Shelterforce
Contributed 181 posts

Getting Medicaid to Pay for Pest Control
For children who have asthma, pests like cockroaches and mice can trigger allergic reactions and lead to recurring and expensive hospital visits. Could insurers save money by investing in housing-based improvements like pest management services?

Restorative Housing Policy: Can We Heal the Wounds of Redlining and Urban Renewal?
Our fair housing laws enshrine an approach that prohibits us from explicitly referring to race, even in programs intended to undo the harm caused by racism. Now restorative housing policy is attempting to directly confront this history.

The Sound of Music City: Orange, NJ
Music naturally brings people together. In Orange, New Jersey, organizers show how “creative placekeeping” finds its strength in the relationships that are formed within the community.

Leaky Roof? A USDA Home Repair Option
One USDA program has given out over $1 billion in rural home repair grants since its inception, and could be inspiration for similar programs in urban and suburban communities as well.

How Tax Assessments Are Racist
Between biased property appraisals that undervalue Black-owned properties and biased tax assessments that levy an unfair burden, homeowners of color are flanked by a double-whammy of racism.