Poverty and Race Research Action Council

06/11/2026

The multifamily housing market is facing a quiet crisis. In our new issue of Poverty & Race, Ruthy Gourevitch and Jacob Udell analyze how rising economic volatility and growing environmental risks are converging to strain the housing sector and impact communities. Read their full analysis here:
https://www.prrac.org/newsletters/Jan-April2026.pdf

06/10/2026

Brence Pernell & Kelley Akhiemokhali map Dr. Pauli Murray’s pioneering legal theory in our new issue of Poverty & Race. Read the article here: https://lnkd.in/eG-xGZ7T

06/09/2026

Former HUD attorneys turned whistleblowers Paul Osadebe & Palmer Heenan expose how federal civil rights protections are being systematically gutted - from deep staffing cuts to blocking major housing discrimination settlements.
Read their insider testimony in our new issue of Poverty & Race:https://www.prrac.org/newsletters/Jan-April2026.pdf

06/08/2026

We're excited to announce the release of a new issue of Poverty & Race - lots of fun summer reading in this one!

Inside this issue:
⭐ Former HUD trial attorneys turned whistleblowers Paul Osadebe and Palmer Heenan pull back the curtain on recent federal efforts to gut civil rights enforcement, slash investigative staff, and block critical housing discrimination settlements.
⭐ Ruthy Gourevitch and Jacob Udell examine how the climate crisis is exacerbating financial distress in the housing market, putting renters at extreme risk.
⭐ Brence Pernell and Kelley Akhiemokhali trace the pioneering legal thought of Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray, showcasing how the 13th Amendment remains a vital constitutional weapon to eradicate racial discrimination.

Read the full issue here:https://www.prrac.org/newsletters/Jan-April2026.pdf

11/14/2025

The latest from our Executive Director — Thomas Silverstein:

“If nothing else, this article should be taken as a call to avoid binary thinking as we decide how to try to reduce affordable housing development costs. Avoiding binary thinking will mean that we acknowledge that some cost-inducing policies reduce costs that would be borne elsewhere. It will mean that we look for ways of solving the problems that cost-inducing policies seek to address through policy frameworks that are outside of affordable housing program design. It will mean that we look for ways of reducing costs that do not involve trade-offs with social justice implications.”

08/12/2025

07/31/2025

"With so much funding at stake, Hawai‘i Appleseed is working to raise public awareness about how QAP works and how the community can be involved.

“Where we come in is like talking to and engaging the public in a meaningful way … Your average community member isn't like, ‘Of course, it's time to comment on the QAP and I should really get into it this year and write out my testimony encouraging that it reflects the values that I think are important for our local community,’” said Hawai‘i Appleseed Housing Policy Director Arjuna Heim.

“The financing factor of all of it is the most complicated and kind of opaque, but also makes or breaks if a project is real or not.”

She explained that there needs to be more community conversation about what it wants to see the QAP reflect."

Thankful for our partnership with Hawai‘i Appleseed and their leadership on this critical issue.

Have you ever wondered how the state determines which affordable housing projects get state and federal funding? HPR's Ashley Mizuo reports on the process and some changes under consideration.

06/11/2025

Check out our explainer on a proposed rule that HUD published yesterday that threatens to roll back nearly 50 years of progress. Affirmative marketing is key to ensuring that our federally-assisted housing programs live up to their potential to advance civil rights.

Link to the pdf of this document.

06/03/2025

“It’s critical we have disparate impact to fight against race discrimination,” said Thomas Silverstein, executive director of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC), who is watching at least a dozen housing and lending cases that could fall apart without it.

The principle has been fundamental to ending “practices that perpetuate inequalities in our society that have their roots in Jim Crow, redlining and the state-sanctioned discrimination of the past.”

https://wapo.st/43onnu5

05/05/2025

Our Executive Director Thomas Silverstein explains why the Trump administration's attack on our civil rights statutes' disparate impact standard is contrary to law, fairness & commonsense in Slate.