The Gospel according to Matthew quotes Jesus as saying to his
disciples, “For you have the poor always with you.” That may
well indeed be true. But just like other groups, the poor change
over time. Mass distribution of loaves and fishes was arguably
an appropriate antipoverty strategy in 30 AD. Today, the needs
of the poor, and our expectations for what antipoverty policy
should achieve, are radically different. As Alexander von
Hoffman portrays earlier in this volume, community development
gained currency over 40 years ago as a response to a particular
set of challenges, affecting a particular set of people and
places. From the Ford Foundation’s Gray Areas programs in the
early to mid-1960s, to President Johnson’s Model Cities program,
to grassroots community empowerment programs that grew out of
the civil rights movement, community development focused the
bulk of its early attention on inner-city, African American
neighborhoods, particularly in the wake of urban riots in the
late 1960s. While these new pro