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This Is Public Housing. Just Don’t Call It That.
Montgomery County, Md., like many places, has an affordable housing crisis. So it started acting like a benevolent real estate investor.
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Headway
Exploring the world’s challenges through the lens of progress.
Highlights
Photo CreditJustin J Wee for The New York Times Photo 
CreditLauren Tamaki 30 People Tell Us What Homelessness Is Really Like
Packing groceries, bathing in fountains, finding comfort in an orange blanket. Explore people's stories and their answers to common questions.
Interviews by Susan Shain and
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CreditChristopher Lee for The New York Times headwayHow Houston Moved 25,000 People From the Streets Into Homes of Their Own
The nation’s fourth-largest city hasn’t solved homelessness, but its remarkable progress can suggest a way forward.
By Michael Kimmelman, Lucy Tompkins and
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CreditElliot Ross for The New York Times Three Years in Shelters. Ten Months to Find a Home.
Scenes from one woman’s journey out of homelessness in Houston.
By Elliot Ross and
- Headway
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CreditAbdul Kircher for The New York Times Sentenced to Life as Boys, They Made Their Case for Release
At age 17, Donnell Drinks was one of many young men in Philadelphia who went to prison for life without parole. Today, the city has resentenced more of those prisoners than any other jurisdiction.
By Issie Lapowsky and
- Progress, revisited
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CreditGreenwood Cultural Center/Getty Images How Greenwood Grew a Thriving Black Economy
W.E.B. Du Bois saw the key to Black prosperity in places like Tulsa, where Black residents patronized Black stores. Even today it serves as a model.
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- Headway
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CreditDonavon Smallwood for The New York Times How Philadelphia Kept Thousands of Tenants From Being Evicted
A lockdown-era program that gets landlords talking to tenants has had notable success for both. Can it continue?
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CreditAndre D. Wagner for The New York Times Can Anacostia Build a Bridge Without Displacing Its People?
A decade in the works, the 11th Street Bridge Park in Washington, D.C., has yet to be built. But it could be a model for how to create public space while lessening the effects of gentrification.
By Megan Kimble and
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CreditUlet Ifansasti for The New York Times What’s a President to Do When a Nation’s Capital Is Sinking? Move It.
Jakarta, like many places, faces an unsustainable future. Indonesia’s president is responding by building a new capital city from scratch.
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Hindsight
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CreditMike Haddad Dear People of 2021: What Can We Learn From Hindsight?
For the first series from the Headway initiative, we followed up on forecasts from decades past to ask what the passage of time has revealed.
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CreditMike Haddad Millions More People Got Access to Water. Can They Drink It?
The U.N. pledged to halve the proportion of the world without access to clean drinking water by 2015.
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CreditMike Haddad What Can One Life Tell Us About the Battle Against H.I.V.?
In 2001, U.N. estimates suggested 150 million people would be infected with H.I.V. by 2021. That preceded an ambitious global campaign to curb the virus. How well did it work?
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CreditMike Haddad Europe Met a Climate Target. But Is It Burning Less Carbon?
The European Union promised to reduce its emissions 20 percent by 2020. Did it happen?
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CreditMike Haddad Extreme Poverty Has Been Sharply Cut. What Has Changed?
The U.N. pledged to cut by half the proportion of people living in the worst conditions around the world.
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Housing
More in Housing ›Photo CreditChristopher Lee for The New York Times How Houston Moved 25,000 People From the Streets Into Homes of Their Own
The nation’s fourth-largest city hasn’t solved homelessness, but its remarkable progress can suggest a way forward.
By Michael Kimmelman, Lucy Tompkins and
Photo 
CreditElliot Ross for The New York Times The Long Emergency of Homelessness
If we understood the loss of housing as a collective challenge engulfing our communities, how would it guide our response?
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Photo CreditLauren Tamaki 30 People Tell Us What Homelessness Is Really Like
Packing groceries, bathing in fountains, finding comfort in an orange blanket. Explore people's stories and their answers to common questions.
Interviews by Susan Shain and
Photo 
CreditAbdul Kircher for The New York Times What Don’t You Know About Homelessness?
Most experiences of homelessness are hidden by design, but they reveal much about how communities work, or don’t.
By Matthew Thompson and
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CreditLennard Kok If Housing Is a Health Care Issue, Should Medicaid Pay the Rent?
With federal housing money in short supply, state and local authorities are looking to health dollars to help tackle homelessness.
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Progress, Revisited
More in Progress, Revisited ›Photo CreditAbdul Kircher for The New York Times Sentenced to Life as Boys, They Made Their Case for Release
At age 17, Donnell Drinks was one of many young men in Philadelphia who went to prison for life without parole. Today, the city has resentenced more of those prisoners than any other jurisdiction.
By Issie Lapowsky and
Photo CreditDonavon Smallwood for The New York Times How Philadelphia Kept Thousands of Tenants From Being Evicted
A lockdown-era program that gets landlords talking to tenants has had notable success for both. Can it continue?
By
Photo CreditGreenwood Cultural Center/Getty Images How Greenwood Grew a Thriving Black Economy
W.E.B. Du Bois saw the key to Black prosperity in places like Tulsa, where Black residents patronized Black stores. Even today it serves as a model.
By
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CreditW.E.B Du Bois via The Library of Congress The Elusive Quest for Black Progress
Many measures of Black achievement in the U.S. have stalled or reversed. A series from Headway looks back at historical gains for their lessons today.
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Photo CreditAndre D. Wagner for The New York Times Can Anacostia Build a Bridge Without Displacing Its People?
A decade in the works, the 11th Street Bridge Park in Washington, D.C., has yet to be built. But it could be a model for how to create public space while lessening the effects of gentrification.
By Megan Kimble and
Headway and The New York Times Magazine
More in Headway and The New York Times Magazine ›Photo 
CreditAdali Schell for The New York Times Remaking the River That Remade L.A.
Over the past century it has been channeled, subdued, blighted. Is it time for the Los Angeles River to serve the city in a new way?
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CreditMaridelis Morales Rosado for The New York Times After years of destructive weather that have disrupted Puerto Rico’s food supplies, new visions of local agriculture are taking root.
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CreditMichal Siarek for The New York Times Architects Plan a City for the Future in Ukraine, While Bombs Still Fall
Irpin was one of the first Ukrainian cities to be destroyed and liberated. Now it’s becoming a laboratory for rebuilding.
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CreditJamie Chung for The New York Times. Concept by Pablo Delcan. Prop stylist: JJ Chan. In an Age of Constant Disaster, What Does It Mean to Rebuild?
Each catastrophe is a test of what kind of society we’ve built. And each recovery offers a chance, however fleeting, to build another.
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CreditLuisa Dörr for The New York Times Can a National Museum Rebuild Its Collection Without Colonialism?
After a fire destroyed thousands of Indigenous artifacts, the curators of this Brazilian museum are adopting a radical new approach.
By Mariana Lenharo and
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HeadwayCan Plastic Recycling Ever Really Work?
Many plastics that carry the “chasing arrows” symbol, like soda cups and yogurt tubs, are rarely recycled. A new California law is raising the bar.
By Susan Shain
Go Birding With The Times
Shifts in bird populations can be a sign of a changing climate. Through September, help scientists learn about the birds in your area.
By The New York Times
HeadwayRecyclable? Try Refillable. The Quest For a Greener Cleaner
As more consumers try to cut down on plastic waste, both start-ups and big brands like Clorox are hoping to usher in a new age of refillable cleaners.
By Susan Shain
HeadwayHow Central Ohio Got People to Eat Their Leftovers
The average U.S. household wastes nearly a third of the food it buys. This community is nudging its residents to change their habits.
By Susan Shain
HeadwayWhat Are Your Stories of Rebuilding After Disaster? Tell Us.
Headway wants to learn more about the people affected by this issue and the stories we should tell.
By Matthew Thompson
HeadwayHow to Recycle a 14-Story Office Tower
Buildings are responsible for nearly 40 percent of the world’s carbon emissions. In Amsterdam, they are trying to create a blueprint to do something about it.
By Jessica Camille Aguirre
Climate event seriesThere’s a Crucial Climate Summit in Egypt. Our Event Tells You What to Expect.
Hear from Boris Johnson, the former British prime minister, and other global leaders in a livestream of the New York Times Climate Forward event during COP27 from Egypt.
By The New York Times
How Houston Is Fixing Homelessness
Homelessness bundles together so many problems: a broken mental health system, racial inequity, the affordable housing crisis. The headlines can be overwhelming. Last year I started talking with experts. They had a different view. They told me about Houston.
By Michael Kimmelman
From Homeless to Home
I met Wendy Marcum last summer at The Beacon, a homeless shelter in downtown Houston. Wendy told me she was 56 years old and had been homeless for three years. I asked for her number so we could stay in touch
LUCY TOMPKINS
HeadwayWhat Do You Know About Homelessness and Housing Insecurity? Tell us.
Headway wants to learn more about the people affected by this issue and the stories we should tell.
By Lucy Tompkins and Terry Parris Jr.
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