Though it is often easy to take our roads, sewers, school buildings, water systems, and subway or bus lines for granted, they are the kinds of infrastructure that are the backbone of every city, suburb, and rural community in America.  Like any other service or program, infrastructure is shaped by policy, budget, and resource allocation decisions that can reward some areas with smooth-running, efficient systems and leave other neighborhoods to struggle with shortage and disrepair.  How can low-income communities and communities of color make their voices heard about the critical need for new school construction, well-funded public transit, and living-wage building industry jobs that allow unemployed and underemployed low-income residents to benefit from large-scale infrastructure projects in and around their neighborhoods?  Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and CEO, PolicyLink, poses a number of challenging questions on sustaining and improving our communities in her current blog entry on the Covenant with Black America website.

The covenant website and blog build on the momentum of the Covenant with Black America, the inspiring call to action and collection of policy solutions that reached #1 on the New York Times paperback bestseller list and energized hundreds of thousands of African Americans to hold themselves and their leaders accountable for making black America—and, indeed, the entire nation—better.  In the current installment of the covenant blog, Blackwell reminds readers that “just as race and poverty impact almost every aspect of life in this country, so it is with infrastructure…Strategic decisions about infrastructure are routinely made without the involvement of the people who will be most affected by the outcomes”—and yet, if given the tools to speak out, individuals do have the power to create change.  We all must understand the systems that make up our cities, demand that legislators focus on equitable infrastructure investment, and allocate the necessary funds to maintain public works and strengthen our neighborhoods. 

Every few weeks, different authors will contribute to the blog on topics ranging from universal healthcare and early childhood education, to community policing and voting rights.  The list of writers will include community activists, experts, academics, and advocates such as Dr. Cornel West, university professor, Princeton University; Wade Henderson, executive director, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; and Marian Wright Edelman, president and founder, Children’s Defense Fund.  Each blog entry will challenge the community to examine the most pressing issues in black America—and most importantly, encourage all readers to learn more, dialogue with one another, and take action in their own communities.

In the year since since Hurricane Katrina and breeched levees wreaked havoc in Louisiana, PolicyLink continues to provide support to government, community organizations, and faith-based leaders in keeping equity concerns front and center in the plans for rebuilding.

The Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation (LRDF) is one of the nonprofits that PolicyLink is partnering with in advancing an equitable development framework for rebuilding Louisiana. LDRF was created in September 2005 by the Louisiana governor to channel charitable contributions to the recovery.   Contributions to LDRF have been made by individuals and from corporations, national foundations, and the Bush/Clinton Katrina Fund; the fund today has assets close to $40 million.   On September 14 and 15, LDRF commemorated its first anniversary over a day and a half that looked at its progress in advancing coordination and collaboration as funders committed to equity in the Gulf Coast rebuilding process.  The audience for the event included representatives of foundations, grassroots and advocacy organizations, and faith-based institutions.

LDRF board chair, Ambassador James Joseph, inspired those present in a closing speech that drew parallels between South Africa, where he was the United States ambassador from 1996 to 1999, and his native Louisiana.  Speaking of the dangers of failing to recognize economic disparities, Joseph urged those gathered to "put race on the table, not under, and focus on truth rather than blame in order to reconcile conflicting visions."  Healing, he said, "is as much about restoring community as restoring the individual."  Quoting the mystic theologian Howard Thurman, Joseph concluded: "I want to be me without making it more difficult for you to be you."

In addition to other speakers from LDRF, including the foundation's CEO, Sherece West, the audience also heard presentations from PolicyLink associate director Kalima Rose; Donna Addkison, director of the New Orleans Office of Economic Development; Raymond Jetson, CEO of the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps; Rosalind Peychaud, Neighborhood Development Foundation; Sheila Webb, from the Center for Empowered Decision Making; and Julio Galan of the Southwest Family Foundation.

As part of LDRF's one year anniversary commemoration, the foundation asked several experts to write policy papers reflecting on issues and ideas in the aftermath of what has been called the worst human/natural disaster in the history of the United States.  Kalima Rose, PolicyLink associate director, wrote about the great need for rental and homeowner housing and the efforts by advocates to make sure that these needs are met.  The following is an excerpt from her paper.

More than 125,000 homes in Orleans and St. Bernard parishes were severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina and the floods that followed, and it is estimated that only about 30 to 50 percent of residents have returned.  For a year, diverse advocates—including faith leaders, neighborhood organizers, representatives of people with disabilities, developers of affordable housing, budget experts, legislators, and civil rights champions—have challenged every federal, state, and local housing agency and legislative body to use its powers both to support people's rights and to do business differently as they all take up housing recovery on a scale previously unknown to any of them. And while the fruits of their collective social action can be of little immediate solace to those who lost their homes, they carry new evidence that government must rise to their calls and address people's needs for more equitable development.

Most of the energy and attention started out focused on Congress—to get more federal funding allocated to housing recovery in the state—and on the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA), which wrote the state's Road Home plan for housing recovery using federal resources. Advocates helped win new rules directing funds to some of the most innovative use of tax credits in the country, serving a range of households including the most vulnerable residents needing supportive services (known as "permanent supportive housing") and households at every tier of income. They also successfully pressed the Louisiana Housing Finance Administration to set aside credits for rebuilding housing in the most devastated parishes, after it had failed to do so in the early rounds of allocations.

The Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus called its first ever public hearing on statewide housing issues and heard from its constituents on the Road Home plan.  Housing advocates—organized through PICO-LIFT, the Louisiana Housing Alliance, homelessness and supportive housing networks, legal services and fair housing groups, ACORN, and the Louisiana Housing Economic Development Collaborative—read every document, prepared public comments, met with the Louisiana Recovery Authority and administrative leaders, testified, and lobbied.  Ultimately, they won concessions on the majority of their concerns.

Action for Regional Equity (Action!), a coalition of 20 Massachusetts-based organizations, released two reports—Community Controlled Housing for Massachusetts: Securing Affordability for the Long Term and Building the Line to Equity: Six Steps to Achieving Equitable Transit—that call on government, private developers, and the nonprofit sector to collaborate and find new ways to stem the state's continuing housing crisis and to advance transit oriented development (TOD).The reports state that policy solutions must be crafted to expand affordable housing and enhance public transportation, particularly for those in low-income communities and communities of color. The reports  advocate moving more unsubsidized housing units to nonprofit and tenant control and building mixed-use communities around transit stations. 

Specifically, the housing report advocates moving units to community control through new and existing financing tools, land and building acquisition, the creative use of zoning, regulation, and market incentives, and concerted tenant organizing. Aaron Gornstein of Citizens' Housing and Planning Association explains, "Currently, state programs, nonprofit developers, and their partners produce more than 2,000 units of housing annually that is affordable to low-income and working class families. This is significant, but does not begin to serve fully the incredible demand. Currently, more than 150,000 renter households and 80,000 homeowners are paying more than 50 percent of their income towards housing." Action! has identified more than 115,000 privately-owned, unsubsidized units that have the potential to be converted to nonprofit or tenant ownership with long term affordability through the cooperation of the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. Their demand for 10,000 additional units represents an important first step in the process.

As a complement to the housing report, the transportation report presents a development approach that links planning for affordable housing and transportation investment in ways that connect residents to economic and social opportunities. It identifies 10 principles to enable everyone to benefit from transit oriented development: ensure community benefit, maintain affordability, prevent displacement, encourage community controlled housing, improve environmental quality, promote environmental justice, achieve full accessibility, boost transit use, plan for transit growth, encourage local economic development, and understand local context.  "TOD is an important and worthwhile strategy to increase the housing stock in the state, but without some rigorous guidelines for how decisions around TOD is planned and developed, these new efforts could actually lead to escalating housing prices and serious displacement of working class residents and small businesses," warned Steve Meacham of City Life/Vida Urbana. City Life has been working to stem displacement in Jamaica Plains and other Boston communities, and has seen the phenomenon spread throughout the region.

"We have to start thinking of the impacts of transit investment and housing affordability together," notes Meridith Levy of Somerville Community Corporation, a community development corporation that is a member of Action!  "They are critically linked, and if public policy efforts do not start to recognize this, we will only worsen a very delicate situation for thousands of Massachusetts residents. That is why Action! has released these two reports together."

To read the full reports, go to http://www.policylink.org/BostonAction/research.html.

Housing is a linchpin for opportunity.  Where you live affects whether you have access to living wage jobs, transportation, high quality public schools, and neighborhood amenities like supermarkets and banks.  Too often, housing affordable to low-income residents is concentrated in disinvested, high-poverty neighborhoods, further isolating low-income communities and communities of color from opportunity.  At the same time, low- and even moderate-income renters and homeowners in gentrifying neighborhoods often fear being forced out by rising housing costs—just as their communities are beginning to improve. 

The District of Columbia faces this dilemma, as many neighborhoods have undergone significant revitalization over the past decade, and officials seek to attract new, higher-income residents to the area.  In response to the dire need to preserve and create more affordable housing, a diverse coalition of community development, faith-based, policy, and labor organizations have spent several years advocating for a mandatory inclusionary zoning (IZ) ordinance in Washington, DC.  Under inclusionary zoning, a certain number of units in each new or rehabilitated development are reserved for low- or moderate-income residents; in return, developers receive density bonuses or other zoning waivers allowing them to build additional units or take advantage of otherwise streamlined requirements.  An IZ policy in neighboring Montgomery County, Maryland (believed to be the nation's first), has developed over 12,000 affordable housing units across the county since 1976. 

Earlier this year, thanks to tireless advocacy from the DC Campaign for Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning, the District's Zoning Commission issued an historic ruling that was the first step in creating a mandatory inclusionary zoning program in the District of Columbia.  The DC Office of Planning issued a proposed map for inclusionary zoning, and the Zoning Commission must now decide in which neighborhoods specifically the new IZ policy will apply. 

The Zoning Commission will hold public hearings on the Office of Planning's map on October 5 and October 19.  The proposed map has the potential to create nearly 200 affordable units each year and applies inclusionary zoning equitably and effectively across the city. The Zoning Commission needs to hear from residents that they want affordable housing in their neighborhood, that inclusionary zoning should apply extensively in the District, and that the proposed map achieves these goals. Without broad support from District residents, certain neighborhoods may be excluded from inclusionary zoning thereby creating much fewer affordable homes.

If you live in Washington, DC, visit the Campaign for Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning website to learn how you can testify at the public hearings and get involved in the effort to make sure this landmark new policy will effectively create affordable housing opportunities for DC residents. 

For residents outside the District of Columbia, visit the PolicyLink website to learn more about IZ, download research reports, or connect with affordable housing and zoning advocates and practitioners across the country through our inclusionary housing listserv.