*What* Section 8 Ghetto?

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Events

Online Event: Ford Foundation President Darren Walker Answers Your Questions | Oct 28

President Darren Walker will answer questions about the foundation's new focus on inequality, and a new approach to grant making. Ask questions in advance by posting them on the Chronicle's Facebook page.

Online Event: An Innovative Approach in Baltimore's Oliver Neighborhood | Nov 10

The Annie E. Casey Foundation's Community Matters series explores the complex issues surrounding community change, highlighting the story of a community-driven effort to reclaim and reinvest in East Baltimore's Oliver neighborhood.
Register here.
Password: communi

Industry News

Maurice Williams Joins Chicago Community Loan Fund as VP of Economic Development

Williams has planned and developed commercial retail in Chicagoland and has completed more than 220 projects ranging from affordable housing to brownfield redevelopment to hospitals and institutional facilities. Read more about Williams and CCLF here.

The Art of Change is a yearlong initiative from the Ford Foundation exploring the interplay of art and social justice in the world today. Visit their website to learn more.

Opportunity

Design Corps and the Social Economic Environmental Design Network announce the Sixth Annual SEED Awards.

Six projects will be selected for excellence in public interest design. Winning projects will receive a $1,000 honorarium and more. Application deadline is November 19, 2015. Read more here.

Will Oakland's Housing Equity Plan Work?

Kalima Rose & Teddy Miller, PolicyLink Center for Infrastructure Equity

As the tech boom's influence on housing costs spreads across the East Bay, Oakland residents are fighting back. But what's at stake if they don't win? More

What Section 8 Ghetto?

Michael Bodaken & Ellen Lurie Hoffman, National Housing Trust

Should any readers of the Shelterforce Weekly subject line from September 2 mistakenly believe that most project-based Section 8 housing is confined to areas of low opportunity, let's set the record straight. Recently released statistics show . . . More

The Power, and Poison, of Two Unspoken Words

Miriam Axel-Lute, Shelterforce

The neighborhood in question, Davis Bottom, had an average income of under $7,000 a year. Yet remarkably, I never heard these two words in the entire 90-minute, 6-person panel I attended on it . . . More

You Said It!

On In Defense of the "Poor Door":

"[T]o me, the question is what kind of city are we creating when we allow developers to segregate people based on class and race in the same buildings? It is a no-brainer that higher income people can afford greater amenities than low income folks. But what does it do to low income people when we are telling them before they even enter the building they live in that they are less than others, they are someone to be afraid of, that higher income people don't even want to walk through the same door as them?" --Shelly Goehring, more . . .

"[F]or the record, 'equality' means 'sameness' only in math, and it is no surprise that historically this tortured misuse of the term has been favored by segregationists and right wing sophists. Equality is a moral concept, rooted in the reality of a single human race; it implies the responsibility of everyone to treat each other in accordance with that reality. In a societal context, equality's synonyms include fairness, equal rights, equal opportunities, equity, and egalitarianism. The alternative to equality is not 'equity' but slavery." --Nathan Weber, more . . .

"If inclusive/affordable units are created in and among higher in units in the same building, then having a separate entrance door for the more affordable units is a bad approach. On the other hand if more decent inclusive, affordable housing units can be created in high opportunity neighborhoods in separate and different buildings then I believe that is much better than not creating those affordable housing options in high opportunity neighborhoods at all." --Ted Wimpey, more . . .

"It seems to me that the real issue with carving out the affordable units into a separate building is that, generally, the ownership entities are also divided. The market rate development ceases to be responsible for the operating and maintenance costs of the affordable units-and here is the important part-for the entire length of affordability. While the argument is that you get more units at deeper affordability is persuasive, the loss of ongoing internal subsidy needs to be addressed as well." --Catherine Firpo, more . . .

Read the whole post. Whole discussion here.

Looking for a Job?

Policy Director, Woodstock Institute

Deputy Director, HANDS, Inc.

The Policy Director reports to the president, and leads Woodstock's policy advocacy and government relations work at the local, state, and national levels. The Policy Director also leads state and national coalition work, builds relationships with colleague organizations, and assists with fundraising . . . Read Full Listing

HANDS, located in Orange, NJ, seeks a mid-career professional with experience, education, and training in real estate development, finance, construction, and organizational development to work directly with the Executive Director who is retiring in 18 months . . . Read Full Listing