Avis C. Vidal

Networks and Nonprofits: Opportunities and Challenges in an Era of Federal Devolution

Abstract Community development corporations and other nonprofit organizations are increasingly responsible for producing and managing low‐income housing in urban America. This article examines the network of governmental, philanthropic, educational, and other institutions that channel financial, technical, and political support to nonprofit housing sponsors. We analyze the relationships among these institutions and propose an explanation for their success. We then consider challenges the network must confront if the reinvention of federal housing policy is to succeed. Block grants and rental vouchers, the dominant emphases of federal policy, present opportunities and constraints for nonprofit housing groups and their institutional networks. While states and municipalities are likely to continue to use block grants for nonprofit housing, the viability of this housing will be severely tested as project‐based operating subsidies are replaced by tenant‐based vouchers. We recommend ways that the federal, state...

Using Social Capital to Help Integrate Planning Theory, Research, and Practice: Preface

Abstract This symposium presents selected contributions to two panels held at recent Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) conferences to explore the potential usefulness to planning of the concept of social capital. Its purpose is to stimulate for readers of the Journal the kind of lively and fruitful discussion enjoyed by those who attended the conferences. The contributors summarize the development of the concept and consider alternative definitions of it. This lays the foundation for a broad conversation about whether and how planners can invest in social capital formation in ways that will improve the well-being of the disadvantaged. Mirroring the conference panels, the authors use the interplay of concept development and practical examples to test and illustrate the possible usefulness of different ideas about what social capital is. They discuss why it is important and how it functions in society.

Reintegrating disadvantaged communities into the fabric of urban life: The role of community development

Abstract This article analyzes the extent to which systematic spatial variations in opportunities in metropolitan areas provide a persuasive rationale for three current strategies for stimulating the development of urban communities: enterprise zone programs, community development financial institutions, and community development corporations. It examines whether the strategies are appropriately designed to respond to serious deficiencies in opportunities in distressed inner cities and reviews available evidence about their efficacy in addressing those deficiencies. A review of the literature reveals that poor inner‐city neighborhoods, particularly communities of color, have unequal access to opportunities in numerous areas, including employment, credit and financial services, housing, neighborhood shopping, and social networks and services that provide access to information and resources. The limited best‐case evidence indicates that the three strategies vary greatly in their ability to address these ine...

Community Development: Current Issues and Emerging Challenges

Poverty and disinvestment continue to undermine the quality of life in many inner city neighborhoods, and their ill effects have begun to affect some older suburbs as well. These conditions affect not only current living conditions in those neighborhoods, but also the life chances of community residents and the overall economic and social health of the cities and metropolitan regions they inhabit. Since its inception, the Journal of Urban Affairs has focused attention on disadvantaged urban communities and efforts to improve them. In keeping with this record, this special issue focuses on emerging issues in the community development movement with an emphasis on the work of community development corporations (CDCs). CDCs have grown in number, proficiency, and accomplishments over the past four decades, attracting and drawing strength from an expanding circle of political and financial supporters. They constitute a rare example of a sustained approach to addressing the issues confronting poor neighborhoods that has steadily extended its reach. This issue highlights some of the emerging issues that will affect the movement’s ability to continue this remarkable record in the years ahead. Committed, thoughtful leadership has always been critical to effective community development, and seasoned practitioners who share their reflections on practice have made important contributions to the development of the programs, strategies, and institutions that have made the field’s growth possible. Following that model, this special issue incorporates a novel element: a section called ‘‘Voices from the Field’’ in which four community development veterans with diverse perspectives and experiences reflect on community development from their distinctive points of view. Their commentaries are intended to complement the scholarly articles, providing a texture that research seeking to reach generalized findings often cannot capture, but that is essential to a solid understanding of what makes community development distinctive. This introduction puts the research and commentaries into context in three ways. First, it briefly summarizes the history and current state of the CDC movement and positions

Can community development re-invent itself?: The challenges of strengthening neighborhoods in the 21st century

Abstract The rapid growth of the CDC movement has rested on its ability to articulate a unifying vision, and to translate that vision into action in a way that dramatically expanded both the resources available to the field and the range of major stakeholders in its success. As resources threaten to contract significantly, the movements future vitality lies in further diversification, organizational adaptation to new roles, and identification of additional partners and stakeholders.

The Status of Nonprofit-Owned Affordable Housing: Short-Term Successes and Long-Term Challenges

Abstract Having established themselves as housing developers, nonprofit organizations now face the critical challenge of preserving the housing inventory they have produced. Good housing management is essential to this task. This paper analyzes a national study of nonprofit housing management. From several indicators of management performance and financial viability, the picture that emerges is that, for the most part, the developments are functioning well and providing a decent level of affordable housing. Beyond this initial “snapshot” of relative well-being, however, loom significant problems, which if left unaddressed will severely threaten the stock of affordable housing studied here. We have found indicators that prompt concern and that warrant attention from public, private, and nonprofit funders, and from government entities and intermediaries.

The Growth and Restructuring of Metropolitan Economies The Context for Economic Development Policy

Abstract The broad economic and spatial restructuring of metropolitan economies provide the context for formulating economic development policy in the United States. The diversity of experience among the one hundred metropolitan areas studied and the weak economic performance of many central cities reinforce the need to carefully target economic development strategies to reflect local comparative advantage. Combined with the relative vitality of lower density locations and the almost universal strength of service oriented industries, changing economic conditions also indicate a role for relocation and retraining programs to help displaced workers relocate to places with expanding job opportunities and to attain the skills required by growing economic sectors.