NETWORKS AND NONPROFITS - OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN AN ERA OF FEDERAL DEVOLUTION

Community development corporations and other nonprofit organizations a re increasingly responsible for producing and managing low-income hous ing in urban America. This article examines the network of governmenta l, philanthropic, educational, and other institutions that channel fin ancial, technical, and political support to nonprofit housing sponsors . We analyze the relationships among these institutions and propose an explanation for their success. We then consider challenges the networ k must confront if the reinvention of federal housing policy is to suc ceed. Block grants and rental vouchers, the dominant emphases of feder al policy, present opportunities and constraints for nonprofit housing groups and their institutional networks. While states and municipalit ies are likely to continue to use block grants for nonprofit housing, the viability of this housing will be severely tested as project-based operating subsidies are replaced by tenant-based vouchers. We recomme nd ways that the federal, state, and local governments should help the institutional support network respond to this challenge.