Shelterforce

Shelterforce

Shelterforce is nonprofit news publication that covers affordable housing in the U.S., as well as community planning, racial equity, community development, and more. Here you can listen to authors read their latest Shelterforce articles, as well as our interviews with folks on the ground. For more, go to shelterforce.org. To support our nonprofit newsroom, make a tax-deductible donation at https://shelterforce.org/donate.

Episodes

The Homeless Stretch, a poem by Jacob Folger

October 20, 2025 • 1 min
Jacob Folger spent 13 years of his life homeless, starting when he left home at 14 to escape a violent father. He joined the army at 18, and became a handyman when he completed his tour of duty. He employed and housed homeless people through his business in Herdon, Virginia, and later ran a small private home for those leaving homelessness in New York City. Listen to his poem, The Homeless Stretch. Read by John Ludas. Read the poe...
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What Would It Take to Make Community Ownership the Rule, Not the Exception?

October 17, 2025 • 24 mins
Gretchen Beesing, senior fellow at the Center for Community Investment, provides us with five steps to have economies operated by stewardship, not speculation. Read the full story at https://shelterforce.org/2025/10/16/what-would-it-take-to-make-community-ownership-the-rule-not-the-exception/
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Lessons from Redlining: How We Can Prevent Climate-Driven Insurance Discrimination

October 13, 2025 • 9 mins
As homeowners’ insurance companies and lenders increasingly factor climate risk into their business strategies, communities may see a resurgence of racial and economic exclusion that mimics redlining. But our hands aren’t tied—we can do something about it. Monica Palmeira, associate director for economic equity at The Greenlining Institute, reads, "Lessons from Redlining: How We Can Prevent Climate-Driven Insurance Discrimination,"...
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A No-Subsidy Model for Getting Homes into Community Ownership

October 7, 2025 • 16 mins
The Homes for the Future fund aims create long-haul affordability without public funding by buying homes now and selling them to community land trusts after a period of renting them out. Reporting by Roshan Abraham; read by John Ludas. Read the full story at https://shelterforce.org/2025/09/26/a-no-subsidy-model-for-getting-homes-into-community-ownership/
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Tenants' Rights and Taking Out the Trash

October 7, 2025 • 15 mins
Samuel Stein, a housing policy analyst, and Susanne Schindler, a research fellow at Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies, discuss what it means—or could mean—to have resident control over property management.
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After Grants Pass Ruling, Oakland Cracks Down Harder on Unhoused Communities

October 6, 2025 • 15 mins
The Supreme Court ruling gave cities new leeway to criminalize homelessness. In Oakland, advocates say it’s fueled more forceful encampment sweeps and a rollback of earlier efforts at cooperation. Reporting by Roshan Abraham; read by John Ludas. Read the story at https://shelterforce.org/2025/09/30/after-grants-pass-ruling-oakland-cracks-down-harder-on-unhoused-communities/
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Who Holds the Power? How One Corridor Flipped the Script on Development

October 4, 2025 • 14 mins
Kensington Corridor Trust manages dozens of properties, including affordable rental and commercial spaces, as part of its goal to revitalize the commercial corridor—but the group says who makes the decisions is more important than what decisions are made. Adriana Abizadeh-Barbour, the founding executive director of Kensington Corridor Trust in Philadelphia, explains. Read the full piece at https://shelterforce.org/2025/10/03/who-h...
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Mixed-Income Neighborhood Trusts Aim to Capture Benefits of Gentrification for Existing Residents

October 3, 2025 • 20 mins
A mixed income neighborhood trust, or MINT, is a way for neighborhood organizations to develop and operate mixed-income rental properties with community governance. A MINT sets its rental mix and target populations locally, but what they have in common is a focus on preventing displacement and capturing the benefits of rising property values for neighborhood residents. Hope Davis reports. Read the full story at https://shelterforc...
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Can a Buy-and-Hold Strategy Enable Resident Ownership at More Mobile Home Parks?

September 25, 2025 • 18 mins
Many resident ownership plans are thwarted by tight timelines and high-ticket upgrade needs. One mission-driven startup is testing a phased approach to transferring mobile home park ownership to residents without pricing them out. Listen as our investigative reporter, Shelby R. King, reads "Can a Buy-and-Hold Strategy Enable Resident Ownership at More Mobile Home Parks?" Read the story here: https://shelterforce.org/2025/09/23/can...
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Turning Equity into Affordability: DC Homeowners Are Giving Back to a Next Wave of Buyers

September 24, 2025 • 5 mins
As prices in the nation’s capital have soared, some sellers want their homes to stay in reach of families like their own. The Douglass Community Land Trust is helping them make it happen. Frank Navarrete reports.
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A Community Land Trust for People Leaving Incarceration Honors a ‘Forgotten Figure’ of Black Liberation

September 19, 2025 • 8 mins
A community land trust named after Ruchell "Cinqué" Magee, considered by many to have been the longest-held political prisoner in the United States, aims to create not just affordability, but belonging. Frances Nguyen, Shelterforce's housing fellow, reports.
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Mixed Income, Net Zero, and Fish Friendly: Innovation at The Southard

September 17, 2025 • 12 mins
A community land trust took on a difficult site in suburban Seattle—and ended up with a sustainable, diverse, mixed-ownership-form development that challenges multiple norms. Brandon Duong reports for Shelterforce. Read the story at https://shelterforce.org/2025/09/17/mixed-income-net-zero-and-fish-friendly-innovation-at-the-southard/
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Legacy, Stability, and the Arts: The CLT Keeping Bay Area Artists Housed

September 16, 2025 • 57 mins
Through its bequests and aging in place program, financial education offerings, and more, Artist Space Trust works to stabilize Bay Area artists in their communities. Shelterforce's Miriam Axel-Lute chats with one of the trust's founders and its executive director about where the group came from, what makes a housing group for artists different, and the legacy of elders in the arts community they are preserving.
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For Immigrant Households, Fear of Arrest and Deportation Erodes Tenants Rights

September 12, 2025 • 10 mins
It’s getting tougher for immigrant communities to believe they still have rights as renters—even if they are living in the country legally. Here’s how tenant organizers are helping these communities push back against ICE and the landlords who are weaponizing the current political environment. Frances Nguyen, Shelterforce's housing fellow, reports. Read the full story at https://shelterforce.org/2025/09/05/for-immigrant-households-...
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In St. Louis, Artist Housing Opens Up Homeownership Opportunities

September 11, 2025 • 4 mins
Stan Chisholm found housing stability through a local nonprofit that helps artists buy their first homes. Frank Navarrete reads his latest story for Shelterforce. Read the story at https://shelterforce.org/2025/08/08/in-st-louis-artist-housing-opens-up-homeownership-opportunities/
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Nonprofits Own These Offices—And Put Housing on Top of Them

September 10, 2025 • 22 mins
While affordable housing with some office space for nonprofits is relatively common, in Redmond, Washington, a group of human services organizations went the other way: they rebuilt their collective office space and added housing. Kim Sarnecki, the CEO of the Together Center, explains how it all works. Read the full story at https://shelterforce.org/2025/09/10/nonprofits-own-these-offices-and-put-housing-on-top-of-them/
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Crowdfunded Real Estate Projects Bring in Community Investors

September 9, 2025 • 19 mins
Enabled by provisions in the JOBS Act of 2012 that allow smaller scale investing, community members are becoming co-owners of local real estate projects. Sandra Larson reports for Shelterforce. Read the full story at https://shelterforce.org/2025/09/09/crowdfunded-real-estate-projects-bring-in-community-investors/
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More Land, More Ways, for More People: What's New in Community Ownership

September 9, 2025 • 4 mins
Creative problem solving is pushing community ownership models forward. Shelterforce's Miriam Axel-Lute explains what you can expect in our new Under the Lens series, Innovations in Community Ownership. Read Miriam's editor's note at https://shelterforce.org/2025/09/09/more-land-more-ways-for-more-people-whats-new-in-community-ownership/
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What Does CDBG Do?

September 5, 2025 • 11 mins
President Trump has floated cutting Community Development Block Grants entirely from the federal budget, which Congress has so far declined to do. How do these grants get used at the local level? Frank Navarrete reads his latest story for Shelterforce, "What Does CDBG Do?" Read the story at https://shelterforce.org/2025/08/29/what-does-cdbg-do/
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Fifty Years After Mount Laurel, Is Affordable Housing Finally Gaining Ground in New Jersey?

August 26, 2025 • 11 mins
Local politics seem to be shifting in the Garden State. More towns have submitted plans to show how they will provide their ‘fair share’ of affordable housing than in the past, and the state has a new way to work with municipalities that push back against their housing obligations. Reporting by Roshan Abraham. Read by John Ludas. Check out the story at https://shelterforce.org/2025/08/22/fifty-years-after-mount-laurel-is-affordabl...
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