Community Development | PD&R EDGE

By 2016, American Legion Post 139 in Arlington, Virginia, was grappling with declining membership and a 50-year-old facility that made fulfilling the organization’s mission — to serve and provide community to American veterans — increasingly challenging.

In March 2023, the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) held its annual Housing Policy Forum, “Onward to Housing Justice.”

“While working for the Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) in my early 20s, one of my first assignments was to assess how well the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) formula targets community development needs.”

John Arthur Flats, an affordable senior housing development geared for members of the LGBTQ+ community, opened in 2022 in Cincinnati’s Northside neighborhood.

On March 27, 2023, a British delegation composed of government officials from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities; Local Trust, a place-based funder of community initiatives; the Young Foundation...

In Historic Filipinotown, a Los Angeles neighborhood that often goes by the nickname HiFi, the median income of residents is only 40 percent of Los Angeles County’s median income, and many residents are at risk of displacement.

Auckland is a vibrant city boasting a wide variety of food, art, and cultural attractions.

In December 2022, the Starlight, a development with 100 affordable units targeted primarily to residents transitioning out of homelessness, opened in downtown Portland, Oregon.

In January 2023, the Boston University School of Public Health held a webinar as part of its Public Health Conversations series titled “Insecure Housing, Homelessness, and Health.”

Prado Family Homes, a 50-unit supportive affordable housing development, opened in July 2022 in the Los Angeles suburb of Fountain Valley, California.

The first column of the PD&R@50 series noted that in 1973, HUD Secretary James Lynn combined the two functions of policy development and research to create the Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R).

According to the Austin Area Comprehensive HIV Planning Council, housing is the most significant service gap for the 2,000 people living with HIV in Austin, Texas.

Accessing housing that is safe and affordable continues to be a challenge throughout the United States, while historic discriminatory practices have amplified inequities in housing.

Bulls Creek Apartments, in Charleston, South Carolina’s West Ashley neighborhood, is a 57-unit affordable housing development geared toward families.

Over the past several years, the Far Rockaway neighborhood of Queens in New York City has been the focus of significant redevelopment activity.

In the inaugural article of this year-long series, Todd Richardson (at PD&R from 1991 to 1997 and 2000 to present), Jill Khadduri (at PD&R from 1973 to 2000), and Sahian Valladares (at PD&R from 2022 to present), reflect on PD&R’s first 50 years.

Phoenix, Arizona, is redeveloping its obsolete public housing stock to deconcentrate poverty and create quality affordable housing units.

The legacy of racist housing policies, coupled with a shortage of affordable housing, has hindered the ability of minority and low-income families to build wealth, afford quality housing, and offer opportunities to their children.

Opened in January 2022, Mercy North Auburn is an affordable housing project within the Placer County Government Center (PCGC) campus in Auburn, California.

Opened in summer 2021, the Cottages on Vaughan is a pocket neighborhood of small homes in downtown Clarkston, Georgia, a city of approximately 15,000 people located 11 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta.