Feature Articles, by date and issue number:

• Long Time Coming D.C.'s once-vibrant Shaw neighborhood used a community benefits agreement to redefine the value of its people and place. (Summer 2007, #150)
• Small is Beautiful The shrinking cities movement aims to promote revitalization without growth. (Summer 2007, #150)
• Asset-Building Comes of Age Nonprofits and local governments are helping communities reap the benefits of
  individual and collective wealth-building strategies. (Spring 2007, #149)
• Homeownership Rescue Nonprofit organizations are offering foreclosure prevention programs to assist people when their mortgages have become unmanageable. (Fall 2006, #147)
• The Prevailing Question Many CDCs say they can't afford to pay the prevailing wage, but can they really fight poverty if they don't? (Fall 2006, #147)
• The Emergence of the CDC Network As community development matures, state and local networks are enabling communities to share their struggles and build power. (Nov/Dec 2005, #144)
• Business Wisdom in the High Country A Santa Fe CDC responded to skyrocketing housing costs by becoming a lender and broker while it also preserved and built homes. (Sept/Oct 2005, #143)
• Creating Community Realty In upstate New York, housing groups started a brokerage for low-income residents and neighborhoods poorly served by for-profit real estate agents. (Sept/Oct 2005, #143)
• The Last Line of Defense The West Bank Community Development Corporation has remained the last bastion of collective control of housing. (Sept/Oct 2005, #143)
• Crossing Muddy Waters In coastal Mississippi a communtiy based organization is providing long-term affordability and homeowership using community land trusts. (July/August, #142)
• Listening to the Community Hope Community Inc. organized residents to discuss and plan the future of a local park, allowing them to control the change in their neighborhood. (May/June 2005, #141)
• The Power of a Community-Based Development Coalition The rise and fall of the Chicago Association of Neighborhood Development Organizations illustrates the challenges facing advocacy organizations when they shift to service delivery. (May/June 2005, #141)
• Network Organizing: A Strategy for Building Community Engagement In weak market cities where cynicism and dysfunction have become the norm, it takes a different kind of organizing to bring people together to demand change. (Mar/Apr 2005, #140)
• Life After Lockup When prisoners are released, they often return to their old communities and their old way of life. But some community groups are providing an alternative by offering shelter, life skills and job training in a new and stable environment. (Jan/Feb 2005, #139)
• Housing Ex-Offenders Local nonprofits are designing programs to help ex-offenders transition back into the community. In the process they are facing many challenges – from community and government objections to funding and zoning limitations. One program in New York has emerged as a beacon of success. (Jan/Feb 2005, #139)
• NO Vote, NO Voice: Building Electoral Power for Nov. 2 and Beyond Millions of new voters have been registered in the past year, many by community-based organizations. But the work of civic empowerment goes far beyond one election.(Sep/Oct 2004, #137)
• Building Stronger Communities Through Mediation Using mediation to resolve neighbor conflicts can help to enhance the quality of life for residents: it’s a program more CDCs should offer. (Jul/Aug 2004, #136)
• Planning for More than Housing Newark, NJ's community leaders want to have a say in the development of the city's master plan. (Mar/Apr 2004, #134)
• One City: Newark, NJ Community development through the prism of Newark: an introduction. (Jan/Feb 2004, #133)
• CDCs in Gentrifying Neighborhoods How CDCs can make sure that the housing and employment needs of low-income residents are not swept away by a tide of new money, new investments and new residents. (Jan/Feb 2004, #133)
• Strategies For Survival Sometimes strategic restructuring can help CDCs stretch resources while continuing to serve the community. (Nov/Dec 2003, #132)
• Strengthening Weak Market Cities What CDCs can do to help attract residents and businesses to inner-city neighborhoods. (Sep/Oct 2003, #131)
• Bootstrap Philanthropy Learn how one New York-based CDC reduced its dependency on public and private funding by becoming fiscally self-sufficient. (Jul/Aug 2003, #130)
• No Progress without Protest The advocacy and organizing that made CRA legislation possible is still needed to move a progressive agenda. (Mar/Apr 2003, #128)
  
• Has Homeownership Been Oversold? There are many pitfalls to homeownership, especially for low-income families stretched thin financially. How owning – not renting – became the gold standard in community development, but may be crowding out more effective asset-building strategies. (Jan/Feb 2003, #127)
• The Conundrum of Community Development With about 1,300 units of housing, and plans to develop 1,700 more, one New York City CDC is remaking parts of East Harlem with affordable and market-rate housing. But does this approach sacrifice people for place? Author Matt Pacenza examines the work of Hope CDC, while Ellen Lazar and Brad Lander provide commentary. (Sep/Oct 2002, #125)
• Direct Action For Housing Nothing draws attention like the in-your-face tactics of direct action. It's not for everyone, but advocates say it can bolster the efforts of traditional lobbying groups and build a stronger housing movement. (Jul/Aug 2002, #124)
• Target: Problem Properties A CDC in New Jersey focuses on abandoned buildings. (Jan/Feb 2002, #121)
• So You Want to Be a Developer... A small community organization that decides to go into housing development faces a host of challenges. Here’s how one Chicago group is taking it one day – and one building – at a time. (Jan/Feb 2002, #121)
• Back to the Streets Few community developers took part in the recent WTO and IMF/World Bank demonstrations. Learn why more should have. (May/Jun 2000, #111)
• Time to Remove the Rose-Colored Glasses The community development movement has gone from advocating for social change to providing housing and economic development. As the movement returns to a broader agenda, can it overcome foundation resistance to funding organizing and its own lack of accountability? (Mar/Apr 2000, #110)
• Building Power CDCs and community organizing groups, as well as their supporters, need to recommit themselves to strengthening the capacity of local groups to organize for broad-based policy change. (Mar/Apr 2000, #110)
  
• Shelterforce Roundtable: Housing Justice Today Leaders from housing and social justice organizations share views on key policy, development, and organizing issues. (May/Jun 1999, #105)
• Expanding Community Development CBOs should redefine the nature of their work and find new allies in their region. (Jan/Feb 1998, #97)
• What If Everyone Had a Job? The true work of community development should be job creation. Everything else, the author contends, is palliative at best. (Sep/Oct 1996, #89)
• The Soul of the Neighborhood Community-based organizations do more than build houses, they rebuild the social fabric. Here's how and why. (May/Jun 1996, #87)
• Empowering Redevelopment: Toward a Different CDC Every neighborhood doesn't need a CDC. Instead we should strengthen high-capacity development organizations and give residents more control. (May/Jun 1996, #87)
• Community Building: Hope and Caution CDCs are assuming more comprehensive roles in their communities. Are they up to the challenge? Do they have the support of their communities, funders, or even their own organizations? (Sep/Oct 1995, #83)
• Responses to The New York Times Magazine's January 1994 article "The Myth of Community Development" by Nicholas Lemann (Mar/Apr 1994, #74)

• Fenway's Formidable Force Fenway CDC gets things done with “insider/outsider” role. (Mar/Apr 2001, #116)
• Not Afraid To Speak Up The Low Income Housing Institute is a multimillion dollar nonprofit developer - and a vocal housing justice advocate. (Mar/Apr 2001, #116)
• We Build the Road One of the oldest and largest CDCs in the country, Bethel New Life, has had to revise its mission regularly in order to continue to serve its community to the fullest.
  (Mar/Apr 2000, #110)
• Twin Pursuits HANDS, a CDC serving two cities in New Jersey, was a successful housing developer. But the community needed more. In trying to fill a bigger role, HANDS discovered firsthand the difficulties and joys of pairing community development with community building. (Mar/Apr 2000, #110)
  

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