This week’s landmark fair housing settlement in Westchester County is a reminder that we still have a long way to go to achieve truly fair, equitable communities in America – but that we’ve also got the tools we need to make real progress.

The case brought into stark relief the impact that where we live has on how we live. Communities disconnected from jobs, good schools, parks, and other amenities do not provide the opportunities to succeed that all people need and deserve. Far too often, residents of low-income communities and communities of color are literally cut off from real economic and social opportunity.

While individual discriminatory landlords have long been targeted by advocates and local law enforcement, the broader community- and region-wide issue of housing segregation has rarely been given this much ink – and federal attention. By re-opening that discussion and bringing tangible measuring sticks to bear, the Westchester case has given a jolt of energy to efforts to fight regional housing segregation.

The case has garnered much-deserved attention in large part because of three important developments:

• An Equity Standard

By putting the onus for housing integration directly on affluent communities, this settlement helped create a benchmark for equity in all communities.

• White House Backing

When the Obama Administration (through HUD Assistant Secretary Ron Sims) spoke out  in favor of residential integration, the full force of the federal government came with it.  Bold federal leadership is required to bring the broad solutions needed to address this deep-seated problem.

• Power of the Purse

By tying federal money for infrastructure to an affirmative effort to integrate housing, the federal government used its primary lever (its money) to advance equity and opportunity for millions of Americans.

By ruling for the plaintiffs that the federal money for community development requires an affirmative effort to integrate housing, the courts affirmed that the federal government can use its primary lever (its infrastructure money) to advance equity and opportunity for millions of Americans.

We hope Westchester County steps up to its settlement to begin to open new doors to communities of opportunity.  PolicyLink, in the meantime, wants to work with the growing ranks of equity advocates to build on this win and continue pushing for robust expansion of these approaches from local, state and federal resources.

During a webinar Friday, June 26, from 1 to 2:30 pm EDT (10 to 11:30 PDT), PolicyLink and Living Cities will release the Reclaiming Foreclosed Properties for Community Benefit tool, which will highlight promising strategies already underway in communities to acquire, care for, and return-to-market foreclosed properties.

The call will also feature tips and ideas for meeting the July 17th application deadline for $2 billion in additional Neighborhood Stabilization Program dollars from the federal stimulus package.

RSVP for the call here

The Discussion will be moderated by Kalima Rose, Senior Director, PolicyLink Center for Infrastructure Equity

Welcome and Opening Comments

• Tamir Novotny, Program Associate, Living Cities

Review of Tool

• Sarah Treuhaft, Senior Associate, PolicyLink

Strategies in the Twin Cities

• Tom Fulton, President, Family Housing Fund

• Rebecca Rom, Attorney, Faegre & Benson, LLP

Strategies in Los Angeles

• Danny Draper, Director, Real Estate Department, LA Neighborhood Housing Services

Discussion/Q & A

• John Laswick, Community Development Specialist, US Department of Housing and Urban Development

Below is a statement from PolicyLink President Judith Bell about the “Livable Communities” partnership announced by HUD, EPA and the Department of Transportation:

“All Americans deserve to live in sustainable, opportunity-rich communities. There are few policies that can make a more significant difference in our everyday lives than those in the nexus of housing, environment, and transportation. This new inter-agency partnership among HUD, EPA, and DOT promises to be the start of some enormously exciting changes in how we live and how we get around. In calling explicitly for ‘equitable development,’ these agency leaders have shown a stirring commitment to fair and just inclusion – a core governing principle PolicyLink has advocated for for nearly a decade.”

For more information on equitable development, please visit the PolicyLink Equitable Development Toolkit. The toolkit has played a vital role in helping PolicyLink advance the concept of equitable development to cities and states across America for nearly a decade.

The NY Times had a great piece over the weekend about the racial disparities in foreclosures in New York. The story was both stunning in the depth of the crisis and, at the same time. so very much expected.

What really got me, though, was checking out this map of Brooklyn (click on the photo below to go to the full interactive map page). I live right smack-dab in the middle of all those red dots in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. I can pinpoint some of the houses that those dots represent. It’s awful and troubling and maddening. Look for yourself.

Earlier this week, the secretaries of Transportation and HUD announced an exciting new joint “Livable Communities” initiative. Below is my statement on the announcement:

“All Americans deserve to live in a community with access to good jobs, affordable homes and reliable public transportation. The Livable Communities initiative announced this week by the federal departments of housing and transportation is a promising step toward a more just and equitable America. This kind of coordinated, cross-agency partnership is crucial to ensure smarter investments and respond to the interconnected reality of people’s lives.

This announcement could not come at a more crucial or opportunity-rich moment for the American people. As states and cities break ground on projects funded by the recovery bill, legislators, advocates, and agency heads at all levels will be able to immediately invest in livable, sustainable communities. This is especially important for the nation’s poor, who are often hamstrung by an infuriating Catch 22 – they cannot afford housing near transit hubs but also cannot afford to own and operate the car they need to live in less expensive housing away from transit. This mismatch not only creates dire spending choices, but also cuts off too many low-income Americans from access to regional job centers – perpetuating the cycle.

For our federal investments to truly pay off in the long-run, low-income residents and people of color – those hit “first and worst” by this downturn – must be at the forefront of these spending decisions. We must ensure all Americans have access to affordable homes near public transit – and help foster the benefits that come with these smart, well-planned communities. If we move forward with equity in mind, we can take a significant step toward creating livable, sustainable communities of opportunity for all Americans.”

Could innovative public policy and community-oriented homeowner education programs help avert the worst of the foreclosure crisis? The folks at the National Community Land Trust Network and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy think so — and they’ve got the numbers to back it up.

They have a great new report out today showing that Community Land Trustshave a significantly lower foreclosure rate than the national average.

But first, what exactly is a Communtiy Land Trusts (CLTs)? According to the report:

Owned by nonprofits, CLTs lease the land and typically sell the buildings on the land at below-market rates. This model benefits current and future homeowners. In exchange for purchasing homes at below-market prices, homeowners agree to limit the price of their homes when they sell, keeping them permanently affordable to future buyers while providing a fair return to the seller.

Although homeowners agree to forgo the possibility of big profits if their neighborhood’s property values go up, they receive in return the chance to own homes that they otherwise would not be able to afford.

The National CLT Network and the Lincoln Institute surveyed 1,930 CLT homeowners — about 60 percent of CLT homeowners nationwide — and found only 0.52 percent of low-income CLT homebuyers were in foreclosure last year. Compare that to the 3.3 percent nationwide. CLT homebuyers were six times less likely to be foreclosed on last year.

“It’s clear that community land trusts significantly lower the risks of owning a home,” said Roger Lewis, executive director of the National CLT Network. “While home foreclosures are devastating families and neighborhoods across America, community land trusts are proving to be a highly effective way to create and sustain stable neighborhoods. That’s partly because community land trusts don’t allow the kind of ‘too-good-to-be-true’ financing that has taken down so many American families.”

Take a moment to check out the full report (or at least the press release). For anyone who cares about the future of communtiies devestated by the coreclosure crisis, the report offers the first good news we’ve heard in a long time.

In an email to more than 10,000 equity advocates last week, PolicyLink asked for folks’ ideas on how to make the recovery package more equitable. We received a flood of responses and wanted to highlight some of them on EquityBlog for discussion.

This first set of ideas comes from Dan Matthew, GM/CEO of BEC New Communities, a Brooklyn-based non-profit housing development and management company:

As a affordable housing producer in NYC, we are interested in impressing upon our Federal, State and Local gov’ts that the Low income Housing tax Credit guidelines under Section 42 of the IRC and the compatible State and Local regulations should be adjusted to our current needs. The items listed below some suggested modifications:

1. Extending Tax Credits for those who choose to work, study, teach, build or invest in community development and affordable housing in urban cities. Those that build or invest would be eligible for tax credit for allocating at least 30% of their production and/investment in affordable housing. School loans should be forgiven.

2. Disincentivize the benefit to municipalities and investors in LIHTC assets of selling or purchasing the tax liens (ie water and sewer).

3. Capitalize affordable housing through the Rescue Plan to the tune of a minimum of $500,000,000 (NYC). More nationally. This could assist community development partner in strategic investment with those for profit developers that have units offline through lower demand or foreclosure.

Check back throughout the week for more ideas…and add your ideas in the comments!

In today’s editions of La Opinion — the nation’s largest Spanish-language newspaper — PolicyLink CEO stands up for ACORN against the withering assault of right-wing critics. Though Ms. Blackwell’s op-ed was published in Spanish, here is the English version:

Why ACORN Matters

By Angela Glover Blackwell

On door steps and street corners across the nation, thousands of ACORN volunteers have been working diligently to enfranchise and empower millions of Americans from low-income communities and communities of color. We’ve seen them registering our Latino and African-American neighbors in dense urban centers, far-flung rural towns and everywhere in between - fighting to give a voice to our historically marginalized communities.

In just the past year, Latinos represented about one-quarter of the 1.3 million new voters ACORN registered - more than 300,000 new American voters. That is why the unwarranted and unsubstantiated attacks on ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) the past few weeks have been so damaging to anyone who wants communities of color to have a say in our government.

The work being done by ACORN and Latino voter rights groups is an enormous and important step toward giving Latinos and African Americans the voice we need and deserve.  When our numbers are strong, we have the power to make changes– in our neighborhoods, our cities, our states and our nation.

But it is exactly this empowerment that is driving the trumped-up voter registration fraud charges being repeated ad nauseam by right-wing pundits and sympathetic media outlets like FOX News.  It threatens to undue the work of ACORN, Latino, African American, and other organizations across the country working for decades to secure and protect the right to vote for all Americans.

Entrenched powers are uncomfortable with the voters ACORN targets. Those powers are fearful of the nation’s rapidly expanding Latino population and the country’s inevitable march toward a day when the majority of Americans come from racial minority groups.

It is the fear of the powerless becoming powerful, of the voiceless finding their voice. It is the fear of 148,000 new ACORN-recruited voters in Pennsylvania, 152,000 in Florida, 217,000 in Michigan, and 238,000 in Ohio. It is the fear that people of color across America will finally be able to speak out on behalf of their communities.

But the work of ACORN and other civil rights groups does not stop at the ballot box. The struggle continues in every corner of our lives, from health to housing to criminal justice reform.

ACORN was one of the first and most vocal groups calling for reform of the predatory lending and subprime mortgage laws, long before those sectors dragged our economy down into crisis. In New Orleans, ACORN brought together thousands of displaced residents to give them an amplified, powerful voice in the revival of their own city. Throughout the nation, ACORN has organized millions of red-shirted supporters to crowd City Council meetings and legislative hearings to fight for fair, equitable public policies for all people.

At heart, ACORN is working to ensure all our children have good schools, all our neighborhoods are affordable and healthy, and all our families are economically secure. But we can only make our dreams real if we join together as a powerful force for change.

ACORN plays a vital role in making sure our communities have a seat at the table to advocate forcefully for that change. They deserve our utmost respect and support - not the scorn and derision of ill-informed politicians.

Ms. Blackwell is founder and CEO of PolicyLink

In recent days, the name “ACORN” has become a sinister watchword in many conservative circles, serving as a stand-in for voter fraud and underhanded election tactics. One leading politician even said ACORN “may be destroying the fabric of democracy.”

Well, let me tell you about the ACORN I know, the ACORN I’ve seen in action during my more than three years working with people struggling to recover in New Orleans.

ACORN is the group that brought together thousands of African American residents to have an amplified, powerful voice in the revival of their own city.

ACORN is the group that fought to make sure Louisianans displaced from their home state would still have the chance to vote in their elections and help guide post-Katrina recovery.

ACORN is the group that holds politicians at all levels accountable to a poor, largely African American constituency that was systematically ignored and even targeted for housing demolition.

ACORN is the group that has been one of the most effective organizations in holding banks accountable for the predatory loans that are now bringing our entire economy down.

ACORN is not a caricature.

ACORN is not a curse word.

ACORN, at heart, is a group of neighbors fighting to spread the American Dream to all people.   That role seems pretty vital to the fabric of democracy.

PolicyLink Senior Director Kalima Rose is a long-time community advocate and policy expert who has been working with legislators and on-the-ground leaders in Louisiana since just after Hurricane Katrina.

We started noticing the trend last week. Traffic on our website was spiking dramatically, with nearly half of all our hits landing on one specific page, entitled: “What is the Community Reinvestment Act?”Could it be that in these increasingly dire economic times, Americans are looking for examples of successful, pragmatic solutions to encourage responsible homeownership and promote equality and justice? Sadly, not quite.

It turns out our CRA page was linked in a scathing video blaming the CRA for the housing crisis - the basic argument being that the CRA forced banks to loan to all people and, therefore, precipitated the sub-prime crisis and irresponsible people getting loans they couldn’t afford.

The Drudge Report happily hyped this video and injected it into the conservative blogosphere. From there, the CRA meme caught like wildfire. Soon, we were seeing it in top conservative blogs and even on the op-ed pages of major newspapers. It is now an article of faith among many conservatives that the housing crisis is rooted in the CRA - and, in turn, the millions of people of color who were able to obtain mortgages through it.

This argument is not only morally repugnant, but simply factually off-base.

The CRA was passed in 1977 to counter proven and pervasive racial discrimination by banks and savings & loans. It addressed the unfair and widespread practices of denying credit-worthy customers of color, particularly African Americans and Latinos, access to standard loans and mortgages. The CRA was a remarkable success, sending home ownership rates among people of color to unparalleled heights and helping usher in a black and Latino middle class that is essential to America’s economic future.

However, during the past decade as the nation’s housing market flew closer and closer to the sun, enforcement of the CRA has actually decreased. Contrary to what CRA critics espouse, the CRA did not force these loans of lenders. The CRA became law in 1977, and the sub-prime loans that got us into this current crisis started being issued en masse in 2003. As financial institutions’ desire for accelerated profits and revenue streams grew, necessary regulation did not follow.

The strength of the CRA was significantly weakened in 1999 when financial legislation allowed investment and securities firms to enter the mortgage world.  Prior to these changes, the home mortgage industry was fairly simple-banks offered loans, those loans were purchased, held and backed by the General Service Enterprises of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The CRA applied to the regulated institutions issuing loans.

After the 1999 legislation broke down the firewalls between players, however, the network of firms financing homes included more than 20 types of entities that could purchase, repackage, and securitize loans.  Brokers became free agents to recruit these loans for players that made money on high-fee, high-interest transactions. This massive web of financial entities offering, bundling, and trading of mortgages was not covered by the CRA. The vast majority of the sub-prime loans causing today’s massive foreclosures were issued by institutions not covered by the CRA.

Watchdog group Media Matters notes that in the 15 most populous metropolitan areas, 84.3 percent of high-cost loans in 2006 were made by financial institutions not governed by the CRA.  Janet Yellen, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said in a March speech that ‘studies have shown that the CRA has increased the volume of responsible lending to low- and moderate-income households.’”

Rather than having the government enforcing a banking regime that is fair and just to all people — as the CRA intended — lawmakers abdicated their responsibilities by not regulating the new players, and let the market run roughshod over millions of low-income Americans simply yearning for the American dream of home ownership. The CRA required meeting community credit needs across banks’ markets-not predatory lending across a vast opaque network of lending, trading, and securitization institutions. Uneven and nonexistent regulation became the tragic accelerant.

Trying to blame the CRA and hard-working, low-income Americans for an economic crisis that began in smoky Wall Street backrooms is not only factually but morally wrong. The CRA is an indispensable tool in our continuing push toward an America that offers equal, just and fair opportunity for all people.