Housing

Housing matters. A stable, quality, affordable home is a foundation for so many other parts of life. How do we bring it in reach for everyone?

View from above of a ferryboat on roiling waters, with clouds of mist off to the right. The water is blue-green with much white foam from the choppy sea

Nonprofit Affordable Housing Developers Navigate Troubled Waters

As housing and building costs rise, nonprofit developers find themselves with strained resources as pandemic relief dries up and tenants need housing assistance more than ever.
Five people are painting a wooden ramp leading up to a white house. Two are wearing white t-shirts and three are wearing blue t-shirts.

Why Housing Policy Should Include More Funding for Home Repairs

Researchers found that older homeowners in St. Louis averaged $13,000 in unmet home repairs. Here's how advocates can measure home repair need in their own cities, and why repairs make a difference.
Several people in winter clothing stand outdoors on a sunny day holding signs. At center, a light-skinned woman in late middle age holds a sign that says "Safe Homes for All," written in red paint. Other people, partly visible, hold printed signs calling for rent control. Behind the protesters are hemlock trees and beyond them, partly visible, are tall buildings.

‘Renters Are Struggling’: Economists Back Tenant-Led Push for Federal Rent Control

"We have seen corporate landlords—who own a larger share of the rental market than ever before—use inflation as an excuse to hike rents and reap excess profits beyond what should be considered fair and reasonable."
A three-story red/brown brick building with white window frames. In the foreground, a thick green hedge. Behind the building, a clear blue sky. There are no people in the photo.

What Can We Learn From the U.K.’s Council Housing? (Hint: Vienna Isn’t the Only...

Social historian John Boughton explains how the U.K.’s social housing system changed millions of low- and middle-income people’s lives—and how privatization has crippled its power.
A three-story yellow building with moss growing in the first floor entrances and second floor.

How One Organization Is Preserving Housing Co-Ops

A group formed to promote student housing co-ops in the ’60s is acquiring and preserving cooperative housing for future generations.

Why an Eldercare Facility Turned to Employer-Provided Housing

Providing temporary housing in tiny homes has helped a long-term care facility keep its doors open in the face of a growing housing crisis. 
Against a blue sky, a view from street level of part of an imposing seven-story building in red and tan brick with red-brick towers at intervals.

Social Housing: How a New Generation of Activists Is Reinventing Housing

Not so long ago, social housing was rarely discussed in the U.S. Today. there are over a dozen social housing campaigns across the country.
A large open space with a staircase that has multicolored balusters. At left is a large mural of people with different skin tones and in front of it is a person holding a small child. Dual handrails on staircase ensure adult and child can safely use stairs by holding height appropriate handrails. There’s another small child, this one on crutches, and a woman in white is crouching beside him. There’s a man on the landing of the staircase and a small girl climbing the steps. Behind her is a woman carrying a bag or briefcase and drinking from a cup.

Cross-Disability Design Makes Housing Better for Everyone

Affordable housing projects should incorporate a range of accessibility features, going above and beyond code requirements.
Six disabled people of color smile and pose in front of a concrete wall. Five people stand in the back, with the Black woman in the center holding up a chalkboard sign reading "disabled and here." A South Asian person in a wheelchair sits in front.

Which U.S. Laws Require Accessibility in Housing—And How Well Do They Do?

Activists have been fighting for decades to expand accessible housing for disabled residents. They’ve made progress, but say that current regulations and enforcement don’t go far enough.
A senior Black woman wearing top and pants in shades of pink with a dark gray sweater, and wearing a surgical mask, sits in an armchair facing a home healthcare nurse. She is Black, with very short hair and wearing black-rimmed glasses, blue scrub top; also wearing a surgical mask and stethoscope, and carrying a clipboard or tablet. On the wall behind the seated woman is a bright blue artwork.

How States Can Use Medicaid to Address Housing Costs

New federal guidance enables states to use Medicaid dollars to support housing needs.
Closeup of a weatherbeaten wooden sign that says Vacancies in block letters across the top, and underneath that, No, and underneath that, another No.

LA Isn’t Enforcing Its Section 8 Discrimination Ban. Could This Lawsuit Change the Tide?

In 2019, Los Angeles passed an ordinance banning discrimination against Section 8 voucher holders. But it has never sued to enforce the protection.
An aerial view of Madison, Wisconsin, with a lake in the foreground, the capital dome visible beyond it, and the city stretching beyond that.

Who Can Afford Housing in Madison, Wisconsin?

The city is growing fast and building a lot of housing. But the new housing isn’t keeping pace with the need, especially for high-income and extremely low-income earners.
An early 1900s three- or four-story hotel on a street corner, seen from street level against a bright blue cloudless sky. Built of pink sandstone with light green trim. The ground floor has businesses; the sidewalk is crowded with parked scooters and a red cafe umbrella.

What LA’s New Shelter Program Can Learn from Statewide Efforts

As LA’s Inside Safe program works to transition unhoused Angelenos from hotels into permanent housing, its leaders should look to California’s Project Roomkey for lessons.
An illustration of a home being grab by giant hands. In the background, a red plane holds a banner that reads "We Buy Ugly Houses!"

The Ugly Truth Behind “We Buy Ugly Houses”

HomeVestors of America, the self-proclaimed “largest homebuyer in the U.S.,” trains its nearly 1,150 franchisees to zero in on homeowners’ desperation.
A row of New York Police Dept. cars lined up, half on the sidewalk, half in the gutter. At least 7 cars can be counted. Cars are white with blue lettering. At left, a woman is walking in the road past the cars.

New Yorkers Need Land. The NYPD Is Sitting On Nearly 150 Lots.

A new map reveals how much land in New York City is being wasted by city police—often sitting vacant, rather than serving the public good.
View from the end of the driveway of a new-looking white two-story house with a two-car garage, front porch with an overhang, and a gabled roof. The front yard is still all muddy soil with tire tracks.

When a Land Bank Starts a Land Trust

An Ohio land bank adds to its developing power through a nonprofit land trust.
A surface covered with (and hidden by) $100 bills

Landlords on Notice: Section 8 Discrimination Will Cost You

Landmark lawsuits in D.C., New York, and California make source of income discrimination risky for landlords. 
A room bare of furnishings except a mattress on the floor. The walls are yellow, the window frame is light green. The blinds are closed. There's a bare-bulb light fixture on the wall casting a glary light

Who Gets Tenant Protection Vouchers?

A program to stabilize residents whose subsidized housing is disrupted has also been used to support other highly vulnerable residents, but those uses are a matter of controversy.
The Virginia State Capital seen frmo the bottom of the steps leading up to it, on a sunny day.

Should Virginia Build Housing for Public Servants on Public Land?

Amid widespread rent increases, directing public land to affordable housing could allow people to stay in their communities, as well as reduce commutes and employee turnover.
Aerial view of a suburb with hundreds of houses built close together on curving streets and no sign of green anywhere

Is the Solution to Homelessness Obvious?

Some say yes. But simply making it easier to build will not reach those who are unhoused.