How a pastor improved his west side neighborhood one house at a time

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.

Women in the Philippines have been coming to this small clinic in a Manila slum for years to get affordable birth control, something frowned upon in this largely conservative Catholic country.

Human trafficking is a rampant problem throughout the world, but the signs can often be difficult to spot. A collaboration between Catholic churches and police officers to fight the issue together takes shape.

A severe lack of affordable housing in Saudi Arabia has spurred the government to impose a tax on what has traditionally been a virtually tax-free society. However, they aim to tax only the wealthy owners of undeveloped land.

In Memphis, a creative blight-reduction initiative called 25 Square Blocks broke down the city into blocks. Inspectors were able to quickly identify all the violations and fix them, using the same amount of funding, but less time, as the old call-and-respond model.

As a state with robust populations of wildlife, Montana has had its share of roadkill. Its Department of Transportation developed animal shelving, a type of wildlife crossing, to enable safe passage for small animals who need to cross the road. The measure, combined with other types of crossings, has reduced animal-vehicle collisions by half.

New York City suffered from fires that erupted in overcrowded, run-down apartments. Then the city sleuthed through residential records and found that landlords who foreclosed let their properties fall apart and ignored safety-code violations. Greater Toronto wants to expand upon New York City’s method by using transportation surveys, census data and computer data to build transit lines.

Renovating and furnishing a home can be hugely expensive. Homeowners who are renovating on a budget, and want to do so in a way that is evironmentally friendly, can find recycled luxury kitchens and other lightly used fixtures at stores like Green Demolitions.

Across the globe, there are nearly 60 million students studying in Catholic institutions. In the United States, however, those numbers have been falling in recent years, forcing schools to come up with new ways to collaborate.

The best way to lose weight is to join a small group. This article looks at the case study of Saddleback Church in southern California that mixed faith and peer support to help congregates lose weight, including the pastor. Surveys found that 72% of participants lost weight as a result of the program.