collaboration

In the 1970s, anti-redlining movements were in full swing and the idea that activists, lenders, and elected officials could share power to revitalize communities and advance homeownership felt like a reach. But that was exactly my charge.

Laws designed to ease regulations that limit housing diversity and supply are passing in states around the country. Affordable housing advocates in four states talked with us about the coalitions that have come together, and how they might fit within the larger advocacy framework.

Housing markets don’t stay within state boundaries. Why should housing finance agencies?

Bridge to Power aims to boost partner organizations’ capacity, information exchange, and agency.

Here are the steps to having economies operated by stewardship, not speculation.

While affordable housing with some office space for nonprofits is relatively common, in Redmond, Washington, a group of human services organizations went the other way: they rebuilt their collective office space and added housing.

Some community development organizations have added education to their traditional focus on housing and economic development. By partnering with local school districts, they’re looking for ways to support families and children in their neighborhoods. How’s it working?

Schools affect their neighborhoods—if community developers don’t harness that connection for equitable change, someone else will.

A medical complex in Mississippi draws on local artists to go beyond doctors’ offices and become a gathering place for those living nearby.

To understand nonprofit centers and how they achieve their impact, it’s helpful to think of them in layers: the building as an asset, the building as a program, and the building as a platform for collaboration.

At their roots, both the arts and community development amplify a people’s voice. And while this connection makes sense on paper, it can look a lot different in practice. We would like to share three insights from our work together that speak to the promise, and peril, of such collaboration.

Lack of identification hurts many different groups in different ways—from the homeless to immigrants, and they all need to be considered in the fight for an alternative.