YIMBY, White Privilege, and the Soul of Our Cities

In This Issue: Lessons From Developing Tiny House Villages in Seattle ● Why We Must First Be Well Before We Can Do the Work of the People ● YIMBY, White Privilege, and the Soul of Our Cities ● Also: Jobs ● Shelter Shorts ● Events +

Tuesday, March 19th, 2019 In This Issue: Lessons From Developing Tiny House Villages in Seattle ● Why We Must First Be Well Before We Can Do the Work of the People ● YIMBY, White Privilege, and the Soul of Our Cities ● Also: Jobs ● Shelter Shorts ● Events + YIMBY, White Privilege, and the Soul of Our Cities Fernando Martì, Council of Community Housing Organization The YIMBY narrative about why there is a housing crisis ignores history and serves to assuage new residents’ guilty feelings. But we can craft a new narrative together. Read Full Article Why We Must First Be Well Before We Can Do the Work of the People Leslie Kimiko Ward, 1000 Cranes for Alaska Organizations should make the mental and physical health of their staff a top priority. Here are some lessons from an Alaskan Native collective on how to do that. Read Full Article Shelter Shorts—the Week in Community Development Shelterforce Staff This week: The Coming Funding Cuts | A Ban on Cashless | Kansas City Fights for Affordable Housing | Banks Divest from Private Prisons | Reality Checks for Landlords | And More Quick Takes From Our Editors Lessons From Developing Tiny House Villages in Seattle Sharon Lee, Low Income Housing Institute Three years in, an initiative to build tiny homes for Seattle’s homeless population is growing. What are some of the lessons the project can teach other cities? Read Full Article Sign up for Shelterforce Weekly! Industry News The Center for Community Investment has announced that Phillip Henderson has joined as a senior fellow. Henderson most recently served as president of the Surdna Foundation for 11 years. SPUR, a bay area planning and urban research association, has appointed Alicia John-Baptiste as president and chief executive officer. Formerly deputy director for three years, she succeeds Gabriel Metcalf. Events Wednesday, March 20, 10:00 a.m EST | Community-Driven Resilience Planning in New Orleans: Enhancing Equity and Inclusion Through Co-Creation | This webinar, presented by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, will discuss the main processes, successes, and lessons gained from working together with civic leaders, residents and urban planners to enhance the city's resilience in relation to flooding and water management. Register here. Resources The SOTA Transportation Training Do-it-Yourself Toolkit created by Americans for the Arts and Transportation for America walks through the steps to design and implement a transportation training to help communities gain a better sense of the role arts and culture can play in a transportation project, provide an opportunity to strategize about a transportation project with a group of people who may not typically work together, and develop a series of actionable steps that will help address the project and future collaborations. Looking for a Job? Scroll Down... You Said It! On Is Local Control Good or Bad? Chris: I have never met a so-called YIMBY who ascribes to this philosophy that locals should have less power. The challenge that I see again and again is the few loud homeowner voices in our neighborhoods use the power they’ve amassed to move the goalposts with every new development being proposed, which forces both developers and… Read More Kristen: Gotta love these kinds of sweeping generalizations that newcomers like to make, without any clue as to conditions on the ground or the history of a place. But that’s sort of the YIMBY playbook–they come in with their assumptions and biases, and then it’s their way or the highway, without much consultation or or consideration for long-term residents. Just look what is happening in the Mission district of San Francisco. The same is happening in… Read More On Speaking Up On Race, Housing, and Opportunity in Minnesota Suzanne Bragdon: Writer to writer, I was struck by the storytelling aspect of the effort... Via Facebook Christine Boylan Carr: Good article. The answer is (and has always been) to focus on the people. We often lose sight of that and want the “quick fix” Urban Renewal ala the Western Addition, is an example of that. Via Facebook On Long Before Redlining: Racial Disparities in Homeownership Need Intentional Policies JS: I recall back in the '60s when my hardworking African-American parents tried to get a bank loan to buy a house. Their dream to buy a small modest home was denied. However, the owners agreed to “take back” a private mortgage and allowed my parents to pay off the loan. The price was a bit inflated and had a high interest, but they eventually paid it off. It still saddens me... Read More On Why Voters Haven’t Been Buying the Case for Building Len Guenther: So much common sense here. And, yes, this deserves wide distribution. Thanks! Read More In Case You Missed It Ignore the Myth—Voters *Do* Rally for Housing Entrepreneurship as a Path to Health? The Paradox of Prevailing Wage Single-Family Subsidies Are Needed Outside Hot Markets Expanding Community Benefits Agreements to Events Help support Shelterforce, the original voice of community development! Subscribe to Shelterforce in print! Jobs Director of Field Building ● The Build Healthy Places Network is seeking a creative and equity-focused strategist with exceptional writing, research, and networking skills to lead our national field building operation through communications, engagement, and surveillance/learning of national trends in... Read Full Listing Vice President of Property Operations ● The primary responsibility of the Vice President of Property Operations is to ensure that all residents have a safe, clean, well-managed and affordable home while operating each building at maximum efficiency. Additionally, Capitol Hill Housing is committed to creating opportunities for residents to succeed. Ensuring the... Read Full Listing Housing Director ● The Athens Land Trust seeks a Housing Director to oversee development of affordable housing projects, the marketing of these projects, the preparation of eligible candidates to purchase ALT homes, and maintain the financial stability of all housing related programming... Read Full Listing Vice President for Housing Policy ● The Vice President for Housing Policy provides leadership and strategic direction for the Housing Policy team at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), working collaboratively with team members to develop and execute a policy agenda on a wide range of issues affecting... Read Full Listing Senior Project Manager ● The Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC) seeks a Senior Project Manager to perform a wide variety of tasks related to planning and developing affordable housing for TNDC. The Senior Project Manager coordinates and implements all activities relating to project development from... Read Full Listing Click here to post a job! More Jobs Director of Development ● Seventy Five North Revitalization Corp. Director of Housing Counseling and Economic Opportunity ● Piedmont Housing Alliance Executive Director ● Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative Center For Neighborhoods Executive Director ● Center For Neighborhoods Editor, Miriam Axel-Lute Managing Editor, Lillian M. Ortiz Senior Editor/Development Manager, Keli A. Tianga Assistant Editor, Elizabeth Oguss Publisher, Harold Simon Assistant Publisher, Ana Sanchez Bachman Made possible by the generous support of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ● Kresge Foundation ● NeighborWorks America ● Kaiser Permanente ● Bank of America Foundation ● JPMorgan Chase Foundation ● John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation ● Citi Community Development ● PNC Bank Foundation ● Hyde and Watson Foundation ● Ocwen Financial Corporation ● Valley National Bank ...and with the support of readers like you. Shelterforce began in 1975 and is the oldest, national, independent, nonprofit community development publication in America. Whether you provide or support affordable housing, economic or workforce development, community organizing, arts and culture, community planning, health, or transportation, Shelterforce will help you do your work better tomorrow than yesterday.