Tag: Chicago
Squatters Ask Chicago: Why So Many Vacancies?
Officials in Chicago are struggling to address the city's homelessness and housing crises. So why does the Chicago Public Housing Authority have one of the highest rates of vacancy in the country?
How It’s Working: Laws That Help Tenants and Nonprofits Buy Buildings
Shelterforce checks in on three communities that have passed policies giving tenants and nonprofits first dibs on purchasing property. Are these policies keeping residents in their homes?
How One Organization Is Preserving Housing Co-Ops
A group formed to promote student housing co-ops in the ’60s is acquiring and preserving cooperative housing for future generations.
The Road to Transportation Equity: Listening to Non-Drivers
Laying the groundwork for transportation equity can start with listening to disabled people’s experiences of infrastructure for non-drivers.
Tax Increment Financing (TIF): Revitalization Tool, Developer Handout … or Both?
Tax increment financing attracts development in disinvested areas, but it also diverts millions of tax revenue away from city services to investors. And some claim officials are using the program in racist and corrupt ways. What is TIF? And how does it work?
Three Ways AFFH Has Advanced Housing Justice
Grassroots organizers have used the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule to strengthen communities in the past. These examples show what we should advocate for in a new AFFH rule.
Fighting Back Against Corporate Landlords—A Shelterforce Webinar
Shelterforce recently hosted a conversation about how to fight, and win, against corporate landlords and their extractive business models. Watch the video or read the transcript.
How Tax Assessments are Racist
Between biased property appraisals that undervalue Black-owned properties and biased tax assessments that levy an unfair burden, homeowners of color are flanked by a double-whammy of racism.
When the Unemployed Fought Back
During the Great Depression, unemployed people organized and put their lives on the line to keep each other in their homes.
Living in a Bubble: Development When Community Doesn’t Matter
How suburban luxury high-rises are lowering everyone’s quality of life.
What’s the Best Way to Judge How Well a City’s Housing...
CityHealth revamps its housing medal criteria, shifts away from inclusionary zoning to flexible funding and tenant protections. “We realized there is no singular policy intervention that can address the whole of affordable housing.”
Blame Policies, Not Places, for Poor Health
Shifting blame from people to ZIP codes is not enough to create healthy communities. Here’s how to do better.
Making Inclusionary Housing Programs a Force for Racial Equity
Three city administrators go beyond the press releases to talk about what it really takes to make an inclusionary housing requirement serve households of color.
Chicago Changes How It Allocates Tax Credits to Improve Racial Equity
How did the Windy City expand the idea of advancing racial equity through low-income housing tax credits beyond where affordable housing is built?
Affordable Housing for LGBTQ Seniors
LGBTQ seniors are more likely than peers their age to experience discrimination, leaving them more likely to be poor and have chronic health problems. What does it take to create affordable, LGBTQ-friendly senior housing?
Fighting No-Fault Evictions with a Just Cause Ordinance
Despite a state-wide eviction moratorium, thousands of people have been evicted in Chicago since March. A coalition of housing advocates is proposing a just cause ordinance that would halt no-fault evictions.
Three Local Policy Innovations that Promote Inclusive, Equitable Mixed-Income Communities
Making inclusion and equity a reality in more American metropolitan areas is possible. Doing so requires innovations in local, regional, and state policies related to mixed-income communities.
Funding to Purchase Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing
A closer look at three funds that have helped preserve NOAH properties and kept them affordable for years to come.
Systemic Racism Starts and Ends with Housing
Along with standing up against police violence and systemic racism, we must also fight to end housing systems that devalue Black people.
Feeding People in a Pandemic
Across the country, community organizations and food-related businesses have found creative ways to provide meals and groceries to low-income people in need.