Shelterforce

City redevelopment subsidies siphon tens of billions of dollars away from public services nationwide. Tom Tressor, the lead organizer for the TIF Illumination Project, shares some ways to fight back. Read Tom's op-ed at https://shelterforce.org/2026/03/17/tax-increment-financing-harms-cities-lets-rein-it-in/ ℗ Music by ComaStudio

To protect themselves from ICE, many families are staying home from work; tenant organizers in Minneapolis, Chicago, and Los Angeles are pushing for eviction moratoriums to keep them safe. Shelterforce's Frances Nguyen reports. Read the full story at https://shelterforce.org/2026/02/27/safe-and-sheltered-how-tenant-organizers-protect-their-neighbors-in-minneapolis/ ℗ Music by ComaStudio

As federal funding for homelessness programs is threatened, housing advocates are combining large-scale research and case-level data to show why supportive housing works—and why it matters. Reporting by Robert Davis; read by John Ludas. Read the full story at https://shelterforce.org/2026/03/05/how-to-make-the-case-for-supportive-housing/ ℗ Music by ComaStudio

Shelterforce's Schlonn Hawkins chats with Erika Castro, the organizer director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, about how she turned the barriers she faced early in life into a pathway for leadership and immigration rights advocacy. This video is part of Shelterforce’s Women of Color on the Front Lines series. For more, go to https://shelterforce.org/tag/women-of-color-on-the-fron...

Conversations on housing costs often focus on zoning rules. But two new studies say declining affordability is due far more to rising income inequality than short supply. Chris Schildt, director of housing justice at Urban Habitat, breaks it down. To read Chris Schildt's op-ed, go to https://shelterforce.org/2026/03/04/to-solve-the-housing-affordability-crisis-communities-must-confront-inequality/...

A growing movement is reshaping how people work and live together. Shelterforce's Steve Dubb shares more in our new Solidarity Corner column, which highlights these practices and explains why they matter. Read the column here: https://shelterforce.org/2026/02/26/what-is-the-solidarity-economy/ ℗ Music by ComaStudio

Portland’s REACH CDC recently offloaded a 23-unit legacy building and 66 scattered-site homes—not because the mission has changed, but because the math has. The industry veteran’s portfolio triage offers a bellwether look at how rising costs, rent arrears, and aging properties are forcing even well-run nonprofits to rethink what they can afford to own. Shelterforce's Shelby R. King reports. Read t...

What makes a home habitable? What makes habitability laws successful? Listen to, "Fit to Live in: From Ordinances to Outcomes in Habitability," a webinar featuring Lara Heard, Shelterforce's associate editor; Matt Kreis, general counsel at the Center for Community Progress; and Y. Frank Southall, organizing and community engagement manager at Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative. You...

A project in Portland, Oregon, aims to turn aging rentals into affordable condos, offering lower price points and a path to ownership. But that affordability currently rests on temporary subsidies and market goodwill. For tenants who can’t buy—and future buyers looking for affordability—the risks are significant. Shelterforce's Shelby R. King reports. Read the story at https://shelterforce.org/202...

A Massachusetts initiative uncovers how fragmented programs make healthy homes harder to achieve. Listen to "Program Mismatches Keep Repair Funds Unused," by Elana Brochin, the director of health equity at the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations. This audio story is read by John Ludas. Read the full story at https://shelterforce.org/2025/12/04/program-mismatches-keep-re...

Ending unsheltered homelessness was a major campaign promise for the current mayor of Portland, Oregon. Homelessness service providers in the area say he chose methods that don't work. Wesley Vaughan reports. Read the full story at https://shelterforce.org/2026/01/27/portlands-mayor-went-all-in-on-overnight-only-shelters-homelessness-is-still-risin/ ℗ Music by ComaStudio

The city’s new formula will blend inflation and HUD's Fair Market Rent to determine the minimum wage. Housing advocates believe it’s a replicable approach for other cities. Shelterforce's Frances Nguyen reports. Read the story at https://shelterforce.org/2026/02/04/when-rent-rises-so-does-minimum-wage-a-new-model-in-santa-fe/ ℗ Music by ComaStudio

By adjusting rent thresholds and shrinking landlord exemptions, more than a dozen municipalities have adopted stronger versions of a state law that protects tenants from high rent increases and unreasonable evictions. Frances Nguyen, Shelterforce's housing fellow, reports. Read the full story at https://shelterforce.org/2026/01/29/more-upstate-towns-opt-in-to-and-toughen-new-yorks-good-cause-evict...

Investigations into the fair housing practices of two US cities directly contradict race-neutral guidance from the Supreme Court. Cities must continue this work, says Thomas Silverstein, president and executive director of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council. Read Silverstein's op-ed at https://shelterforce.org/2026/01/30/hud-scolds-boston-and-minneapolis-for-doing-what-it-says-it-wants-don...

A tenant opportunity to purchase act, or TOPA, is a policy that gives tenants some specific rights when their building goes up for sale. Learn what it covers and what it doesn’t in this explainer. Watch the video at https://shelterforce.org/2026/01/01/what-is-topa/

As the single-family rental market grows, tenant organizers are adapting their tactics to a housing landscape that stretches across neighborhoods—with no shared spaces, and often, no clear landlord. Shelterforce's Frances Nguyen reports. Read the full story at https://shelterforce.org/2026/01/22/scattered-homes-shared-landlords-the-changing-landscape-of-tenant-organizing-in-single-family-rentals/...

In Cambridge, Mass., residents speak positively of the renovations to their public housing stock. The housing authority attributes its success to an innovative mix of RAD with other funding sources. Shelterforce's Sandra Larson reports. Read the full story at https://shelterforce.org/2025/12/10/what-we-can-learn-from-cambridges-public-housing-overhaul/ ℗ Music by ComaStudio

Years ago, officials in dozens of cities and states showed interest in passing legislation that required landlords to accept alternatives to the traditional lump-sum security deposit. Today, much of that momentum has diminished. Shelterforce's Frances Nguyen reports. Read the full story at https://shelterforce.org/2025/12/19/what-happened-to-renters-choice-legislation/ ℗ Music by ComaStudio

Bridge to Power aims to boost partner organizations’ capacity, information exchange, and agency. Sandra Larson reports. Read the full story at https://shelterforce.org/2026/01/09/new-national-collaborative-links-local-housing-justice-efforts/ ℗ Music by ComaStudio

Baltimore, Boston, and Cleveland voters recently showed what happens when leaders loosen zoning and modernize permitting, while investing in community-scale development at the same time. Federal policymakers should take notes, says Antonio White. White is founder of 480 Advisors, and was previously a deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the former chief of communic...

Almost every state in the U.S. requires that landlords maintain safe and livable residential units. This is often called a "warranty of habitability." In some places, there are laws that specify exactly what those requirements are; in others, the standards are less defined. Read by author Lara Heard. ℗ Music by ComaStudio .

In the memoir Staking Our Claim, Pat Morrissy talks about the early days of Shelterforce, organizing for rent control laws in NJ towns, and supporting tenant leaders in their fights for better homes. Anthony Schuman, professor of architecture at NJIT, reads his review of Staking Our Claim. Read the full review at https://shelterforce.org/2025/12/05/the-house-on-chestnut-street-njs-tenant-activists...

Sometimes disasters open a space for bigger and faster positive change. In Lahaina, Hawai'i, after the devastating fires in 2023, community leaders built on preexisting relationships to approach housing and land in new ways. Autumn Ness, the executive director of the Lahaina Community Land Trust, explains. Read the piece at https://shelterforce.org/2025/10/08/harnessing-the-shock-of-disaster-to-pr...

Ross Chapin, an architect, provides a guide to affordable housing design that goes beyond the baseline. This piece appears in Shelterforce's new series—Fit to Live In: Fixing Our Housing Stock—and is read by Lara Heard. You can read it at https://shelterforce.org/2025/11/25/beyond-basic-health-standards-designing-for-well-being/ ℗ Music by ComaStudio .

The Healthy Homes Ordinance is supposed to help fix New Orleans’s deteriorating rental housing stock. But three years in, many “certified habitable” apartments still have leaking roofs, black mold, and dangerous heat. What went wrong? Shelterforce's Shelby R. King reports. Read the story at https://shelterforce.org/2025/11/24/healthy-homes-or-hollow-promises-in-new-orleans/ ℗ Music by ComaStudio .