Subject: Housing
We've had a good discussion here on Rooflines about NYCHA's plan to build things on the open space in its public housing campuses: the open space implications, difficulty imagining public housing development without demolition and displacement, and the history behind…
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Wednesday that it will be restructuring its Multifamily Housing Programs and the Office of Field Policy and Management to meet the realities of dwindling funding. Over the next two and a…
The foreclosure crisis. Homeowners “underwater.” Neighborhoods blighted with vacated homes. Tougher credit standards and new regulations making it harder for lower-income households to qualify for a mortgage. These have been sadly familiar headlines for almost five years. Is there anything…
When we wrote last year about the fights to preserve voting rights and voter turnout against mounting attacks leading up to the presidential election, I think even in our darkest moments we weren't thinking that the truimphant beating back of…
"Mind you, they are taking someone’s public space—what little space they have—and putting in garbage compactors." That's how one organizer I spoke with for my article “The Case of NYCHA’s Disappearing Open Space” published in Shelterforce’s recent issue, described the…
Earlier this week the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) released its Housing Commission Report: Housing America’s Future: New Directions for National Policy. As an advisor to Janet Murgía, NCLR President and CEO, who served as a commissioner, I had a…
[Ed: The Bipartisan Policy Center's Housing Commission released its report, Housing America's Future, on housing policy yesterday. Its recommendations include winding down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and limiting federal government involvement in mortgages to a "Public Guarantor." Dean Baker responds.]…
On January 22 I spoke at a Capitol Hill briefing entitled “A Compact for Home Opportunity: What America Can Do to Stop Foreclosures, Restore Communities, and Fulfill the American Dream.” Sponsored by The Opportunity Agenda, the National Council of La…
Housing folks often wonder why the U.S. Department of Agriculture has rural housing programs. The answer goes back to the New Deal and to efforts in the 1930s and 1940s to provide better homes for a rural population living in…
President Obama has been re-elected, and hope springs eternal. I’ve started to think about a second term housing and urban agenda. Frankly, there wasn’t much of one during his first term. There were a few reasonable efforts. The Neighborhood Stabilization…
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Every once in a while, it's useful to take stock of the big picture numbers and trends that form the backdrop for all of our work. In the latest issue of Shelterforce, we have an article by Dan McCue of the…
The Real Risks Lie in a Deficit Reduction Deal to Replace It Sequestration — the harsh, indiscriminate cuts in federal defense and non-defense programs that are scheduled for January 2013 — has received lots of attention. As Washington insiders have…
Jokes abound about the legalization of marijuana use in Colorado and Washington. But it's not always a laughing matter. Affordable housing advocates have been passing around this link on the implications of marijuana legalization and tenant screening procedures. (h/t Trudy…
I recently spent a few days in Las Vegas meeting with housing and real estate people of various stripes. Compared to a similar visit about two years ago, the difference was amazing. Two years ago, doom and gloom were pervasive.…
The pushers of homeownership often try to convince people that they cannot lose by owning a home. They often use lines like “you can always live in your home.” This is an obviously true but completely meaningless statement. It is…
More than seventeen million Americans live in 6.9 million manufactured homes. The vast majority of these homeowners are low and very low income (median income was $34,700 in 2008). For most of these homeowners, the only type of financing they…
One of the canards about why homeownership is so wonderful is that it increases all sorts of beneficial behaviors, including civic participation. We can argue about which of these are created by homeownership and which are pre-existing characteristics of those…
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HUD has announced disaster assistance for those affected by Hurricane Sandy in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. This assistance will: Give states the flexibility to redirect millions of Community Development Block Grant and HOME program dollars to address critical…
The trailer is the vilified and estranged cousin of the housing world. It's all but banned in many communities, for its perceived ugliness as well as perceptions of its tenants. Its ugliness stems from its plainness—though the manufactured home industry likes…
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Imagine calling the police because you were in danger of your life. Now imagine getting evicted for doing so. Now imagine choosing not to call for help—on your own behalf, or on behalf of a neighbor, because you are afraid…
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National Housing Institute
