Anti-Displacement Policy Options & Community Response (Vol.9, No.1)
Gentrification, the wrenching process of neighborhood change, was first named in the 1960s. The name, however did not acknowledge the permanent erasure that takes place when a community loses its memory. Gentrification, or urban blight were policy terms that carried social and racial values, as well as a political and economic agenda. The layered meanings of the language of redevelopment has been understood by many communities that have fought to remain intact. In San Francisco, those communities and their fights for survival are whispered anthems to community struggle; International Hotel, Yerba Buena, Fillmore.
There are effective strategies to both increase affordable housing and gain community control over development. In this issue you will find the story of a Los Angeles coalition that won a Regional Housing Trust Fund. PolicyLink has a tool kit for equitable development, a web based resource with strategies to preserve affordability. We bring you ACORN's organizing work in Sacramento and a Displacement Free Zone in Brooklyn, where the community enforces a ban on blatant rent increases. We take a look at the successes of faith-based organizing in cities where lack of investment, not displacement is the problem, In another section we look at the center of gravity for San Francisco's South of Market Filipino community, and the risk to cultural continuity that displacement can bring.
We look for future trends in community development, and find a wider frame for global capitalism, displacement, and the forces that shape our communities. Global economic decisions impact people's choices for immigration, decent jobs, housing, and the environment. Global economic decisions impact people's choices for immigration, decent jobs, housing, and the environment. Global economic forces undermine the ability of our communities to come together and resist displacement. And displacement is not a new story. People of color in this country and around the world have long struggled for self determination and for their land.
In this issue we attempt to provide historical context, policy ideas, and community experiences from around the country that will leave you both inspired and better equipped to tackle these issues at the local and regional level.
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2 News From Urban Habitat
3 News From the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment
4 About This Issue
Policy and Programs
5 Combating Gentrification Through Equitable Development
by Kalima Rose
9 Increase Affordable Housing with lnclusionary Zoning
by Doug Shoemaker
11 The Future of Affordability
by Eric Belsky
Organizing Strategies
14 Live Out Your Faith: The Gamaliel Foundation & Faith-based Community Organizing
by the Editor
16 Brooklyn 5th Ave Coalition
by Benjamin Dulchin
19 We Want to Stay in Our Community: RIVER Youth in the Bronx
by Kachen Brown, Anthony Thomas and Yomara Velez
20 Labor Goes to Bat for Housing
by Amy Dean
22 Activists Take a Lesson from Unemployed Councils of the 1930s
by James Tracey
Affordable Housing, Affordable Housing, Affordable Housing ...
24 LA Grassroots Campaign Wins $100 Million Housing Trust Fund
by Peter Dreier and Kelly Candaele
27 Out of Reach 2001: America's Growing Wage-Rent Disparity
27 The National Housing Trust Fund
28 Getting Home: Notes on Homeless Issues
by the Editor
Renter Protection
30 Rent Control in the New Millennium
by Dennis Keating and Mitch Kahn
34 How a Group of Renters Organized to Beat a Billionaire Landlord
by Jessica Lehman
37 Spotlight on San Francisco Bay Area Renter Protection
by the Editor
The Role of Federal Housing Programs
39 Revisiting the Sitcom Suburbs
by Dolores Hayden
42 And 'Then 'There's HOPE
by the Editor
Cultural Continuity
44 Tabi Po, Respect for Those Who Came Before
by MC Canlas
47 The Wildflowers Institute: A Cross-Cultural Training
by Pam Burdman
49 Learning from Cambodian Donut Shops: The Oakland Family Independence Initiative
by Maurice Lim Miller
And the Future
52 Back to the Streets: Why Community Developers Should Join the Fight Against Corporate Globalization
by Miriam Axel-Lute
Resources
55 Resources