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A streetscape of a town on a partly cloudy day. Cars travel the main road toward and away from the camera. In the middle distance is a tall radio tower. Identifiable businesses include a laundromat and beauty supply store.
Housing

A Fifth of This Town’s Homes Were Saved from Demolition—And Kept Affordable

The decision to demolish Wellston’s public housing had already been made when residents and the mayor decided to fight for it, but persistence, luck, and a financing structure with some unusual twists brought them back from the brink.

Aerial shot of a huge hotel, 12 or 13 stories high, surrounded by mature trees, other apartment buildings or hotels, with a roadway in front of it. The building is shaped vaguely like a stick figure of a person, but with a C-shaped head.
Organizing

The Unfulfilled Potential of D.C.’s TOPA Law

Tenant Opportunity to Purchase laws empower renters to get control when their buildings go up for sale. But in D.C., the hurdles to becoming owners are many, and often insurmountable.

The Portside Towers apartments is on the waterfront in Jersey City.
Organizing

Even When Rent Control Is in Effect, Tenants Need to Stay Vigilant, Jersey City Fight Shows

Facing 25 to 50 percent rent increases, tenants at two apartment towers fought to get the city to enforce its longstanding rent control ordinance. A year later, they earned a win that could result in millions being paid back to them in rent overpayments.

Three men in work clothes including helmets and tool belts stand on scaffolding. It looks as though the scaffolding is standing alone but it is erected against a white building, creating that effect.
Affordability

How to Reform the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program

Housing and policy experts agree that LIHTC has successfully increased the supply of affordable housing. But they also believe there’s room for improvement.

An aerial view of a large, four-story, U-shaped housing development, still being built, and surrounded by settled neighborhoods on the three sides that are visible. The roof is white and the various sections of the exterior walls are blue, tan, brick, or white. The ground around the structure is still raw dirt, with several trucks and machines in view.
Affordability

Can Residents Get More Out of Tax Credit Housing?

Arrangements in which LIHTC tenants share in the development’s financial benefits, or become partial or full owners, are rare—but some properties have pulled them off. This scan of several examples shows the possibilities—and the conditions needed for them to succeed.

A favela of Rio de Janeiro. In the foreground is a small white building with a corrugated tin roof. Beyond it, in the distance, is a hilly landscape covered with similar dwellings. Tall power lines are visible in the distance.
Organizing

How Organizers in Rio’s Favelas Are Harnessing Solar Energy

Neighborhoods on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro face a multitude of challenges, including social and racial inequity, and a lack of public services. This organization is hoping to prove that solar energy can benefit neighborhoods, lower electric bills, and provide jobs.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speakers at a podium.
Policy

Tenant Protections Undone: How Florida Organizers Are Moving Forward

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill in June that overrode dozens of local tenant protection laws won there in recent years. How are housing organizers in Florida fighting back? And what can other organizers do if they live in a state that is hostile to tenant protections?

View of a Chicago neighborhood and the city skyline
Housing

Squatters Ask Chicago: Why So Many Vacancies?

Officials in Chicago are struggling to address the city’s homelessness and housing crises. So why does the Chicago Public Housing Authority have one of the highest rates of vacancy in the country?

Eleven people, seven standing in back, four crouching in front, pose with clipboards. Several are wearing red T-shirts that say Louisville Tenants Union with an image of two hands fist-bumping. Several of the people are wearing masks; the ones who aren't are smiling.
Organizing

Tenants Unions Are How We Win in the South

Tenant organizing has the power to transcend culture wars and break down the artificial barriers that have been placed between us.

Equity

Holding Redlining’s Perpetrators Accountable

Richard and Leah Rothstein talk about their new book, Just Action, inspired by readers of The Color of Law who asked what could be done about the enduring effects of a century of unconstitutional housing discrimination.

Several people in winter clothing stand outdoors on a sunny day holding signs. At center, a light-skinned woman in late middle age holds a sign that says "Safe Homes for All," written in red paint. Other people, partly visible, hold printed signs calling for rent control. Behind the protesters are hemlock trees and beyond them, partly visible, are tall buildings.
Policy

‘Renters Are Struggling’: Economists Back Tenant-Led Push for Federal Rent Control

“We have seen corporate landlords—who own a larger share of the rental market than ever before—use inflation as an excuse to hike rents and reap excess profits beyond what should be considered fair and reasonable.”

Organizing

Tenant Organizing in Unexpected Places, a Webinar

Tenants aren’t just organizing in places like California and New York—hear about tenant organizing in small and mid-sized cities from Maine, Maryland, Texas and Kentucky.