Category: social-exclusion-and-inclusion

Office of Community Planning and Development, within the Department of Housing and Urban Development to lose 84% of its Staff

The Community Planning and Development office at HUD disburses more than $3.6 billion in federal funding for rental assistance, mental health and substance use treatment, and outreach to try and get those living outside into shelter or housing.

Author Lisa GieskesPosted on February 24, 2025February 24, 2025Categories basic-needs, community-building, government, homelessness-and-housing, hunger, social-exclusion-and-inclusion

Indianapolis’ First Library for Black Residents Reopens Through School Librarian’s Leadership

Maurice Broaddus, librarian at The Oaks Academy middle school, poses for a portrait during orientation last week. The award-winning author is helping revive the historic Paul Laurence Dunbar Library, which in 1922 was the first library in Indianapolis established specifically to serve Black residents.(Haley Miller / Chalkbeat)

Maurice Broaddus was a writer by trade and became a middle school librarian by accident.

The award-winning Afrofuturist and sci-fi author once filled in at The Oaks Academy middle school, where he was also a teacher, for the librarian going on maternity leave. The librarian never came back.

Author Lisa GieskesPosted on August 31, 2024September 11, 2024Format ImageCategories books, community-building, library-and-info-science, social-exclusion-and-inclusion

The Supreme Court Rules on Homelessness: What it All Means

Last week, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Grants Pass v. Johnson, which makes it easier for communities nationwide to fine, ticket or arrest people living unsheltered, even when there is no adequate shelter available.

Author Lisa GieskesPosted on July 5, 2024Categories basic-needs, government, homelessness-and-housing, law-and-social-policy, social-exclusion-and-inclusion

Nobel Economist Tells G-20 to Slap Climate Tax on Billionaires

Duflo wants to raise $500 billion to mitigate climate effects.
Rich nations have ‘moral debt’ to poor countries, she argues.

Author Lisa GieskesPosted on April 22, 2024April 22, 2024Categories basic-needs, economic-justice, government, law-and-public-policy, law-and-social-policy, poverty-research, social-exclusion-and-inclusion

Brooklyn’s New Affordable Housing Development is Built on Top of a Public Library

“A rebuilt branch of the Brooklyn Public Library is opening with a new feature: on the seven floors right above the library, there will be 49 affordable housing units. Michelle de la Uz, executive director of Fifth Avenue Committee, a nonprofit that builds affordable housing and which partnered with the Brooklyn Public Library on the project, said she’s excited to see how those tenants engage with the library, and that the branch’s programming and resources could help people feel less isolated.

Linda Johnson, president and CEO of the Brooklyn Public Library, and de la Uz hope to see it replicated, throughout New York and beyond. “There’s an urgent need for affordable housing, and there are a lot of underutilized libraries that need modernization anyway,” de la Uz says. ‘Why not kill two birds with one stone?'”

[Photo: Gregg Richards/courtesy Brooklyn Public Library]

Author Lisa GieskesPosted on November 20, 2023November 20, 2023Format ImageCategories basic-needs, children-and-families, community-building, economic-justice, government, homelessness-and-housing, library-and-info-science, social-exclusion-and-inclusion

Maine’s Affordable Housing Crisis is Contributing to a Big Increase in Student Homelessness

Joel Morse, a staff member at the Store Next Door, organizing clothes inside the resource center in Lewiston in late summer 2023.

Chris Indorf, the assistant superintendent for schools in Biddeford and Saco, said that before the pandemic, student homelessness was typically temporary — just a month or so — as a relatively ample housing supply made it somewhat easier for families to find a new apartment.

“Now the homelessness seems to be endemic. It’s lasting an entire year, or it’s spanning years,” Indorf said. “Most of those cases aren’t destitution — aren’t tents out behind the Starbucks. They tend to be intergenerational, families living with other families. Part of that is due to the economy. And a good part of that is owing to just extremely limited housing stock in Biddeford and Saco, and what is available is exorbitantly expensive.”

Author Lisa GieskesPosted on September 23, 2023September 23, 2023Categories basic-needs, children-and-families, homelessness-and-housing, social-exclusion-and-inclusion

How Urban Alchemy Turns Homelessness Into Gold

“Cities are pouring money into the nonprofit to manage encampments and patrol the streets where unhoused residents congregate. Not everyone is happy about it.”

Author Lisa GieskesPosted on August 28, 2023Categories basic-needs, government, homelessness-and-housing, law-and-social-policy, personal-accounts, social-exclusion-and-inclusion

Professor Launches LGBTQIA+ Emergency Fund

“Nearly one in four transgender young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 experience homelessness, nearly double the rate of their peers, according to the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention and mental health organization for LGBTQIA+ young people.”