This project consisted of a series of public forums at which contributors to the book, "There is No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster:  Race, Class, and Hurricane Katrina," edited by Chester Hartman and Gregory D. Squires, presented an overview of the research reported in that volume.  The basic finding of this research is that the human costs of Katrina and the particularly heavy costs paid by low-income and minority residents were not principally the result of natural forces but rather reflected a range of social and political forces. The first forum was a plenary session at an October 19-21, 2006 conference in New Orleans entitled "Race, Place, and the Environment After Katrina:  Looking Back to Look Forward." sponsored by several organizations including Clark Atlanta University, Lawyers for Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the Fannie Mae Foundation. The second forum, "Hurricane Katrina - Participatory Approaches to Rebuilding Communities, was held on Capitol Hill on May 7, 2007 and was hosted by Rep. Charlie Melancon (LA) and co-hosted by Sen. Mary Landrieu (LA), Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC) and Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (TX). 

Subsequent to the planning of these two forums the Open Society Institute invited us to organize a third forum, "Katrina Was Not a Natural Disaster:  What Went Wrong in the Gulf Coast?" held at their office in New York City on May 4, 2007.

This study examined the question of whether or not the federal Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) assisted racial minorities in accessing traditionally inaccessible neighborhoods when they purchased their homes. The research found that in those metropolitan areas where a relatively larger share of mortgage loans were covered by the CRA, a higher share of black and Latino homebuyers located in predominantly white neighborhoods, controlling on several housing and demographic factors.

This grant supported the production of an edited book, Organizing Access to Capital: Advocacy and the Democratization of Financial published by Temple University Press and two public forums to examine the role of community organizing and related advocacy efforts to increase mortgage and small business lending in distressed urban communities. One forum, sponsored by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (Dem-IL) was held on Capitol Hill and the other was held in Chicago as part of the 30th Anniversary Celebration of the Woodstock Institute, a community reinvestment research organization.

This grant funded the production of an edited book, Urban Sprawl: Causes, Consequences and Policy Responses published by the Urban Institute Press.