July 2012

  • Blurring the Lines Between For-Profit and Nonprofit

    In my last blog post I spent a good chunk of time talking about the trend toward "complexification" in the nonprofit sector. There are plenty of small, scrappy, neighborhood based nonprofits around (as a matter of fact, that number continues…

  • Yes They Can. And They Bloody Well Did

    As you watch the games of the XXX Olympiad, you should know that something extraordinary has been happening in a low-income neighborhood near the main Olympic stadium.  A different kind of flame is being lit—one that will likely endure long…

  • It’s Time for Home Opportunity

    Dramatic developments this month have underscored our nation’s progress, as well as our continuing peril, when it comes to Home Opportunity—the deeply held idea that everyone should have access to an affordable home under fair conditions.  These developments, both positive…

  • Eminent Domain to Stop Foreclosure: Clever, but Not the Only Solution

    This article first appeared on Huffington Post. The heat wave may have broken, but the news is still hot on the latest scheme to deal with underwater mortgages: getting them from the lenders through eminent domain in order to modify…

  • Urban Farms and Growing Communities

    Urban farming has long served as  a way for distressed communities to turn blighted land into socially and economically productive community spaces—a means of stabilization illustated in Alex Kotlowitz's report in Mother Jones this month. His report, supplmented by an excellent photo…

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    Letter to the East London CLT: The 2012 Olympics

    In a month, I’m going across the pond at the invitation of the East London Community Land Trust, to meet with lots of folks and also deliver what they hope will be an inspiring speech filled with good ideas for…

  • The American Dream of Nowhere

    As I embarked on my journey the other day to a planning conference, I carried a dog-eared copy of James Kunstler's The Geography of Nowhere in my bag. This book caused quite a stir when it came out back in…

  • FHA Expands Disposition Program

    HUD announced today that it will make 3,500 distressed loans available through its Distressed Asset Stabilization Program—part of an expansion to the FHA disposition program that sells pools of defaulted mortgages headed for foreclosure. A competitive application process in four metro areas—Chicago,…

  • Why Keep Rural Housing Programs at USDA?

    Rural housing professionals complain about USDA’s Rural Development/Rural Housing Service all the time. We also tout the advantages of using HUD programs, such as HOME, in rural areas. But we hate the idea of moving USDA’s housing programs to HUD.…

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    Get Big or Get Out!

    Earl Lauer Butz, as the U.S. secretary of Agriculture under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, used this slogan to illlustrate his push to transform U.S. farming into a hyper-efficient agriculture industrial complex:  "Get big or get out." One late…

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    Does a Sustainable Community Need a Good Drinking Establishment?

    My friend Eliot Allen first introduced me to the concept of neighborhood completeness:  that the quality of a place is defined in part by how many different functions it has in close proximity to homes and to each other.  Eliot…

  • The Complexification of the Nonprofit Sector

    Nonprofit sector organizations are getting bigger, operations are getting more tentacled, financial tools are getting wonkier, and budgets keep growing. Don't just take my word for it: check out the Standford Social Innovation Review’s provocative article: "Why More Nonprofits Are…

  • Public Housing: Building Communities vs. Providing a Place to Live

    For a while I have been meaning to write about the January piece in the New York Times, "Towers of Dreams: One Ended in Nightmare," which contrasts the failure of the Pruitt-Igoe public housing project in St. Louis (recently the…

  • What Are the Goals of Community Planning?

    What are our priorities when it comes to neighborhood planning? According to the results of a public opinion poll conducted by the American Planning Association, "Americans want planners to focus most on creating jobs—followed by safety, schools, protecting neighborhoods, and…

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    Ending “Dual Track” in California

    Last week, the California legislature passed the California Foreclosure Reduction Act, finally putting an end to the unfair “dual track” system that allows banks to process foreclosure papers while also moving a family through a loan modification.  This historic step is…

  • Don’t Quit the Dream: A Vision for Homeownership Beyond 2012

    After years marked by stalemate and indecision, 2012 has delivered a glimmer of hope for families and the housing market. The Justice Department kicked off the year with a historic settlement with Bank of America regarding predatory loans made by…

  • “True Homeownership” in Rural America

    On Independence Day, people across the nation engaged in truly American activities—watching fireworks, marching in main street parades, and grilling food in back-yard cookouts. Owning a home may be the most quintessentially American institution of all. But homeownership doesn’t mean…

  • A Balanced Goal: Affordable Housing for Renters and Homeowners

    This post was submitted by the National Low Income Housing Coalition as part of a blog series hosted by Rooflines, the Opportunity Agenda, Race-Talk (the blog of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity), and the National Council…

  • Eminent Domain to Address the Housing Crisis?

    Last month MSNBC reported on a partnership between Mortgage Resolution Partners (MRP) and several California local governments that would help solve the persistent housing crisis. San Bernardino and its neighboring cities have set up a joint authority that would use…

  • Is 2012 the Year of the Business Co-op?

    Last October in New York City, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon officially designated 2012 as the “International Year of the Cooperative." This marks only the second time in United Nations history that a form of community economic development…

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