Insights and Updates

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act became law at midnight on Friday — the largest federal housing measure in a generation, though not a Great Society–scale program. It carries little new money. Its significance for local governments is in the incentive structure it creates, not in mandates.

What Growing Up in Public Housing Taught Me About Economic Rights James Carras, June 29, 2026 James Carras, Principal, Carras Community Investment, Inc.; Adjunct Lecturer, Harvard Kennedy School I grew up in the Mission Hill Extension housing projects in Roxbury, Massachusetts. It was the early 1960s. The streets were alive with Greek immigrant families, Black Bostonians who had migrated north during the Great Migration, and working-class Irish households who hadn’t yet made

A national overview of how the lending system treats two-to-four-unit and accessory dwelling housing — and how that treatment has begun to change.

For most of my professional life, I have worked in the uneasy space between capital and community. I have spent decades in rooms where people discussed affordable housing deals, economic development strategies, redevelopment plans, tax credits, neighborhood decline, investment gaps, poverty rates, loan pools, and public policy. Sometimes the conversations were inspiring. Sometimes they were transactional. Occasionally they were transformative.

James Carras is one of the most respected voices in community development finance. As Principal of Carras Community Investment, Inc., he has spent over three decades supporting mission-driven organizations, developers, and financial institutions in building equitable, thriving communities.