More from Brookings Metro
To add value to Black communities, we must defund the police and prison systems. Their funding has come at the expense of mental health services, housing subsidies, food benefits programs and other basic services that Black communities desperately need, warn Andre M. Perry, David Harshbarger, Carl Romer, and Kristian Thymianos.
Thoughtful design can create high-quality affordable multifamily housing. Hannah Hoyt and Jenny Schuetz offer policy ideas that federal, state, and local governments can implement to build safe, healthy, and visually appealing apartments at lower costs.
In too many American communities, mass incarceration has become a jobs program. Jacob Whiton writes that advocates of defunding the carceral state must contend with the role it has come to play in many smaller cities and rural areas: a de facto public jobs program.
How Wilmington, Del. is revitalizing vacant land to rebuild community trust. Laura Semmelroth examines how the community is leveraging vacant lots to revitalize a neighborhood experiencing disinvestment and neglect to rebuild trust with residents.
