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affordable housing

Dedicated from the beginning to everyone working to empower and support low-income communities, Shelterforce provides a venue for conversations that need to be had—on topics such as housing affordability, homeownership, and lots more.

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What’s Happening with the Billions in Climate Funding for Low-Income Communities?

Shelterforce breaks down the latest information on the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. How can the affordable housing industry take advantage of the funding opportunities, and why are some folks worried about the fund's rollout?

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Opinion

TOPA Needs Capital to Succeed

TOPA helps prevent displacement and build tenant power in D.C. Affordable capital is critical to its success.

Reported Article

This Part of Spain Has Won Rent Regulations U.S. Tenant Activists Can Only Dream Of

In Spain, a new law makes rent control possible—and one region has implemented it. In Catalunya, a rent freeze and rental price index promise to help struggling tenants.

Parking-lot view of an apartment building in the "5 over 1" style, with a gray exterior at the bottom, the third- and fourth-floor exteriors in bright red, and a lighter gray top level, for a horizontal stripe effect. An end unit is all white, and the row of windows is broken by one projecting all-glass section. To the right of the building is a terrace area with umbrellas and a gathering of people.
Opinion

Nonprofit Housing Developers Deserve Better LIHTC Terms

When it comes to LIHTC deals, nonprofit developers don’t get the same advantages big, for-profit developers do. A new fund is setting out to change that.

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Reported Article

Reining in Rising Property Insurance Rates 

There are many proposed ways to mitigate the property insurance cost crisis. They all require federal or state government to act.

View from across the street of a restored nine-story building dating from 1909. The facade is brick and terra cotta, with arch details over the second-story windows and on the top floor windows.
Whatever Happened to ...

The Permanent Affordability That Wasn’t: Lessons from the Pythian Building

A high-stakes, high-profile community land trust project once hailed as a triumph in New Orleans ended in disaster for its residents, but it’s important to draw the right lessons about why.

Seven people wearing jackets and caps on a city sidewalk holding signs that say "Listen to UREB," "Save Our Homes," "Negotiate with UREB," or "5,000 Against Displacement." One person is speaking into a microphone. At the curb by the speaker is a van with WRLC painted on the side, for Western Reserve Land Conservancy.
Reported Article

Nonprofit to Close Mobile Home Community to Build a Park

Ohio’s largest conservation land trust has been accused of purchasing a manufactured housing community with the very intention of closing it, evicting more than 100 households in the process. But proponents of the park’s closure say the land’s failing infrastructure—and the benefit the property will bring to an entire city—is what forced the decision.

Roadside sign in red and blue print on white background reads "Welcome to the/Red Lake Nation/NW Angle MN/Home of the Red Lake Band/of Chippewa Indians. The sign is hung on two wooden stanchions set into the grassy roadside. Behind it in the distance is a thick stand of tall straight trees, possibly poplars. Behind the trees in the sky is a puffy cloud, in a sky of blue.
Reported Article

Tribal-Sponsored Development Offers Housing and More in Minneapolis

A hub for health care, social services, and community, the Mino-Bimaadiziwin apartments meet the unique needs of urban Native Americans while enriching the surrounding community.

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Opinion

Legitimate Debate or Short-Sighted Complaints? 5 Reasons Affordable Housing Is Expensive to Build

There’s no denying that affordable housing can be expensive to build. But we need to look at the long-term benefits of those investments to see the bigger picture.

A sign on a brick wall advising drivers of a steep hill. The sign is all-caps black lettering on a white background.
Reported Article

How ‘Tenant Stewards’ Are Using TOPA to Form a Co-op

Organized by a pandemic-era mutual aid group, this housing cooperative is taking advantage of D.C.’s pioneering Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act. But the pressure of paying back a loan with mounting interest could stymie the group’s plans to provide affordable housing.

multifamily buildings
Opinion

The FSS Program Was Expanded Beyond Public Housing Authorities—Here’s How It’s Going

In 2018, the Family Self-Sufficiency Program was expanded to privately owned properties receiving project-based rental assistance. Here’s a look at how early adopters have used the program to support residents, and the lessons they learned along the way.

Close-up of document titled "Rent Increase Notice." Text is partly hidden by a blue and silver ballpoint pen. Visible text says "...inform you that beginning on ____ .... increase by $_____. No other ..... to original rental agreement.... monthly payment is due on the first...."
Reported Article

How Tenant Activists Won Protections Against Mid-Lease Rent Hikes in Affordable Housing

Last year, we reported on tenants in Northern Virginia LIHTC properties whose rents were raised in the middle of their leases. Here’s how other states have banned the practice.

A graphic showing buildings, some shaded in red, to illustrate Shelterforce's new Under the Lens series, LIHTC: The Good, the Bad, and the Very Complicated
Reported Article

LIHTC: How It Started, How It’s Going

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit was created in a moment when other real estate tax preferences were going away—but at the time, no one expected it to grow into the main source of affordable housing finance in the country.