Released earlier this month, this new report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development presents an assessment of efforts by HUD to desegregate public housing as a voluntary response to suits filed by various groups at eight different urban sites citing discriminatory HUD policies. HUD commissioned the Urban Institute (see the September 9, 1999 Scout Report for Business and Economics) to...

Craigslist Disputes “Fair” Housing Lawsuit http://www.craigslist.org/about/fair.housing.html Free classified ads not working well for newspapers http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2006/02/free_classified_ads_not_working_well_for.php#more Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc. v. Craigslist, Inc....

Founded in 1959, the Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) at Harvard is a collaborative unit affiliated with the Graduate School of Design and the Kennedy School of Government. The Center's central focus is to "analyze the dynamic relationships between housing markets and economic, demographic, and social trends, providing leaders in government, business, and the non-profit sector with the...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) puts together hundreds of informative documents for policymakers and the general public every year. This site provides access to grant applications, housing discrimination forms, materials on Native American housing programs, and other helpful information. It can be a bit tricky to navigate the site, but scrolling down the site is a good...

The majority of National Trust Park properties commemorate the lives of famous politicians and other well-known Americans, but the Lower East Side Tenement Museum commemorates the everyday (and in some cases extraordinary) lives of some of the 7,000 immigrants who lived at 97 Orchard Street from 1863 to 1935. At the site, visitors can take virtual tours of immigrant family apartments, including...

The Neighborhood Funders Group (NFG) is a "national network of foundations and philanthropic organizations." Based in Washington, DC, the NFG supports community-based efforts that improve economic and social conditions in low-income communities. On their Web site, visitors can learn about the Group's core values and how organizations can apply for membership. The news and resources section of the...

As the city of Chicago began the plan to transform its notoriously poorly-run Chicago Housing Authority in the early 1990s, many wondered what would become of its residents and the surrounding communities. This recent report from the Urban Institute looks into the "complex relationship between public housing transformation and crime in Chicago and Atlanta." Authored by five different researchers...

Volume II of this 2 volume report, explores success rates of the Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP) and factors affecting success rates in rural communities. The report draws on research from five rural public housing agencies (PHAs) in Alabama, Iowa, Montana, Pennsylvania, and Texas. In both volumes, success rate is defined as the portion of families who are issued vouchers and succeed in...

Many cities struggled with the issue of open housing in the 1950s and 1960s, and Seattle was a contested site in the struggle for civil rights. Until 1968, it was legal to discriminate against minorities in Seattle when renting apartments or selling real estate. This fine website created by the Seattle Municipal Archives explores the history of the open housing campaign through a range of primary...