By Mark Kudlowitz, Senior Policy Director

Since 1974, the Community Development Block Grant program has been one of the most critical federal resources for affordable housing, community development, infrastructure, and disaster recovery. LISC’s Mark Kudlowitz shares LISC’s long history of utilizing the program in partnership with our community-based partners and what’s needed from Congress to strengthen the program for the future.

By Laura Jaramillo, Executive Director, LISC Houston

Laura Jaramillo, executive director of LISC Houston, has plenty of personal experience with her hometown’s extreme weather, and the struggles Houstonians, especially those living on low incomes, face as the climate crisis cranks up those weather events. In a personal blog, Jaramillo reflects on how, in all their work, her team and their partners have incorporated a focus on helping people build resiliency—in their financial lives, in their homes, and with their communities—and why it’s imperative we act collaboratively now.

LISC is intensifying its work on and investments in climate resiliency and green projects, especially in disinvested communities that bear the brunt of climate change and ecological degradation. In fact, advancing environmental justice is mission-critical in LISC’s efforts to promote racial and economic equity in American cities, towns, and rural areas. Here's how we're doing it.

By Matt Josephs, Senior Vice President for Policy

Matt Josephs, LISC senior vice president for policy, takes a look at the president’s State of the Union address and what it might mean for efforts to bridge gaps in health, wealth and opportunity throughout the country.

In this episode, LISC's Interim CEO & President, Lisa L. Glover, interviews LISC board member, Michelle de la Uz who is also the Executive Director of the Fifth Avenue Committee in Brooklyn, NY. The conversation highlights the work of the Fifth Avenue Committee around COVID, environmental initiatives and climate change, community advocacy, and affordable housing. It’s a great conversation that celebrates the importance of community partnerships in an ever-changing urban landscape.

Underinvested communities in rural America are bearing the brunt of the many ways climate change is transforming environments, economies and daily life. In the wake of Hurricane Ida, and in advance of the 2021 Rural LISC Annual Seminar, Caitlin Cain, vice president and director of Rural LISC, explains how, as CDFIs, funders and community developers, we must radically shift our approach to investing for preparation and resiliency.