My reporting and writing

In These Times •

How One Landlord Tried to Silence Tenants—and the Story of Their Rent Strike

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 month to rent their apartments in Logan Square, a Chicago neighborhood that is becoming increasingly...
Shelterforce •

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

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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,...
Springfield News-Leader •

Share Your Christmas spreads holiday joy, gifts to Ozarks families

Correction: An earlier version of this story included incorrect information about the number of families helped. There were 47 families who benefited from Share Your Christmas.Volunteers at Crosslines Community Outreach braved the cold Friday, Dec. 19, as they distributed gifts for Share Your Christmas, filling cars from the warehouse doors usually reserved for the Crosslines Food Pantry. Share Your Christmas — a decades-long partnership between Crosslines Community Outreach and the Springfield...
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...
Springfield News-Leader •

Jenny Lind Hall elevator work set to begin Sept. 1, but residents remain skeptical

Correction: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Councilman Brandon Jenson's name.

Replacement of the elevators at Jenny Lind Hall is set to start Sept. 1 but residents remain wary, saying the timeline for repairs has been pushed back before.

The affordable housing development for seniors and tenants with disabilities has been without a working elevator since early 2024, creating safety issues for residents and prompting calls for the city to do more to force the building's o...
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...
Springfield News-Leader •

Missouri Jobs With Justice wants City Council to cap campaign donations in local races

The Springfield-Ozarks chapter of Missouri Jobs With Justice is calling on Springfield City Council to limit campaign donations in local races to $2,000.

Liz Van Every, a local Jobs With Justice member, told the News-Leader that Springfield is the largest city in Missouri without such a limit and that enacting one would address the outsized influence of corporate donors and private interest groups in local politics. The group decided to advocate for a $2,000 limit on monetary and in-kind contri...
Columbia Missourian •

City hopes to buy the McKinney Building to showcase a 'central place' in Black history

The Columbia City Council on Monday might authorize purchase of the historic McKinney Building downtown, an iconic Black cultural site that once served as an important jazz venue.The city hopes to buy the property for about $1.5 million from owner Rick Rother, who used it for years as a physical therapy studio. Plans for the building have not yet been developed, but interest has been expressed in using it as a significant local landmark.
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KBIA •

Tick season poses a problem for Columbia's homeless community

Holding up a tick-removal tool the size of a dental floss pick, Cat Armbrust described it as “fantastic.”

“They’re really inexpensive so we can just hand them out like candy,” she said.

Armbrust, the director of the CoMo Mobile Aid Collective, said that tick season has hit hard for Columbia’s homeless community this summer. The group has been seeking donations for bug repellant and tools to safely remove ticks.

During one of the group’s recent med clinics, which are held twice weekly at Wilke
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
Street Sense Media •

Rally for poor and low-income people brings thousands to DC

Thousands of people gathered in downtown D.C. on June 18 to call on the U.S. government to do more to support the lives of millions of poor and low-income people living across the country.

The Poor People’s Campaign has a long list of demands to include: a federal $15 minimum wage, universal health care, expanded COVID-19 relief and guaranteed housing.

“This level of poverty and greed, in this — the richest nation in the history of the world — constitutes a moral crisis,” Bishop William. J. Ba
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