Scams on the Rise, Say Housing Counselors
As more people seek help after being defrauded, housing counselors worry that with up to 11 million families facing eviction or mortgage default, the situation will get worse before it gets better.
Chicago Changes How It Allocates Tax Credits to Improve Racial Equity
How did the Windy City expand the idea of advancing racial equity through low-income housing tax credits beyond where affordable housing is built?
Security Deposits Are a Barrier to Affordable Housing. What Can Be Done?
There are many new approaches to the security deposit problem—some have been lauded by affordable housing advocates, and others have been met with skepticism and mistrust—often with good reason. Here’s a look at a few commercial, charitable, and legislative solutions being explored.
Send In the Resident Ambassadors
Neighborhoods B.U.I.L.D. Dayton is a community lawyering project of Legal Aid of Western Ohio Inc. and Advocates for Basic Legal Equality Inc. (B.U.I.L.D. stands...
Tenant Advocates Win as Security Deposit Bill Is Vetoed in Baltimore
Baltimore's mayor vetoed a “Renter’s Choice” law after housing advocates warned of the predatory potential of selling deposit alternatives to struggling tenants.
Housing Design That Advances Health
Applying trauma-informed principles, reducing social isolation, and encouraging active living—how housing can be designed to promote good health.
FEMA Offers Full Reimbursement for Pandemic Shelter Costs—But Cities Are Still Jittery
Cities and counties have been slow to take advantage of the promise of full and retroactive FEMA reimbursement to expand emergency housing programs, frustrating housing advocates. What’s getting in the way?
Finance and Chill? Big Tech Flirts with Community Development
Facing calls to invest in racial equity, companies like Netflix, Twitter, and others have recently pledged millions in new financing for affordable housing, small businesses, and other community development projects. Will they stick around?
More Than a Mural: How Arts and Culture Advance the Mission of the Seattle...
Arts programs at one public housing development in Seattle have eased the challenges of redevelopment by helping residents define what the community means to them.
Build Modular Housing Factories Near Areas with High Housing Costs
To improve housing costs and economic conditions at once, look to the locations of modular housing factories.
Paying Hospitals to Build Housing—New Jersey Program Expands
More affordable housing projects approved, new funding for scattered-site improvements for substandard housing, and talks about replicating the program beyond the Garden State.
A Movement-Based Federal Housing Agenda
What are the New Deal for Housing Justice and the BREATHE Act and how do they move beyond previous housing agendas?
Burdensome Documentation Requirements Keep NOLA Homeowners from Getting Home
The Road Home program was supposed to help thousands of families rebuild their homes after Hurricane Katrina. Instead, $33 million was left undistributed, and now the Louisiana Office of Community Development is suing homeowners who couldn’t rebuild.
Struggling Landlords Should Favor Rent Forgiveness
If we simply pay tenants’ rent indiscriminately, we have no way of knowing where the ultimate benefit goes.
Affordable BeltLine Project Still in Progress in Atlanta
It was a decade ago when the Atlanta BeltLine partnership set a goal of creating almost 6,000 units of affordable housing, as well as a collaborative of land trusts. What’s happened since? Did the partnership achieve its intended goals?
From PETRA to RAD—The Path to Converting 140,000 Public Housing Units
More than $10 billion in private financing has been invested in public housing thanks to the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program. But housing advocates say it comes at a cost, and there still isn’t enough oversight of the program.
Keeping an Eye on Landlord Tech
The landlord tech industry, while alive and well prior to COVID-19, has ramped up in the past year to develop new ways to accumulate wealth at the expense of tenants.
The Dark Side of Community Preference Policies
Community preference policies give existing residents first dibs on subsidized housing built in their neighborhoods. But what happens when these policies are applied to communities that are exclusive, well-off, and majority white?
As the Pandemic Continues, Officials Look to Long-Term Housing Options with Hotels
Advocates point to a bevy of successes in slowing the spread of the virus, but authorities struggle with cost burden.
Inclusionary Housing: Secrets to Success
A new survey of unprecedented scale gives us insight into the diverse range what of inclusionary housing programs look like and which ones are successful.