Land Trusts Offer Houses That People With Lower Incomes Can Afford—And a Stepping Stone to Lasting Wealth
More than 200 land trusts around the country help struggling families buy their first homes, often in gentrifying neighborhoods.
Economy
Hero or Coward: Could Skipping My Student Loan Payments Start a Revolution?
A college professor is calling for a massive student-debt strike next year with only one necessity: that as many debtors as possible refuse to pay.
5 Steps to Turn Your Business Into a Worker-owned Co-op
Learn how to turn any business into a worker-owned cooperative with this checklist.
Do Interest-Free Loans Make Sense? No, But They Do Make a Difference
Neighbors are helping crowdfund the dreams of local entrepreneurs, giving community businesses the chance to expand with interest-free loans.
Will Government Make Good on Its Promise to Forgive Student Debt?
Up to a quarter of the nation’s workers have spent 10 years working in public service on a promise of student loan forgiveness.
These Neighbors Got Together to Buy Vacant Buildings. Now They’re Renting to Bakers and Brewers
Though the model is new and small, it holds outsize potential for the many neighborhoods whose downtowns are controlled by faraway landlords or retail chains.
6 Ways You Just Got More Power Over Your Credit Score
A complex, for-profit system is behind these three-digit scores that affect your ability to borrow, rent, and work. Here's how regulators are putting credit score companies on notice.
What’s a Death Midwife? Inside the Alternative Death Care Movement
From funeral cooperatives to green burials, there's a kinder, gentler, less expensive way to die.
Infographic: A History of Debt Forgiveness and Relief
As long as there has been lending, there have been times when the people’s debt becomes a crisis. Here’s a look at the policy solutions governments have been using, starting in ancient Sumer.
“You Fly to the Edge of the Tar Sands, and … No Life”: A Montana Professor on the Issue of Our Time
University of Montana professor George Price on permaculture, race, and how he’s standing up to tar sands extraction.
Drugs, Sex, and Debt: It’s Time to Revamp “The Talk”
Let’s remove the shame from the conversation and help the next generation avoid the debilitating amounts of debt that keep us from buying houses or taking vacations.
How One San Francisco Neighborhood Became “Immune” to Gentrification
With more than a quarter of the Tenderloin’s housing stock owned by nonprofits or the government, longtime residents have staying power.
Own a Home in Just Four Years? This Co-Op Program Keeps Workers in the Neighborhood
Nearly half of Evergreen’s worker-owners have purchased homes through the program.
Why We Did an Issue on Debt
Good debts? We know it sounds crazy. But there’s a quiet revolution brewing in how we move money around, and we want our readers to know about it.
I Learned More by Leading a Student-Debt Strike Than I Did at College
After graduating from Everest College with a bad education and no job prospects in sight, I refused to pay my student loans. Now I’m helping lead the first student-debt strike in America.
“Don’t Owe. Won’t Pay.” Everything You’ve Been Told About Debt Is Wrong
With the nation’s household debt burden at $11.85 trillion, even the most modest challenges to its legitimacy have revolutionary implications.
These Former Debt Collectors Decided to Ditch the Industry, Buy Up Medical Debt, and Forgive It
Jerry Ashton and Craig Antico spent decades hounding debtors to pay their bills—until an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street inspired them to find a way to pay struggling people's debts.
After 20 Years Reporting on Solutions, I’m Going on a Journey to Find Where Hope Lies Now
YES! co-founder Sarah van Gelder sets out on a road trip to find the edge of change.
Infographic: The Real Reason You Have So Much Debt (It’s Not Crazy Spending)
$11.85 trillion in household debt has more to do with stagnant wages (and predatory banks) than shopping sprees.
The Crunch: Why Washington D.C. Hired a Herd of Goats (And Other News to Chew On)
This week we’re talking about the future of work, a "masculine studies" program... and goats.
This New Rule Will Bring Secretive Corporate Tax Breaks to Light
Every year, governments spend tens of billions of dollars on tax breaks for private companies. Now, state and city governments will have to start reporting it as lost income.
This NYC Real Estate Co-Op Helps Small Businesses Stay Put
A New York City co-op raises $1.2 million in pledges to fight gentrification and provide affordable rent for local business owners.
The Weekly Crunch: Tiny Houses in Vancouver and Why the South Is the New China
This week: Bee activists step up their game, Bernie Sanders lays out his views on all thing politicals, and fracking takes its toll on Oklahoma.
Seattle Led the Country’s Minimum Wage Revolution. Can It Do the Same With Rent Control?
New York and San Francisco both suffer from soaring rents and gentrification, despite decades of regulation. How Seattle socialist Kshama Sawant plans to do affordable housing right.
A North Carolina Textile Co-Op Gives Immigrant Workers a Stake in the Business
In a state that lost 88 percent of its textile industry jobs in just 10 years, small worker-owned cooperatives are islands of rights and resilience.
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