Affordable Housing

Baltimore’s Push To Solve Its Affordable Housing Crisis With Community Land Trusts

September 11, 2017 Kevon Paynter, www.yesmagazine.org Create! Affordable Housing, Baltimore, Land, Land trusts, New Economy

By Kevon Paynter for Yes! Magazine - Men and women huddle inside the St. John’s United Methodist Church in central Baltimore. The air conditioning in the church is inefficient on a day when the outside temperature is over 100 degrees. Cold water bottles get distributed, along with paper towels to wipe off sweat. Many of these people are homeless or formerly homeless. Others are longtime residents struggling to afford their rent, and they are here to advocate for an affordable housing solution that could bring relief as well as fix Baltimore’s blight.  They want Mayor Catherine Pugh to dedicate $40 million in the upcoming budget to fund community land trusts. Across the U.S., cities struggle with expanding income inequality and tight housing markets that drive up rent. These factors result in an extreme shortage of affordable housing. For every 100 low-income renters, there are 31 affordable units, according to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition.  Over the years, solutions have emerged. In Burlington, Vermont, and Boston, for example, community ownership of land through nonprofit community land trusts has had decades of success turning vacant lots into affordable housing.

Renter Nation Assemblies 2015

August 15, 2017 Staff, www.homesforall.org Organize! Affordable Housing, Boston, Housing, Rent, renter's rights

By Staff of Homes for All - Hundreds gathered and gave direct testimony about the citywide displacement crisis. Grassroots activists also planned strategies and tactics for passing Just Cause Eviction, breaking down by city council district, and they shared a variety of organizing approaches to the displacement crisis through interactive and cultural presentations. Topics included inclusionary development policy, community land trusts and community control of public land, creation of neighborhood stabilization zones, and struggles for local hiring and community benefit standards. The Right to Remain Assembly culminated in a massive citywide action cosponsored by Boston Tenant Coalition, Right to the City Boston, Alternatives for Community & Environment, Boston Workers Alliance, Chinatown Resident Association, Chinese Progressive Association, City Life/Vida Urbana, Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation, Dominican Development Center, Dorchester People for Peace, Fairmount Indigo Community Development Collaborative, Jamaica Plain Progressives, Neighbors United for a Better East Boston, New England United for Justice, SEIU 32BJ.

Tax The Rich To House The Poor

August 2, 2017 NLIHC, www.popularresistance.org Create! Affordable Housing, Housing, Poverty, Taxes

By the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Washington, DC - The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) released the “Reforming the Mortgage Interest Deduction: How Tax Reform Can Help End Homelessness and Housing Poverty” report today calling for Congress and the Trump administration to use mortgage interest deduction (MID) reform to end homelessness and housing poverty in America. The report identifies solutions to the homelessness and affordable housing crisis in America that would incur no additional cost to the federal government, those proposed by the NLIHC-led United for Homes (UFH) campaign. The report and UFH campaign call for modest reforms to the mortgage interest deduction (MID)—a $70 billion tax write-off that primarily benefits higher income households—and for reinvesting the billions in savings in affordable housing for the lowest income families with the greatest needs.

Chicagoans Say ‘Yes In My Backyard’ To Affordable Housing

July 27, 2017 Derek Robertson, www.wagingnonviolence.org Create! Affordable Housing, Chicago, New Economy

By Derek Robertson for Waging Nonviolence - Andrea Mitchell knows a dog whistle when she hears one. In the ongoing struggle against housing segregation, they come in the form of chants of “No Section 8.” The fear of a voucher holder’s “miscreant cousin, nephew, brother, son” doing damage in the community. Calls for the children of low-income housing applicants to be screened for criminal records, to rapt applause. For Mitchell, a homeowner in the almost-suburban, majority-white Jefferson Park neighborhood in Chicago, those dog whistles were heard in early February at a neighborhood meeting regarding the proposed construction of a low-income housing development at 5150 N. Northwest Highway, and she decided she had to do something about it. “I just didn’t want the rest of the city to see that and think that’s what my neighborhood is like,” Mitchell said. “I thought to myself, there should be another voice — we’re homeowners, too.” Mitchell and a small group of like-minded residents launched the Neighbors for Affordable Housing in Jefferson Park, or NAHJP, Facebook page in support of the development on Valentine’s Day, just four days after the heated meeting. Leah Levinger, director of the Chicago Housing Initiative, or CHI, a coalition of low-income housing activists, reached out soon after, and within just a month a new activist group was born.

Are You Unable To Afford Decent Housing?

June 19, 2017 Ijeoma Oluo, www.theguardian.com Educate! Affordable Housing, Housing, New Economy

By Ijeoma Oluo for The Guardian - The affordable housing crisis is becoming inescapable. We have now reached the point where a minimum-wage worker can only afford to live in about a dozen counties in the entire nation. Even those with college degrees and wages above minimum wage struggle. This problem doesn’t just impact countless poor Americans any more. Now it hits middle class families, too. For many, it’s outrageous that this crisis is no longer is confined to the bottom of the income ladder. ‘What do you mean that someone earning $20 an hour in LA wouldn’t be able to afford a one-bedroom apartment?’ gasp those in the middle class. When it was in the news that you’d have to earn $24 an hour in order to afford a one-bedroom apartment in Seattle, where I live, I finally saw community members talking more seriously about housing density and rent controls. But for those of us who have been locked into a housing crisis for generations because of race, gender, class or disability, we are left wondering why so many are just now paying attention to an issue that has already destroyed countless lives.

Income Sharing Could Save Our Lives

October 23, 2016 Matt Stannard, www.occupy.com Create! Affordable Housing, Cooperatives, Democracy

By Matt Stannard for Occupy.com. “Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away,” Hugo Award-winning author John Scalzi wrote in a personal blog post over a decade ago. “Being poor is a heater in only one room of the house... Being poor is needing that 35-cent raise... Being poor is six dollars short on the utility bill and no way to close the gap... Being poor is knowing you work as hard as anyone, anywhere.” Economic insecurity is the American nightmare. It kills us earlier, messes up our mental health, saps the life out of us. Since Scalzi’s 2005 post, we’ve learned that more than 60 percent of us can’t afford a $500 emergency – which roughly translates to hoping the toothache goes away. That’s a pretty raw deal in exchange for an economic system that’s also killing the planet. And only rarely can we count on others to help us out. They’re either broke themselves, or profiting from our financial instability.

Chicago Renters Back ‘ROOTS’ As Solution To Affordable Housing

October 2, 2016 Chloe Riley, www.equalvoiceforfamilies.org Create! Affordable Housing, Chicago, Housing, renter's rights

By Chloe Riley for Equal Voice for Families. CHICAGO – In Roxanne Smith’s kitchen, a framed excerpt from Barack Obama’s 2008 Grant Park presidential victory speech hangs for all to see. “America, we have come so far,” it reads. “But there is so much more to do.” Smith, 60, has come a long way herself in recent years. In 2013, she faced potential homelessness after the Northwest Side apartment where she lives with her 35-year-old son was foreclosed upon. At the time, the downstairs neighbors in her two-flat apartment complex had accepted a payout and left the building. But Smith, whose son Roget lives with a developmental disability, couldn’t afford to leave. Sitting in the dining room of her two-bedroom apartment, Smith holds tight to a green plastic bag, which was left on her door over a year and a half ago.

Tired Of Tax Breaks, Baltimore Activists Disrupt Developer Fete

July 7, 2016 Staff, www.therealnews.com Resist! Affordable Housing, Baltimore, Development, Protests

By Staff of The Real News Network - This is Taya Graham reporting for the Real News Network here in Baltimore City, Maryland. Im here at Port Covington, where developers are asking for a historic tax break. But this evening, community concerns intruded. If Baltimore is indeed two cities, one rich and one poor, then nowhere was this divide more evident than at City Garage in Port Covington Tuesday Night. I

Efficiency Could Provide Big Benefits To Low-Income Renters

May 2, 2016 Kari Lydersen, www.midwestenergynews.com Create! Affordable Housing

By Kari Lydersen for Midwestern Energy News - Low-income households spend up to three times as much of their income on energy costs as higher-income households do, and would benefit significantly from efficiency upgrades, according to a new report. Since their total income is lower, it’s not surprising that such households would see a higher proportion of it spent on energy. But these households are often paying more than they should be for energy because they are more likely to live in inefficient buildings, often where they don’t have control over heating and cooling or the power to make efficiency upgrades.

Retirement Co-op Ensures Seniors Aren’t Treated As Commodities

March 27, 2016 Sophie Chapelle, www.truthout.org Create! Affordable Housing, Cooperatives, Retirement

By Sophie Chapelle (translated by Leslie Thatcher) for Truthout. Lyon, France - They didn't want to end up in a traditional retirement home. They wanted to remain the actors in their own lives. Seven years after their first discussions about how to age well, a group of retired people is starting to build the first co-op for the aging. Non-speculation, democracy and environmental concern are the foundations of the "Chamarel-Les Barges" project, located in a neighborhood of Vaulx-en-Velin, east of Lyon, France. The project is so inspiring that the bank has even conferred a 50-year loan to the founders, who are in their 60s. The rendezvous was set for the 15th floor in a Vaulx-en-Velin apartment building in the suburbs of Lyon. That's the location for the headquarters of the Chamarel Association (also known as the Residents' Cooperative Housing Residence of East Lyonnais) created in 2010, prompted by the first French co-op for older people.

Berkeley City Hall Occupation Update

November 22, 2015 Mike Zint, www.occupysf.net Resist! Affordable Housing, Homeless, Homelessness, Human Rights

By Mike Zint for Occupy SF. Berkeley, CA - November 20, Day 5: It has been a busy day. The occupation is growing. We have had a lot of food support. Tents are still needed. Blankets are still needed. We have had channel 2, channel 7, the Dailycal, and KGO come by. We thank them for paying attention. And finally, many old friends are showing up. People I have not seen protesting for awhile. My hope is on 12/1, all our old Occupy friends reunite here to hang out, and stand in solidarity with the occupiers. 1 day, 1 Bay Area convergence here at city hall. Spread the word on our “peasant uprising.”

Housing And Homeless Activists Storm And Occupy Airbnb HQ

November 3, 2015 Julia Carrie Wong, www.sfweekly.com Resist! Affordable Housing, Protests

By Julia Carrie Wong for Weekly News - Dozens of housing and homeless activists stormed the Airbnb headquarters at 888 Brannan Street around noon today. A day before San Francisco voters will decide whether to regulate "home-sharing" more strictly, the activists sought to show the short-term rental company what "sharing" is all about. The protesters entered Airbnb's office and released paper houses lofted by helium-filled balloons into the four-story atrium. The houses bore messages referencing the corporation's ill-fated passive aggressive ad campaign, which took the form of "letters" to various public agencies boasting of the hotel tax revenue the company generates for San Francisco.

Protesters Occupy Airbnb HQ Ahead Of Housing Affordability Vote

November 3, 2015 Kwan Booth, www.theguardian.com Resist! Affordable Housing

By Kwan Booth for The Guardian - Airbnb’s San Francisco headquarters has been occupied by protesters as the debate over affordability of the city’s housing reached fever pitch ahead of a crucial local vote on 3 November. Protesters were campaigning in support of Proposition F, which proposes tighter restrictions on short term rental properties, and gathered outside the office of vacation rental company Airbnb, which has been a flashpoint for the Prop F debate. About 75 people carrying signs, banging drums and chanting “Stop the evictions, stop the greed” took over the lobby of the building in San Francisco’s Soma district.

Portland Declares Official Housing Emergency

October 11, 2015 ShelR. King, www.blogtown.portlandmercury.com Create! Affordable Housing, Gentrification, Homeless, Tenant Rights

By Shelby R. King for the Portland Mercury. Portland, OR - Portland City Council today passed an ordinance declaring an official housing emergency in the city. The commissioners unanimously voted to enact an ordinance that will temporarily remove barriers to increasing affordable housing and address Portland's homelessness problem. The emergency declaration also authorizes a proposed request to Governor Kate Brown to officially declare a state of emergency. "The tools we have now are not adequate," says Mayor Charlie Hales. "We need to be more nimble, more flexible, and swifter in our response." The declaration allows the city to temporarily use existing buildings (Hales has looked into using an old Army Reserve building) as shelters. The ordinance also allows the city to fund a pilot program to establish day storage facilities

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