Nov/Dec 2005
Issue #144
30th Anniversary of Shelterforce: Looking Back, Looking Forward
Three decades ago, a group of activists came together to create a social justice movement to organize poor and working-class people around the issues of homes and communities. Learning the lessons from the Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam war movements, this group knew that passion and demonstrations were not enough. To succeed, many parts were needed, including information and a communications vehicle. That group was the Shelterforce Collective. Things change in 30 years. In this issue, a number of the early tenant activists reflect on what first attracted them to their work, how the movement changed, and in what direction social justice and housing activism are heading. We’ve also asked leaders of a few national housing, community development and social justice organizations to identify the challenges we face going forward and the strategies we’ll need to succeed as we wrestle with increasing poverty and inequality in a rapidly changing world.
The Battle in Brooklyn
In June 2004, inside Brooklyn’s Borough Hall, a stage was packed with New York’s most important political, labor, community and religious leaders. One of them, Bertha Lewis, executive director of […]
The Emergence of the CDC Network
In 1967, the first CDC was born in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. Government, business and the middle class had pulled their resources from the area as the poor and non-white population […]
Will President Bush Reform the Mansion Subsidy?
For years, progressives have been denouncing “welfare for the rich” – government subsidies to big business, pork-barrel Pentagon contracts to weapons makers, huge tax breaks for wealthy individuals and, most […]
The Tenants Movement and Housers
Much has changed in the last 30 years about both Shelterforce magazine and the housing movement. Shelterforce, which began as a tenants’ rights and organizing publication, is now more broadly […]
Building Alliances at All Levels
For everyone working in community development, the scenes and the stories from New Orleans reminded us of the importance of our work as well as the need to bring it […]
Time to Build on Our Accomplishments
In addition to Shelterforce’s 30th year of publishing, 2005 also marks LISC’s 25th anniversary. From Shelterforce’s first issue to the day LISC opened its doors in 1980, community development was […]
Working in Partnership
On this 30th anniversary of Shelterforce, it makes sense to take a more global approach to addressing the problems unmasked by Hurricane Katrina. We need to not only recognize the […]
Homeownership: The Next 30 Years
Professional handwringers are maintaining a hyper-vigilant watch over the real estate market these days, anxiously looking for signs of gloom and doom. As neighborhood revitalization and affordable housing advocates, we […]
New Movements for a New Era
Three decades ago, a group of activists came together to create a social justice movement to organize poor and working-class people around the issues of homes and communities. Learning the […]
Shelter Shorts
Housing Fund Gets Hijacked Housing advocates should have been smiling when the U.S. House of Representatives voted on Oct. 26 to require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to allot some […]
Foundation Trends in Social Justice Grantmaking
Social justice grantmaking encompasses a broad range of fields. In 2002, economic and community development captured the largest share of social justice grant dollars (19 percent), followed by health care […]
Demanding a Better Deal
Save Middle East Action Committee (SMEAC) was created in 2001 by community stakeholders and representatives in Baltimore after the local newspaper announced that they would be forcibly dislocated from their […]
Thirty Years of Pablo: In His Own Words
Challenges for Nonprofits and Philanthropy: The Courage to Change – Three Decades of Reflections, by Pablo Eisenberg, edited by Stacy Palmer. Tufts University Press, 2005, 242 pp. $29.95 (hardcover). Years […]