Proposed changes to AFFH, NEPA, and CRA taken together compound the many racial, environmental, health, and economic injustices faced in housing and community development. National and local partners in the SPARCC network have shared how these proposed changes might negatively impact their communities if implemented. Related Content: Regressive Federal Rules Would Set Back Decades of […]

We’ve compiled a few resources from across the country that help explain what each of the proposed rules mean and how it could impact communities. Please see below for deadlines and templates to support drafting your own comments. Related Content: Regressive Federal Rules Would Set Back Decades of Progress in Housing and Community Development Perspectives […]

by Mariia Zimmerman, MZ Strategies It’s estimated that there are as many as two billion parking spots in the United States, while there are 200 million cars on the road. Cars cruising for on-street parking in U.S. cities contribute significantly to congestion and pollution, and parking covers huge amounts of urban land area. “Free” parking […]

SPARCC is excited to announce that we will continue work and investment in our original six sites–Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Memphis and the San Francisco Bay Area. It will continue to partner with the national organizations, Enterprise Community Partners, the Low Income Investment Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council with funding support from The […]

This article originally appeared in LIIF’s 2019 Impact Report and is written by Hannah Taylor It’s a chilly, clear October day when a crane swings over a single-family home in West Denver, CO, lifting the frame of a studio apartment into the air and lowering it into a backyard. This aerial delivery will soon become […]

Dr. Hanaa Hamdi, Director of Health Impact Investment Strategies and Partnerships for New Jersey Community Capital, sat down with NRDC’s Stephanie Gidigbi of the SPARCC national team to expand on a SPARCC Virtual Learning Conversation event highlighting the vital importance of parks in the health and well-being of communities. “Every community has a right to have access […]

Public planning processes have evolved in recent years from being a one-time, mostly one-way effort to inform the community about a proposed investment or policy change, i.e., a new highway project or a zoning change, to more community involvement to shape and design projects and policies. Equitable community engagement practices can take this even further […]

SPARCC’s flexible capital helps Denver nonprofits build wealth, stabilize neighborhoods, and minimize displacement In the nonprofit world, it can take up to a year or more to get the money together to fund a program or development. So, when Jose Esparza, executive director of BuCu West Denver, a local economic development nonprofit, saw an opportunity […]

By Sasha Forbes There is a frustrating truth in the world of community development: new large-scale development, no matter how much it is designed to support the existing neighborhood, often displaces or alienates some longtime residents. Whether it’s a transit project, housing project or large-scale park project, the outcomes are typically the same. Assets in […]

You can tell a lot about a community by the state of its parks. No parks? That says something. Neglected or dangerous parks? A clue that residents are struggling to raise healthy families. We tend to think that the state of the neighborhood dictates the state of its parks. But what if the reverse were […]