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Keeping Affordability in Focus As Columbus Revitalization Picks up Steam

Jared Brey

February 19, 2019 |

Next City |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Columbus, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio aims to make housing more affordable by enacting he Central Ohio Community Land Trust; the community land trust uses ideas from other national affordable financing models to ensure low-income Columbus residents can afford safe, clean housing. The land trust keeps housing affordable in neighborhoods where rents are steadily rising in an effort to create equitable mixed-income communities.

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'Shared equity' model for U.S. housing boosts home ownership for poorer families

Gregory Scruggs

January 21, 2019 |

Thomson Reuters Foundation |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Durham, North Carolina

A community land trust in North Carolina uses a "shared equity" model to help minority and low income people obtain access to affordable housing. The trust owns the land underneath the house, therefore holding onto the majority of the wealth of the property and allowing homes to be sold below market value.

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U.S. Faith Communities Are Tackling the Housing Crisis

Charlotte West

January 08, 2019 |

Medium |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

In cities like Denver, Seattle, and Chicago, faith-based communities use their land to aid in the affordable housing crisis. Because many communities of faith sit on large expanses of valuable land within city limits, they've begun using their land to offer housing for low-income families and other underserved community members.

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How a Consultant Said He Gamed HUD Inspections: Sweep Problems Behind a Wall

Molly Parker Patrick Johnson

December 21, 2018 |

ProPublica |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Springfield, Massachusetts

Consultants have helped public housing pass safety and health inspections by covering up serious issues with temporary walls and cosmetic fixes. “The biggest reason why most properties don’t pass,” says one consultant, is “they just don’t understand how to play the game with the points.”

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Portland Is Trying To Help People Return To Gentrified Areas. Austin Has Similar Plans.

Audrey McGlinchy

November 16, 2018 |

KUT |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Portland, Oregon

By giving housing preferences to local families, cities like Portland hope to stem gentrification and preserve the historic diversity of their communities. Portland’s “Right to Return” program aims to resettle families displaced by gentrification through an investment in affordable housing and by giving preference to those families who have a generational connection to the city. The program could inform similar efforts in cities like Austin, Texas.

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Can Chicago's Gentrifying Neighborhoods Grow Without Leaving Longtime Residents Behind? Oakland's Fruitvale Village Offers Hope

Mina Bloom Mauricio Peña

November 12, 2018 |

Block Club Chicago |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Oakland, California

Turning land owned by transit agencies into transit-oriented housing developments creates opportunities for affordable housing. Instead of building another parking garage in Oakland, California, community leaders and The Unity Council nonprofit petitioned for the construction of a multi-use development that combines affordable housing units, retail spaces, and even social services. The Fruitvale Village serves as a model for future affording housing developments on BART land, or on land owned by public transit agencies in other cities.

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Tiny houses multiply amid big issues as communities tackle homelessness

Mike Plunkett

October 26, 2018 |

The Washington Post |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Kansas City, Missouri

Cities around the United States look to tiny homes as a solution to the national homeless crisis. From Kansas City, Mo. to Seattle, Wa., community members and city officials come together to build tiny homes and provide access to a stable community.

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Community building: Chicago experiment links libraries and apartments

Eva Fedderly

October 24, 2018 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

When a need for more libraries and more affordable housing arose in Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel pursued a plan to combine the two. The result is a partnership between the Chicago Housing Authority and the Chicago Public Library system. Despite some concern among neighborhood residents, the solution is largely seen as a creative approach as well as a creative use of funding and land space. Mixed-use developments are becoming more popular around the world, and this next iteration will benefit many types of Chicago residents.

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England has more than 200,000 empty homes. How to revive them?

Mattha Busby

September 25, 2018 |

The Guardian |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United Kingdom, Stockton-on-Tees

There are an estimated over 200,000 vacant homes across England, and Community Campus 87 is one group attempting to bring those homes back to life. By employing apprentices, some who have experienced homelessness, to learn skills such as house painting, the social enterprise is helping homes as well as homeless people bounce back. This is just one example of a handful of social enterprises that are funding the rebuilding of vacant properties with the goal of filling the old homes with more affordable and sustainable housing.

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This startup is trying to beam cheap internet into low-income communities

Eillie Anzilotti

September 07, 2018 |

FastCompany |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Boston, Massachusetts

Starry is a Boston-based internet provider that uses a “hub-and-spoke” model to beam 5G internet into receptors in people’s homes to decrease the cost of internet. Beyond this creative use of technology, the company is also providing its less costly internet services to affordable housing developments in Boston and around the country. By working with Related Companies, a developer that owns over 45,000 affordable housing units, Starry is helping close the digital divide.

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