As they rebuild from the financial meltdown of 2008, policymakers can finally craft measures to guarantee healthy communities and secure homes for all Americans.

The current “bathtub recession” poses a drowning hazard for community development and housing groups, as philanthropic giving shrinks and foundations look beyond nonprofits for solutions to social problems.

Counter-cyclical stewardship is the only way to ensure that lower-income families are neither nudged out by rising costs nor forced out by foreclosure.

In a time of great economic peril for the communities they serve, nonprofit grass-roots organizations need to push the federal government to raise foundations’ payout requirements.

The foreclosure crisis has pushed the envelope so far, it’s left an opening where we can start building a real national housing policy.

The $3.92 billion Neighborhood Stabilization Program can spur recycling of the stock of abandoned and foreclosed homes produced by the mortgage crisis.

For the community economic development organizations that have spent decades trying to keep Newark’s neighborhoods afloat, the promise of a new mayor has only managed to throw the city’s paradoxes into sharper relief.

Youth violence scars lives, turning America’s streets into war zones. How do we transform killing fields into training grounds for stronger communities?

A group of the nation’s leading scholars and experts on housing and urban policy respond to The Atlantic’s “American Murder Mystery”

Majora Carter saw natural beauty and economic empowerment in her South Bronx neighborhood where others saw only a dumping ground. She’s changing the urban landscape in a way that’s been an eye-opener to people around the globe.

State housing finance agencies play a pivotal role in affordable-housing development, yet many advocacy organizations don’t know how to gain leverage in influencing these increasingly powerful bodies.

Through local and regional initiatives, communities are tailoring the eco-revolution for their backyards.

While immediate steps are necessary to stem foreclosures, a comprehensive solution requires a broader brush.

Dispelling stereotypes, the Great Lakes Urban Exchange has set out to unite the Rust Belt, starting with restoration of the Great Lakes region and ending with equitable, sustainable transformation.

Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life, by Robert B. Reich (2007, Knoph, New York) and The Squandering of America: How the Failure of Our Politics Undermines Our Prosperity, by Robert Kuttner (2007, Knoph, New York.)

While the case of Chicago’s El Mercado marketplace project illustrates the kinds of false assuptions that get community development organizations into trouble, it can point the way toward sound decision-making

With the help of its local community development corporation, a Boston neighborhood comes to terms with its transformation as a beloved church, long a treasured part of the community is reborn as housing.

Finding fresh produce in low-income neighborhoods can be a struggle, but community efforts are striving to fill the void.

Disney may have won the day against the construction of affordable housing in its “tourism zone” but the coalition forged in the struggle against The Mouse is alive and well and pushing for a community benefits agreement in Anaheim’s Platinum Triangle development.

Greedy bankers, brokers, and investors abused their political power and forced millions of Americans to lose their homes. Now what can we do to solve the crisis?

Balancing an Ivy League university’s expansion plan with a Harlem neighborhood’s needs is a tricky business, especially when eminent domain is in the mix.

We can harness backlash against eminent domain abuses in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s Kelo decision to bring about genuine community empowerment in the redevelopment process.

A real public-private partnership to assist homeowners in peril of foreclosure is achievable in short order, and there’s no time to lose.

For decades, community developers have relied on the power of markets to bring neighborhoods back, but they can’t build their way out of the foreclosure mess.

Turning eminent domain into a tool for creating vital communities hinges on crafting a delicate balance between all who stand to benefit—or lose out—from the transformation of a neighborhood.

With his 20-plus-year campaign for change, Neil Wollman helped move his retirement fund toward socially responsible investing.

In a city full of problems and promise, I’m taking the first steps toward learning up close what community organizing can accomplish.

Book Review: Subprime Mortgages: America’s Latest Boom and Bust, by Edward M. Gramlich.

Urban Institute Press, 2007, 120 pp. $25.00 (hardcover).

What kind of leadership does the community development field demand in the 21st century?

New trends in rural community development make the work of rural CDCs appear more in line with that of their big-city counterparts.

The rationale behind supportive housing for people with mental disabilities is that pairing individualized services with permanent housing will help them live independently. But one San Francisco advocate sees more neglect than support.

Ethnic-based community development corporations reflect the changing face of contemporary America.

After the 2005 hurricanes, a wealth of new, independent, young leaders emerged from the ruins, with the potential to transform the Gulf Coast and the nation—if the systemic barriers of gender and race can be eradicated.

Why it’s time for fair housing and community development to reunite to fight the vestiges of segregation.

Old definitions may be obsolete as CDCs weigh whether to grow and how to build their impact in today’s social and economic environment.

Faced with the prospect of losing their homes, residents of a Honolulu affordable-housing complex defied Hawaiian cultural traditions, getting organized and vocal and achieving a victory for affordability in one of the country’s most expensive cities.

Despite the high court’s recent blow to achieving classroom diversity, fair-housing practices can go a long way toward moving the country beyond racism.