Colorado's affordable artist housing efforts catching on quickly

A town once plagued by a reputation of being an asbestos Superfund site as well as having been hit by the timber wars, Libby, Montana is back on the map. Lincoln County commissioner, Mark Peck of Libby, the county seat, decided to make it a priority to fix the negative connotation surrounding the town and partnered with a public relations firm to rebrand the city through the use of the community's unique story of rising from asbestos.

Turin used to be a bustling hub for the automobile industry but since then it has been left as a dead industrial area. The Ex-incet development aims to change this by using an old company's headquarters to be the site where innovation and creativity can be brought together as people from different sectors work under the same roof.

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.

Civic leaders in the U.S. struggle to effectively help their distressed neighborhoods. East Lake, Atlanta, created a replicable model that mixes residents of differing socio-economic status, and focuses on education and health in the area.

Baltimore has dramatically reduced homicides through a multi-pronged approach involving a data-driven Group Violence Reduction Strategy, credible-messenger intervention programs, and aggressive prosecution of illegal gun possession. This has resulted in a record-low murder rate in 2026, with 60 killings recorded through August compared to roughly 220 at the same point four years prior.

The Walls Project is using public murals, youth programming, and community volunteering to address blight and disinvestment in South Dallas. Since partnering with the city of Dallas in 2019, the organization has installed more than 14 murals across North Texas, generated over $6 million in economic opportunities for artists, and mobilized nearly 1,200 volunteers to address more than 860 instances of blight between 2020 and 2024. Community members report that murals have deterred vandalism, attracted visitors, and boosted neighborhood pride.

A plan forged in New York City suburbs in the 1970s addressed urban renewal and income inequality by creating low-income housing dwellings in nine separate towns outside of the city. Though the "Fair Share" program faced long-lasting criticism and ultimately failed, housing experts and developers still learn from the failed plan as they work toward urban renewal in the 21st century.

After years of developmental stagnancy, the city of Waterbury, Connecticut puts into action a way for developers to renew buildings without having to take financial responsibility for previous owners' environmental waste. Through a public-private partnership between the city and development investors, developers have begun to break ground on renewing the city's dilapidated factories.

On one floor of an affordable housing building in Washington, D.C., the NonStop Art Makerspace has made creativity more accessible. The makerspace was a group effort between Capital One, the Community Preservation and Development Corporation, and NonStop Art. Nehemiah Dixon, CEO of NonStop Art Makerspace and a D.C. native, hopes to replicate this model throughout the city.

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.