Storied Groups Close

By Alan Mallach

The Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities, a Chicago fair housing advocacy group with a small geographic range but a national impact, ended operations in June. The council is best known for its role in the Gautreaux program, which relocated 10,000 public housing families to the suburbs from 1976 to 1998 as part of a court settlement. Council leaders blamed a lack of funding for the group’s demise, and said they hope other local nonprofits can continue their work. The National Congress for Community Economic Development, which was fundamental to the CDC movement in the United States, also closed its doors at the end of August. The group was founded in 1970 in the early years of the field.

Alan Mallach, senior fellow of the National Housing Institute, is the author of many works on housing and planning, including Bringing Buildings Back and Building a Better Urban Future: New Directions for Housing Policies in Weak Market Cities. He served as director of housing and economic development for Trenton, N.J. from 1990 to 1999.

Published by the National Housing Institute