Hope Davis

I'm an award-winning journalist covering housing issues, tenant organizing, and infrastructure. My work has appeared in Shelterforce, Next City, In These Times, and more.

Select Work: Reporting and editing

Prism •

Missouri LGBTQIA+ group canvassed to build a pro-trans majority

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Missouri lawmakers tried—and failed—to enshrine constitutional bans on abortion and gender-affirming care for minors in the form of Amendment 3 in Tuesday’s midterm elections. The day after the election, headlines focused on voters’ rejection of the abortion ban and less on the “ballot candy” part of the measure: the...
Shelterforce •

They Take Healthcare to the Streets. In Phoenix, That's Getting Harder — Shelterforce

In the summer, Perla Púebla and her team take to the streets of Phoenix between 5 and 6 a.m. to visit encampments, resource centers, and other places they can find the city’s homeless residents. When temperatures climb past 115 degrees, people living on the streets get up and moving early to evade the heat. Púebla’s team does the same.

When Púebla, a nurse practitioner; medical coordinator Brend...
Shelterforce •

How a Landlord Tried to Silence Tenants and Stop a Shelterforce Story — Shelterforce

In late August 2025, I sat in on a meeting of Chicago’s Belden Sawyer Tenant Association (BSTA) and interviewed members about their six-month rent strike for Shelterforce. The tenant union formed and launched its rent strike after members learned their once-affordable building would be converted into luxury apartments by its new owner, Andrew Millard.

Tenants told me they paid $1,200–$1,500 per...
Shelterforce •

They Lost Their Homes, But Built a Movement — Shelterforce

Eight months after launching an ambitious rent strike to prevent their own displacement, striking members of Chicago’s Belden Sawyer Tenant Association (BSTA) were displaced from their Logan Square building.

When the once “naturally affordable” building at the corner of Belden and Sawyer avenues was sold in November 2024 to real estate investor Andrew Millard, who planned to turn it into luxury...
Next City •

This Kansas City Neighborhood Is Transforming Neglected Housing and Keeping Control Local

The working-class, diverse neighborhood of Lykins is growing its toolkit to create affordable housing and stave off gentrification.A home in the Lykins neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri, the result of the the Lykins Neighborhood Association's revitalization efforts. (Photo courtesy Raul Aguirre / Keller Williams Realty Partners Inc.)This is your first of three free stories this month. Become a free or sustaining member to read unlimited articles, webinars and ebooks.In Northeast Kansas City,...
Shelterforce •

Mixed-Income Neighborhood Trusts Aim to Capture Benefits of Gentrification for Existing Residents

Low-income renters rarely benefit from investment in their neighborhoods. In the well-told story of gentrification, rising property values tend to displace longtime residents, making neighborhoods whiter and more affluent.

David Kemper, CEO of nonprofit Trust Neighborhoods, saw this dynamic over and over when he worked in affordable housing in New York City and met with grassroots groups to address the problem on the neighborhood scale.

“We just kept hearing again and again this kind of painfu...
Shelterforce •

Missouri Tenants Sue Owners Who They Say Broke Rules in Exiting Tax Credit Program

Ramona Teeter planned to live at the Rosewood Estates, her home for nearly two decades, for the rest of her life. The 79-year-old is bold, direct, and does not fear asking questions.

So six years ago, when the Springfield, Missouri, subdivision became eligible to leave the federal low income housing tax credit program, Teeter asked management if they had plans to opt out. Teeter says she was reassured that her affordable housing was safe.

Now, she’s a leader in a Springfield tenants union suin...
Next City/Shelterforce •

A Missouri Tenant Union’s Uphill Battle Against Millennia Housing

This story was co-published in collaboration with Shelterforce, the only independent, non-academic publication covering the worlds of affordable housing, community development and housing justice.When the second elevator in Jenny Lind Hall stopped working in early 2024, Elvester Kennedy thought he could wait it out. The first elevator had broken down years before and disabled residents relied on the one remaining to access the outside. Kennedy’s sister urged him to get out of his fifth floor apa...
Next City •

Private Equity Is Turning Mobile Homes Into Health Hazards. What Can Governments Do?

This story is the first in a series on manufactured housing and solutions to help mitigate threats facing mobile home residents, from private equity ownership to climate change.Four years ago, Valeria Steele’s West Virginia mobile home park was purchased by Homes of America, a subsidiary of well-known “vulture fund” Alden Global Capital. The private equity giant has become infamous for buying distressed newspapers, cutting staff, offloading assets and loading them with debt.

“They don’t make a...
Street Sense Media •

Encampment cleanup paused for a day; residents resist

The woman climbed on top of a stack of furniture, determined. She lived on a dead-end sidewalk for three years and built it into her “apartment without walls” in a tunnel between Capitol Hill and Navy Yard. On June 28, she wanted to make it as hard as possible for employees from the Office of the Deputy Mayor of Health and Human Services (DMHHS) to move her home. She gave her name as Tiny.

Service providers, waste removal trucks and DMHHS workers began arriving at the underpass at 8:30 a.m. on

What I Do

I'm a reporter and writer who has spent the past few years focused on housing issues and tenant organizing as a freelancer based in the Midwest. I've worked as a writer, editor, and project manager for both newspapers and magazines.

I found my niche reporting on homelessness and housing while covering local government. I then went on to lead a locally impactful and nationally recognized reporting series on homelessness for the Columbia Missourian, ShowMe Shelter.

I've been nationally recognized in the top 15 of the Hearst Award for profile writing. The series I led was recognized by the Missouri Press Association for Best News or Feature Series in 2023 and as a finalist in the LION Publishers' Local Journalism Awards in 2022. I've also been recognized as a winner and finalist by the Missouri Press Association for my coverage of marginalized communities.

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Shelterforce

Next City

In These Times