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, began on what we now call the Hope […]
Making the Case for Employer-Assisted Housing
Given the array of housing challenges facing families and individuals in Illinois, advocates and other thoughtful observers might question the relevance of employer-assisted housing (EAH). EAH is a generic term […]
Mary Moody: Going Against the Grain
After experiencing North Carolina’s shelter system firsthand, Mary Moody began a crusade to ease the plight of the homeless.
A Matter of Life and Hope
Mossik Hacobian is not the kind of person you would immediately associate with saving lives. He’s not a cop or a fireman. If you were to meet him when he’s […]
Learning Lessons
Two seemingly disparate events occurred in the past few weeks. In LA Antonio Villaraigosa just became the first Latino mayor of that city in a century. He won decisively by […]
Shelter Shorts
Salt Lake Officials Try to Redirect Low-Income Housing City councilors in Salt Lake City are trying to redirect where low-income and affordable housing can be built. Currently, city-subsidized housing for […]
Dealing With Anxiety
During the 24 years I have been in fundraising, I have observed that the greatest factor causing people to leave fundraising, or to “burn out,” is not the work itself, […]
A Guide for Tenants on Leadership and Building Control
Renters in Washington, DC’s Shaw neighborhood have a little extra help these days as they organize to improve their living conditions – and maybe take over their buildings. The aid […]
Getting Back to the Basics
Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life, by Theda Skocpol. University of Oklahoma Press, 2003, 366 pp, $29.95 (hardcover). The debate raging between centrists and left-progressives as […]