As residential real estate sales set new highs in Bedford-Stuyvesant, more and more local families are being driven to the city's homeless shelters despite prevention efforts. What can city leaders do to ensure economic diversity?
"Those unburdened by skepticism about gentrification argue that it is an ample elevator, lifting up everyone: with renovations come the need for those to lay the subway tiles; with enotecas come the need for those to serve the verdicchio. And yet how often does the waitress pouring the wine in a marginal neighborhood look like someone rescued from grim financial despair rather than a slightly younger, and often more fashionable, version of the person drinking it?" asks Ginia Bellafante. "What has happened in Bedford-Stuyvesant does not easily comply with an optimistic view of transformation."
In recent months, million dollar sales have set new records in the Brooklyn neighborhood while the area continues to struggle with high homelessness. A program was initiated in 2004 to help prevent at-risk families from entering the city's shelter system, "but it has had only negligible success," she notes.
"Is the current understanding of prevention too narrow?" asks Bellafante. "Do neighborhoods need to be stabilized long before so many families find themselves so close to the precipice? Reason would seem to say yes. The city’s self-analysis, conducted by various academics, places little credence in the impact of the housing market on homelessness. But a report released last month by the Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness, a research and policy group, presents a convincing set of facts to defend the notion of causality."
FULL STORY: Gentrifying Into the Shelters

Trump Administration Could Effectively End Housing Voucher Program
Federal officials are eyeing major cuts to the Section 8 program that helps millions of low-income households pay rent.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Canada vs. Kamala: Whose Liberal Housing Platform Comes Out on Top?
As Canada votes for a new Prime Minister, what can America learn from the leading liberal candidate of its neighbor to the north?

Paris Voters Approve More Car-Free Streets
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo says the city will develop a plan to close 500 streets to car traffic and add new bike and pedestrian infrastructure after a referendum on the proposal passed with 66 percent of the vote.

Making Mobility More Inclusive
A new study highlights the challenges people with disabilities continue to face in navigating urban spaces.

Texas Bills Could Push More People Into Homelessness
A proposal to speed up the eviction process and a bill that would accelerate enforcement of an existing camping ban could make the state’s homelessness crisis worse, advocates say.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
Ada County Highway District
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
Salt Lake City
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service