Coming up next month: “Can We Achieve Diversity and Stability in Gentrifying Neighborhoods?”
A discussion featuring Sheryll Cashin, Betsy Julian, Ingrid Ellen, and Robert Damewood. At the Housing Justice Network Conference, Monday, October 17, 2011 at 2:00 pm, Washington Court Hotel, 525 New Jersey Avenue NW, Washington, DC.
This panel discussion is the first in a series of roundtables sponsored by the Poverty & Race Research Action Council on the 30th anniversary of Chester Hartman’s report “Displacement: How to Fight It” (published by the National Housing Law Project in 1981). We intend to explore the difficult question of how to harness neighborhood and school improvements associated with gentrification, for the benefit of existing neighborhood residents without displacement. We will also assess the long-term goal of stable neighborhood racial and economic integration, and the factors that need to be in place to favor this outcome. Participants in this initial discussion will include Sheryll Cashin, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center, Elizabeth Julian, President, Inclusive Communities Project, Dallas, TX, Ingrid Gould Ellen, Co-Director, Furman Institute for Real Estate and Urban Policy, New York University, and Robert Damewood, Staff Attorney, Regional Housing Legal Services – Pittsburgh.
There is no charge to attend this panel discussion, as long as you RSVP to PRRAC. If you’d like to attend other portions of this excellent two-day conference (sponsored by the National Housing Law Project), you are welcome to register if you are a legal services lawyer, researcher, activist, affordable housing advocate or supporter. See the NHLP website for full conference details.
Harmonizing Treasury Department housing programs with the Fair Housing Act
In the latest effort to coordinate federal housing policy across the three responsible agencies (HUD, the Treasury Department, and the Department of Agriculture), the Treasury Department appears to be successfully avoiding White House pressure to adopt meaningful civil rights rules in the largest federal low income housing development program (the Low Income Housing Tax Credit). In fact, the Treasury Department has successfully avoided adopting civil rights rules under Title VI and Title VIII for decades. See our latest comments to the White House “Rental Housing Policy Group.”
Other news and resources
Free Webinar by Applied Research Center (ARC) and Partners: Race and the Federal Budget Debate September 22, 2011 1pm EST: The Congressional Supercommittee will announce over $1.5 trillion in budget cuts come November 23. What’s on the chopping block? Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP/food stamps, and Social Security…safety net programs that are the last buffer for millions of people of color who have never recovered from the Great Recession. Register now to learn how the planned budget cuts will increase racial disparities and what opportunities exist to formulate alternatives that advance racial equity and inclusion.
“Poverty Impact Projections”: Poverty Impact Projection (PIP) is an emerging tool that asks and answers the question at the forefront of the policy process, “If we pursue this policy, how much should it increase or decrease poverty?” A new report by CLASP (the Center on Law and Social Policy), At the Forefront: Poverty Impact Projections, explains Poverty Impact Projections, highlights where PIPs have been undertaken, and looks at key considerations in structuring a Poverty Impact Projection.
Opening of the Martin Luther King Memorial: Some recent op-eds and reflections from Cornel West, Colbert I. King, and Risa Lavizzo-Mourey.
