Affordable Housing

Weisbrod Op-Ed Makes the Case for Proposed Zoning Changes

An op-ed by Carol Weisbrod, chairman of the NYC Planning Commission, makes the case for the de Blasio Administration's zoning policy as the key mechanism in its housing policy.

March 27, 2015 - New York Daily News

Vets Access Land Trust Homeownership

VA home loan guaranties and community land trusts are perfect partners—but not everyone knows that yet.

March 27, 2015 - Shelterforce

Oakland skyline and San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Could Outsource its Affordable Housing

San Francisco has two problems: lack of affordability and lack of space. To alleviate this problem, Oakland is now offering to allow S.F. residents who qualify for affordable housing to move across the Bay.

March 26, 2015 - San Francisco Chronicle

New York Unlikely to Receive Federal Support in Solving Housing Crisis

Crain's New York Business examines recent statements by New York Planning Commission Chair Carl Weisbrod about the need for federal support if New York is to hit its affordable housing targets.

March 25, 2015 - Crain's New York Business

Affordable Housing a Hot Election-Year Topic in Nashville

As affordable housing and its related challenges—gentrification, preservation, and displacement, for example—become more challenging in Nashville, candidates in the city's 2015 race must take a stand on the issue or risk alienating voters.

March 16, 2015 - The Tennessean

New York City Parking

New York City Proposes Parking Requirement Overhaul

The New York Department of City Planning is working on an overhaul of its parking requirements with the potential to impact hundreds of developments.

March 10, 2015 - Capital New York

Study: Affordable Housing Policy Increases Segregation in the Twin Cities

A new study by researchers at the University of Minnesota identifies the consequences of Twin Cities affordable housing policy: deepening racial and economic segregation.

March 7, 2015 - MinnPost

New Development

ULI Launches Online Housing Resource

The Urban Land Institute just rolled out How Housing Matters, an online portal for news, research, infographics, and multimedia examining how housing affects community health.

March 2, 2015 - Architect Magazine

Yuppies are home

Too Much Obsessing over Gentrification?

The recent glut of luxury development, gentrification, and high rents has been frequently condemned. But what factors affecting affordability might that discussion miss?

March 2, 2015 - New York YIMBY

Nashville Turns to Inclusionary Zoning for Affordable Housing Relief

Nashville often gets left out of the national conversation about housing affordability and displacement. The challenge, however, has led the city's planning department to launch an effort to develop an inclusionary zoning policy for the Music City.

February 27, 2015 - The Tenessean

Planning for Housing on Complicated Queens Rail Yard Continues

The 200-acre operational rail yard is the largest of six affordable housing sites that Mayor Bill de Blasio targeted for development. He hopes to build more than 11,000 units of affordable housing there, but Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is not on board.

February 23, 2015 - The New York Times - N.Y. / Region

Minneapolis Stone Arch Bridge

What's so Miraculous about Minneapolis?

Minneapolis combines prosperity with plentiful affordable housing, an increasing rarity. Geographical factors play a role, but longstanding "fiscal equalization" policies may make the difference.

February 23, 2015 - The Atlantic

How to End Homelessness? Start—and Finish—With Veterans

We are so close to this goal. We should not change our focus before we meet it.

February 18, 2015 - Shelterforce

View of Portland, Oregon from Pittock Mansion

Portland Tops Gentrification Study

Research published by Governing Magazine finds that Portland, Oregon is the U.S. city with the highest degree of gentrification in this century.

February 17, 2015 - Fusion

New York City Construction

Affordable Housing: the Hype and the Hope

Sam Hall Kaplan elucidates the inadequacies of affordable housing policy before introducing a new perspective to the conversation—a new book by Roger Katan with Ronald Shiffman called "Building Together."

February 17, 2015 - Sam Hall Kaplan

6 Loopholes that Defeat Affordable Housing in London

Although London Mayor Boris Johnson's housing policies are mush less ambitious than his predecessor's, many parts of the city still lag well behind targets for affordable housing—even amidst an infamously cost-prohibitive real estate market.

February 16, 2015 - Citymetric

Residents Disillusioned with the Planning Process in Los Angeles' Chinatown

Sharon McNary reports on a proposed development in the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles that predates, and could thus avoid, the guidelines put forward by one of the most progressive plans in the city—the Cornfield Arroyo Specific Plan.

February 13, 2015 - KPCC

Op-Ed: New York's Affordable Housing More Corrupt than Helpful

A columnist takes the recent scandal involving disgraced former New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver as a particularly heinous example of how far astray affordable housing policy is from its intended goal.

February 12, 2015 - Real Clear Policy

Vancouver Skyline

Supply and Demand Denialism

Some progressives deny that the law of supply and demand applies to housing.

February 10, 2015 - Michael Lewyn

Salt Lake City Launches '5,000 Doors' Initiative for Affordable Housing

Over a quarter of families in Salt Lake City pay half their income on rent, and between 2000 and 2011, median home values increased by 47 percent.

February 10, 2015 - Next City

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.

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An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

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The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

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A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.