Housing
Cohousing Catches On
Cohousing, which is cooperatively-managed but independently-owned housing, is gaining popularity in the Northwest. A new cohousing project in Portland just opened its doors last weekend.
Foreclosed Homeowners Turning to Homeless Shelters
A new report shows a dramatic trend in homelessness: increasing numbers of former homeowners left with nowhere to live after foreclosure are turning to homeless shelters.
Testing Grounds
Housing development, architecture and community building have found a new learning lab in the lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans.
From Foreclosure to Green TOD in Phoenix
Foreclosed homes in Phoenix are a new goldmine for one developer, who is buying up land near the city's mass transit lines and marketing properties as transit oriented development.
Bloomberg's Housing Plan Gains, Loses
Despite the NYC Mayor's progress in preserving or creating affordable housing, overall the city has seen net losses.
To Save Water, Developers Ditch Lawns
Developers of Sterling Ranch, a proposed master-planned community in Colorado, want its future residents to curb their water use. One way they're ensuring this is by nixing traditional, lush lawns from their plans.
Halfway Towards Ending Homelessness in Portland
Portland, Oregon is half-way through its ten-year plan to address homelessness. The city's seen improvements, but many challenges lie ahead, according to this report.
Study Shows Shelter Reduces Costs
A four-year study by United Way of Greater Los Angeles has shown that stable housing provides benefits to taxpayers as well as the homeless.
2010 Census Faces Foreclosure Challenges
The high amount of foreclosures is expected to make things tougher for Census officials as they prepare for 2010 Census enumeration.
There's No Place Like Home
Joel Kotkin sees a trend in a 'New Localism'- people aren't moving around like they used to, and it's causing them to reengage with their communities.
How to Make Housing Affordable
Avi Friedman has some ideas of how to make housing more affordable. He says that the focus is too much on the mortgage and subsidies side and not enough on lower building costs.
'Zombie Subdivisions' Eating America's Suburbs
Thousands of subdivisions across the country have been abandoned mid-development by owners and developers hit hard by the economic recession. This video takes a tour inside one of these "zombie subdivisions".
Anti-Graffiti Coating To Be Required on L.A. Buildings
The Los Angeles City Council has unanimously approved a measure that will require an anti-graffiti coating on all new buildings in the city.
The Curse of Pruitt-Igoe
Rumor had it that the site of the infamous Pruitt-Igoe projects remains empty because the foundations are impossible to demolish. Turns out that the problem is politics, not pilings.
Time for HUD to Rethink Rental
HUD needs to rethink its emphasis on home ownership and refocus on rentals, argues John Kromer of the Fels Institute of Government.
Condo Conundrum
Like many other cities, there are condos a-plenty in Seattle. Developers are trying almost anything to get them sold. But the majority remain empty, leaving developers scratching their heads about what to do.
Habitat For Humanity Sees Gold In Vacant Housing
Used to pouring resources into building new homes, Habitat for Humanity sees opportunity in the vast number of vacancies caused by the mortgage crisis.
The People Under the Strip
A community of hundreds of people live beneath the glitz of the Las Vegas Strip in flood control tunnels.
Show Me the Mortgage!
Homeowners threatened with foreclosure are increasingly finding that a simple legal tactic is stalling the process.
Morocco Seeks to Supplant Slums
In an effort to replace slums with low-cost housing, Morocco is paying developers to create thousands of new apartments. Some slum residents see it as a boon, others say they couldn't afford the rent, even if it were subsidized.
Pagination
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.
EMC Planning Group, Inc.
Planetizen
Planetizen
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service