Issue #159-160

Homeownership can often be a way for families to get good stable housing as well as an effective vehicle for them to accumulate wealth. However, owning a home is not likely to be a wise investment for families in unstable work or family situations.

Starrett City, the largest federally subsidized housing complex in the country, will remain affordable for another 30 years, easing the minds of residents worrying that a proposed sale would cause […]

Only a very small fraction of mortgage modifications made under the $75 billion Making Home Affordable program have been made permanent, triggering some tough talk from the Obama administration, but […]

Heightened awareness, new school programs, and increased police presence are only some of the methods used to curb youth violence, but a new study underway at the University of Chicago […]

ACORN, the 40-year-old, nationwide community organizing group has suffered more political fallout in 2009 than any number of shamed political officials embattling a public scandal, never mind the fact that […]

Columbia University’s plan to expand its Harlem campus north into a 17-acre parcel currently occupied by warehouses and auto repair shops was put to a halt by the New York […]

How can we practice effective community development and engage a community that suffers from a dwindling stock of physical historical references and is in the process of healing from the wounds of decades of urban decay? In the Bronx, community members are coming together, taking pieces of the past and making history.

Vacant land gives way to residential and commercial development is a classic urban renewal storyline, but DC’s Columbia Heights is getting more than just retail and residential: it’s reclaiming its history.

Transit advocates and CDCs in two parts of the greater Boston
region are building cross-movement coalitions that are making
equitable transit-oriented development a part of the fight for
better transit access.

Shelterforce interviews George Moses, chairman of the board of the National Low Income Housing Coalition

In and around the Twin Cities, there is a tolerance for process and building relationships to handle the pressing challenges facing neighborhoods. 

The progressive movement is seeing a resurgence of younger organizers thanks, in part, to the “Obama effect” of the 2008 campaign, and a renewed attempt to articulate values and build authentic relationships.

The Community Reinvestment Act and the Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act hold great promise for the creation of a more financially inclusive nation, but both depend on critical “moments in time” in Congress that will determine whether they become good laws or are weakened beyond recognition

Towns long in Chicago’s shadow have sought creative ways
to collaborate for federal funding, while building off existing
partnerships as part of a long-term approach to neighborhood,
and regional, stabilization.

As the Bluff City picks itself up, its CDC community faces a host of challenges that are increasingly common across the field.

The nonprofit housing development field has myriad intermediaries and support organizations, but no one unified voice. Should it have one?

In the past decade, community land trusts and other shared equity housing models have gained wider acknowledgement and acceptance as a means of creating and preserving affordable housing in communities with high property values. But by cultivating the long-term success of homeowners, these models are also bringing revitalization and stability to areas with weak markets and high foreclosures.

The Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act provides much-needed relief for tenants across the country in properties undergoing foreclosure. But with one-third of Americans living as tenants, is this a sign of a protracted federal response, or is it a one-shot deal?

In early October 2008, The Kirwan Institute hosted a national summit on subprime lending, foreclosure, and race. We didn’t know it when we were planning the event, but a series of unfolding economic events spurred by our nation’s housing crisis would have our government contemplating a $700 billion financial sector bailout on the eve of our convening.

Plucked from New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation & Development, Shaun Donovan is leading the effort to make the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development into a relevant, powerful agency.

What started out as a “weird art project” in Toronto is
providing aural illustrations into a northern New Jersey community’s past, and, organizers hope, laying the groundwork for the future.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under the Obama administration is equipped with an impressive list of housing experts at the top.