Subject: Advocacy
Now that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is properly equipped with Richard Cordray as its director, news that it will monitor nonbank entities (independent lenders, brokers, servicers) in the same way it does banks is certainly good news for those…
The annoucement of the Justice Department's settlement with Countrywide over violations of fair lending laws is a landmark victory that deserves recognition. For years, NCLR (the National Council of La Raza) has called attention to a particularly egregious form of…
The holiday season is a time when we express our lofty wishes and set new resolutions for personal improvement, but there is nothing lofty about my holiday wish list this year. It is pragmatic and reasonable; better yet, it will…
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Last week, when we asked if homelessness should be a more prominent Occupy Wall Street issue, we pointed to an article by author Barbara Ehrenreich that looked at homelessness from a logistic standpoint; that examined the legal obstacles that face…
How many times have you pointed to something in your community and said “If only we could put someone to work fixing that [house/sidewalk/bridge/factory/park…]?”
The American Dream Movement has created a website as part of its push to put American back to work doing infrastructure investment. It’s a simple collection photos of places where public investment would create multiplier effects for public safety and economic health. It’s called Work That Needs Doing.
This strikes me as a perfect project for community-based organizations small and large to tap into their own knowledge of their neighborhoods, their existing neighborhood plans, and their volunteer and member bases—especially youth. What needs doing in your community?
Post links here if you add pictures to the site, and we’ll consider the best shots to illustrate Shelterforce stories on relevant topics in the coming year!
(Photo from Work That Needs Doing, by Deanna J Marquart, Sacramento, CA) more
Rose Gudiel is on the front lines of a growing protest movement to stop banks from foreclosing on families victimized by the economic crisis and abusive banking practices. The 35-year old Gudiel, who juggles two jobs and lives with her…
I suspect I came to the same conclusion when titling this post as Harold Simon did when thinking of a title for our summer 2011 interview with Conrad Egan, who retired as president of the National Housing Conference in 2010. Conrad Egan — an organizer, housing developer, HUD official, and affordable housing advocate — is often best identified by name alone.
Don’t be mistaken: the whole cliche that he “needs no introduction” is not applicable here. Egan deserves an introduction. Our interview spans his five-decade career, from his time at the University of Michigan School of Social Work where he specialized in community organizing, to his abrupt meeting with Saul Alinsky in Chicago (who promptly told Egan to get back to Detroit), to his first stint at HUD working with the likes of Marilyn Melkonian, to the National Housing Partnership, to a second stint at HUD, to NHC, and to a decidedly busy post-retirement working to end homelessness in Fairfax County and serving on advisory boards to the Virginia governor, Housing Virginia, and DC’s Community Preservation Development Corporation.
It’s a fascinating interview on several levels, but Egan’s ability for storytelling is on display here, particularly when he describes being in Detroit during the 1967 race riots:
We could hear the guns — there would be a “pop,” and then there would be a 50-caliber machine gun response, “pop-pop-pop.” And the major rioting occurred a little north of us, up 12th Street, north of the boulevard, and then over on the west side, over on Cass and other streets like that. Our neighborhood supermarket got burned out. A lot of our neighbor institutions were destroyed. We were in our home and we heard all this stuff going on, but we didn’t feel threatened or endangered.
I was working at the time at University of Detroit Housing Law Project over on the immediate other side of the CBD at the University of Detroit Law School. And I walked into the office, and there was nobody there, and the streets were deserted. So I eventually called my boss, who was located close by in a development called Lafayette Park. This is an interesting development in Detroit that was designed I think by Mies van der Rohe, if I have my architects correct. It’s typical Mies style.
And so she said, “Hey, come on over to my apartment and we’ll get together.” It was a fascinating, amazing picture. If you looked out over this high-rise, and looked down on the folks who were there because they didn’t go to work because they were scared, they were down there swimming in the pool and having their margaritas and Bloody Marys. But as you looked out over the city, you could see the smoke plumes coming up.
There’s so much more. You should really check it out here. more
Yesterday, the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard released its 2011 State of the Nation’s Housing report in an event at the Ford Foundation. George McCarthy, director of Ford’s Metropolitan Opportunity Unit, opened the event by saying he thought…
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One of the highlights of this year’s National Community Reinvestment Coalition conference was the luncheon on Day 2, which took place in the Hart Senate building after NCRC members broke off into their respective delegations to meet with their representatives.…
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Michael De Los Santos, community organizer and outreach and project coordinator with the Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina talks about working within communities served by his organization, spoke with us at the 2011 National Community Reinvestment Coalition conference about…
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Dolores Swartworth, an at-large member of the Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group, spoke with us at this year’s National Community Reinvestment Coalition conference on the value of the event and what, at 80 years old and “20-some” NCRC conferences in her…
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We had a great opportunity to interview several attendees of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s 2011 annual conference on what they hoped to achieve, some of the issues they planned to raise with their legislators, and what tips they wanted to bring back to their communities and organizations.
One of those attendees was Joby Thoyalil, a program associate at the New York City–based Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project (NEDAP). This was his first time attending, though NEDAP has had a presence at NCRC in past years. We spoke to him at the outset of the conference, and here’s what he had to say.
We’ll have more videos featuring insights and commentary from conference attendees posted shortly. Check back here at Rooflines, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter for daily updates. more
We’ve been interviewing attendees at this year’s National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s annual conference, and we plan on posting individual interviews shortly. Those attendees who were kind enough to take time to speak with us, told us of the tools and…
When you see a conference plenary session described as “positioning your organization for growth,” you probably expect some descriptions of grant writing strategies or succession planning. That is distinctly not what Robert Eggers, founder of DC Central Kitchen and author…
Over at the Gotham Gazette, David King walks us through the latest round of politics over New York City’s rent regulation laws, which have to be renewed by the state legislature. The regs expire on June 15, and the usual…
Fair Housing: The Work Continues and the Vision Expands is the theme of our cover package in our Spring 2011 issue as we explore the continued fight for equity in the 21st century and recall that the civil rights movement, which birthed the community development movement, recognizes that separate is not equal.
As April is Fair Housing Month, it’s only appropriate that this new issue features an interview with HUD Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity John Trasvina as he discusses updates to the Fair Housing Act, a changing definition of “family,” changes to Section 3 and affirmatively furthering fair housing.
This is the latest in our housing policy interview series that includes interviews with HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and Rep. Barney Frank.
PolicyLink’s Angela Glover Blackwell, in Equity Is Not Optional, addresses racial and economic disparities saying that focusing on the most vulnerable communities and people and addressing racial and economic disparities is not only the right thing to do — it’s the only way we can succeed.
Next, Philip Tegeler of the Poverty and Race Research Action Council and Scott Bernstein of the Center for Neighborhood Technology examine CNT’s Housing + Transportation Index that measures neighborhood affordability. Here, Bernstein argues the index provides a fair calculation in siting affordable housing in areas that are truly affordable in terms of transportation costs. Tegeler, however, remains concerned about segregated, higher poverty neighborhoods.
Rounding out our fair housing package is Heather Schwartz, who writes based on a report she penned for The Century Foundation, that inclusionary zoning and economic integration in suburban neighborhoods not only reduces concentration of poverty, it directly improves low-income children’s academic achievement.
Predatory Equity
In New York City, we’ve seen many cases where predatory equity investors speculate on multifamily housing and the tenants are the ones that ultimately suffer due to harassment or a lack of building maintenance. Dina Levy of the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board writes that while there have been some victories, we’re seeing many buildings re-enter the cycle of speculation.
In the summer of 1973, Clive Campbell, more commonly known as DJ Kool Herc, began his now famous house concerts in the rec room at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, an 102-unit apartment building in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx. There, hip-hop was born, and has been recognized as such by the city. But, as James Fergusson reports, it’s also emblematic of the threat predatory equity poses to affordable multifamily housing.
Shrinking Cities
Deborah E. Popper and Frank J. Popper examine the zeitgeist of shrinking cities in Planning on Shrinking and that as cities like Detroit consider industrial contraction, the same consideration must apply to rural, suburban, and newly-emerging metro areas. The Poppers argue that we need to plan for the reality that many localities will not look like they once did.
Alan Mallach, an NHI senior fellow, looks at the roles community development corporations are playing — and how they are rethinking their traditional roles — in high abandonment areas in cities that are now considering shrinkage as policy.
This issue of Shelterforce also includes a review by Jan Breidenbach of Contesting Community: The Limits and Potential of Local Organizing by James DeFilippis, Robert Fisher, and Eric Shragge, our regular columns, Shelter Shorts, Industry News and Access, as well as correspondence from our regular readers. As you’re reading, we want to hear your take. You can comment online at the bottom of any article, or you can send your thoughts to: letters@nhi.org more
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Facing the loss of 173 subsidized apartments — nearly 10 percent of the affordable housing in the Fenway neighborhood in Boston — tenants and the wider neighborhood are fighting back. This week tenants and their attorneys appeared in Boston Housing…
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When I attended a housing-focused conference right after Election Day last year, there was an understandable pall cast over any discussions of politics and political will. So I thought this year’s National Low Income Housing Coalition’s conference might involve conversations…
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A report issued by the Federal Reserve has found no wrongful foreclosures following an investigation into abusive mortgage practices. Though we must quickly note that the definition of “wrongful foreclosures” has been immediately called into question by consumer advocates. Nonetheless,…
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This is some great film of National People’s Action holding a protest in DC to raise awareness of the possible deal brokered between 50 attorneys general and large U.S. banks accused of “flawed and fraudulent foreclosure practices,” or “foreclosuregate.”
NPA managed to temporarily close down the particular BofA branch at which they protested, but the rally was meant to underscore part of the deal that proposes a $20 billion settlement. Elizabeth Warren, head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and former overseer of TARP, and FDIC chair Sheila Baer are also pushing for larger fines,
Why? As Hugh Epsey, executive director of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement eloquently states in The Post’s coverage, $20 billion is “peanuts. It’s chump change.” He added that penalties “should be in the hundreds of billions of dollars.”
This protest is only the latest in a rising tide of bank protest as distrust in banking industry remains high and as banks remain profitable, and are on track to pay out $146 billion in bonuses this year! In a recent interview with Shelterforce, Amy Schur, director of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), characterized the sustained level of protests as “little brush fires going on all over the place.”
People are waiting to take action against the banks. What we’re starting to see is a broader recognition, and a broader determiniation by those affected to put themselves on the line. We do expect to see more more families who would normally not get inovolved in this type of activity.
While this particular NPA effort was planned as part of the Make Wall Street Pay initiative, it’s in line with the Bank Accountability Campaign, which is a new alliance between PICO, National People’s Action, SEIU, Northwest Federation of Community Organizations (NWFCO), Southeast IAF, and ACCE. Getting banks to engage in mortgage principlal reduction is part of this campaign strategy. “We’ve been working hard to get the attention of attorneys general around the country. we see this as a campaign to hold accountable to pressure big banks to stop the rip off from cities and states and to start keeping people in their homes,” Schur said. more
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National Housing Institute
