Tag: history
What Is Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing?
Shelterforce has put together a short video to explain what "Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing," or AFFH, means, and the history of its enforcement.
AFFH’s Bumpy Road to Overcoming Segregation
The Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule was intended to force communities to take action to address housing segregation and discrimination. How has the rule evolved throughout the years, and will a proposed new rule finally put some teeth into the legal concept?
Tenants Rights Advance in California
Reaction to the housing crisis in California has led to a series of gains for tenants, including a new Renters’ Caucus.
The Rise and Fall of the National Tenants Union
The National Tenants Union fought for tenant rights in the 1970s and early 1980s. One of the union’s founders reflects on the organization and what we might learn from those times.
Organized Tenants Are Baaaaack
After a lull in the 1990s, the tenants rights movement reemerged and has only gained strength. What caused the resurgence and what do tenants’ prospects look like?
The Making of Co-op City, the Nation’s Biggest Housing Co-op
Co-op City in the Bronx is the size of a small city—as well as a decades old housing co-op and an island of comparative affordability. How did it come about?
How the Federal Reserve’s Monetary Policy Drives Housing Inequality
If high home prices and rents are hallmarks of inequality, the actions of the Federal Reserve should give us pause. Its policy interventions have had profound effects on housing prices.
The Financialization of Housing and Its Implications for Community Development
Over the last two decades homeowners and investors have increasingly treated housing as a financial asset, like stocks or bonds. How has this changed the housing market for the worse, and how can we fix it?
How Rent Control Helped Create East Palo Alto
The story of East Palo Alto’s incorporation is one marked by great contention among local stakeholders, but also provides valuable lessons for organizers in forging and mobilizing local coalitions.
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.
Doing “The Right Thing” Won’t Close the Racial Wealth Gap
Solutions to address racial wealth inequality have often focused on behavioral changes and individual choices, minimizing efforts to dismantle structural barriers to wealth accumulation for Black Americans.
Philly’s 1970s Fight to Revive Rent Control
As rent control reemerges as a strategy to address an intense housing crisis, we go back 50 years to examine the lessons learned from past struggles in Philadelphia.
The Cooperative Struggle Against Redlining
Many people are familiar with redlining, but less well known are the handful of cooperatives that sprouted up following WWII with a bold mission: providing integrated, community-owned housing.
History Shows that in Times of Crisis, Housing Activists Get Radical
A recent spate of vacant home occupations echo squatters campaigns of the past.
The Age of Predatory Inclusion
A review of Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership, by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor.
Out of the Flames
A review of a documentary about the decade-long period in the South Bronx when 80 percent of its housing, home to around a quarter of a million people, was lost to fire.
When the Homeless Took Over
As the homeless and affordable housing crises become a focus on local and national campaigns, we must remember the rich history and critical contributions of homeless organizers.