Building Trust

The Western Hemisphere’s biggest city has developed a model blueprint for progressive housing policy in developing countries, in large part by affirming squatters' rights and demanding a certain percentage of low-income housing in new developments.

America has the largest number of homeless women and children in the industrialized world - it’s a depressing statistic exacerbated by a housing crisis that forced thousands of families out onto the street. The first-ever large-scale study on the topic finds that permanent, stable housing can be more cost-effective than shelters.

The overall graduation rate for black male students in New York City was 58 percent in 2014 - student retention rates are equally poor. But one school achieved a 100% on-time graduation rate last year, motivating their students with a student-founded, student-sustained 'fraternity'.

SHIELDS for Families works in one of the country's most notoriously dilapidated housing projects to revitalize the neighborhood by providing education, treatment and counseling services.

Passive houses can generate more energy than they consume but are expensive to build. Non-profits across the nation are getting low income families into these types of renewable homes with state subsidies and volunteer work.

Artists need cheap living costs, but their presence improves a community and the property values. The State of Colorado and private developers are creating affordable housing and work spaces for artists in neighborhoods they want to thrive.

Many wealthy, white communities in the Chicago suburbs would not welcome an affordable housing development - perhaps residents wouldn’t say so outright, but instead they might pass laws prohibiting apartment buildings or deny permits to units targeted at low-income people. But now, through the Regional Housing Initiative, the housing authorities pool a portion of their Section 8-voucher funds and use that money to subsidize the construction of affordable developments in areas with a low poverty rate, a high homeownership rate, good schools, and access to jobs.

New Orleans implemented an extraordinary 10-year plan that engaged unprecedented cross-sector collaboration between government, non-profit, and private entities to provide housing and housing services to the city's homeless veterans. The city's success in providing homes for every single veteran formerly on their streets motivated cities across the nation to tackle the crises using similar means, leading to a 1/3 decline veteran homelessness since 2010.

Milwaukee County’s mental health system put more resources in expensive emergency care rather than invest in programs that offer continual care. As a result, Milwaukee County identifies nine solutions from other cities that have had success in repairing mental health systems. Solutions include the ending of reliance on emergency care, expand community support programs, change laws, and supportive housing.

After decades of economic and social despair that once saw it named the poorest big city in America, Cleveland has become a model of revitalization, thanks to a unique “anchor strategy” that harnesses the immense wealth and power of the city’s public institutions.