Oscar Perry Abello

A GOP sign-on letter, Wall Street backing and growing bipartisan alarm reveal how essential community development financial institutions have become — even as the White House moves to gut key support for them.

As grantees ask hard questions about where their grant money comes from, more and more foundations are putting their endowments in the hands of asset management firms focused on investments that align with their grantmaking.

As grantees ask hard questions about where their grant money comes from, more and more foundations are putting their endowments in the hands of asset management firms focused on investments that align with their grantmaking.

Traditional lenders remain slow to open their coffers to community land trusts. But this community-controlled investment fund did the work to understand the value of investing in a model built to disrupt real estate speculation.

The budget mega-bill will likely make the Opportunity Zones and New Markets Tax Credit programs permanent. There’s good news and bad news.

The federal government points to default rates to justify new restrictions on the SBA’s Community Advantage loan program. The numbers tell a different story.

Fired from the National Credit Union Administration board by Trump, Todd Harper found a welcome audience at a major gathering of community development-focused credit unions.

ESG is under threat, but racial equity and cooperative investments are still raising millions to finance their mission-driven projects.

The agency has made a difference in the lives of small business owners. Staff cuts could mean rolling back progress.

More and more banks have been creating special purpose credit programs to help “economically disadvantaged” individuals gain access to credit. Now, the federal government has halted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mae’s support for such homebuying assistance programs.

Trump’s executive order won’t kill the CDFI Fund. But it could slow down one of our most powerful tools for community-based banking.

To cut through the red tape, Texas National Bank created its own community development corporation. It’s a promising model for developing affordable first-time homeownership opportunities – without federal help.

Oscar Perry Abello’s new book, “The Banks We Deserve,” shows how allowing communities to tap into banks’ money-creation power is crucial to addressing our climate, housing and economic crises.

In August 2024, New York City's community development luminary Hester Street announced that it was sunsetting after more than two decades. What went wrong?

In August 2024, New York City's community development luminary Hester Street announced that it was sunsetting after more than two decades. What went wrong?

Next City’s economic justice correspondent on the storylines he’s keeping an eye on in 2025, from extending Opportunity Zones to new pathways for public banking.

Over the years, Next City has covered how disaster-affected communities have found ways to connect and build on ongoing efforts toward regeneration and reconstitution.

New regulations aim to create stability and lessen the harms of speculative real estate investment in California cities’ key commercial corridors.

Amid real estate mayhem, advocates see legacy business programs as increasingly necessary in Atlanta and elsewhere. Here’s why.

An analysis of Governor Tim Walz's record on housing policy.