Housing

Lessons From The National Union Of The Homeless

October 12, 2021 Loretta Graceffo, Waging Nonviolence. Organize! Atlanta, Homeless, Housing, Unions

This July, unhoused leaders set up tents in front of Atlanta City Hall to demand a meeting with city officials. They were met by nearly 60 armed police officers who gave them 15 minutes to disperse. Only moments later, 10 of the activists — members of the newly-formed Atlanta Homeless Union — were arrested. The group had four demands: permanent housing, health care, access to water and sanitation, and a “seat at the table” to negotiate with city officials regarding housing policy. “Nobody else that’s not walking in our shoes gonna tell us what to do,” the unhoused leaders announced in their first press release. “Teach us how to fish, and we’ll eat forever. The homeless have unionized, and we’re here for what we deserve.” The Atlanta Homeless Union came into being at a critical moment for the nearly 600,000 people experiencing homelessness across the nation — a number that is likely much higher since data on homelessness hasn’t been gathered since before the pandemic.

More Than 60 Actions Nationwide Pile Pressure On Congress

October 1, 2021 Liberation News. Resist! Cancel the Rent, Evictions, Housing, Nationwide Action

As part of national days of protest called by Cancel the Rents, more than 60 demonstrations took place in cities and towns across the United States September 24-26 calling on Congress to immediately pass an indefinite nationwide moratorium on evictions. Protesters also demanded the cancellation of the crushing debt to landlords that had built up over the course of the pandemic as tenants’ were unable to work and back rent accumulated. Tens of billions of dollars have already been allocated for renter relief programs by the federal government, but is being distributed excruciatingly slowly — another focus of the protests. Congress has the authority to prevent 11 million evictions from taking place in the midst of a pandemic. This could be accomplished by incorporating an eviction freeze into the social spending budget that is currently under consideration.

Climate Protesters Defy Court Order To Block Highway

September 27, 2021 Sputnik News. Resist! climate crisis, Energy Efficiency, Housing, United Kingdom (UK)

London – Insulate Britain campaigners, an environmental group calling on the UK government to implement a better national home insulation program, blocked on Monday the M25 highway encircling London for the sixth time, despite a court order warning them of jail terms if they carried on disrupting traffic on UK’s busiest road. "You can throw as many injunctions at us as you like, but we are going nowhere. You can raid our savings and confiscate our property. You can deny us our liberty and put us behind bars. But that is only shooting the messenger. The truth is that this country is going to hell unless you take emergency action to stop putting carbon into the air," Insulate Britain spokesperson Liam Norton said in a statement.

Universal Housing Vouchers: A Promise Or A Pipe Dream?

September 21, 2021 ShelR. King, Shelterforce. Educate! Biden administration, Families, Housing, Housing Vouchers

Once again, the clock is ticking as states scramble to distribute billions in federal emergency rent relief to stress-weary, increasingly panicked tenants and landlords before the national eviction moratorium expires. If the money doesn’t get out in time, a rush of evictions and foreclosures could be in store this fall. Would the nation be in such a precarious predicament if everyone who qualified for a housing voucher got one? Over the last year and a half, tenants who receive income-dependent rental assistance—like housing vouchers—had their rent responsibility reduced when their incomes fell, and their landlords were still paid. But housing vouchers’ eviction-preventing effects were limited to households lucky enough to get a voucher, since the underfunded Housing Choice Voucher program reaches just one in five households that qualify.

Yimby Movement Is Not The Answer To Housing Crisis

September 21, 2021 Laura Jedeed And M.k. Hawthorne, Truthout. Create! Affordable Housing, Finance and the Economy, Housing

There is a battle raging in U.S. cities around land and who controls it. It is fought with zoning laws and red lines. Its battlefields are neighborhood associations and local elections. Across the country, racist reactionaries square off against capitalist developers in a struggle to determine the future of the housing market. In these types of battles, whoever wins, tenants lose, according to housing organizers working to halt the damage wrought by both developers and racist politicians. The U.S.’s housing crisis began long before COVID eviction moratoria brought the problem into the spotlight. Median rent in the United States has increased 70 percent since 1995, even as real wages remained static. This lack of affordable housing kept millions of people one crisis away from losing their homes.

The Pandemic Has Made Homelessness And Eviction Even More Deadly

September 14, 2021 Sarah Glen, Scalawag Magazine. Educate! COVID-19, Evictions, Homelessness, Housing

According to the Associated Press, a one-night tally in 2020 counted 580,000 people experiencing homelessness in the United States. Advocates say that total is almost certainly a severe undercount, with a more accurate total being upwards of 2 million people. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has acknowledged both the difficulty of helping unhoused folks get vaccinated—most don't have access to transit options—and the reality that they're more likely to be at risk of severe illness because of compounding health issues. But how we actually help our unhoused neighbors get vaccinated varies from city to city, and often relies on NGOs like Southern Solidarity. In Texas, the pandemic brought a swift pivot to healthcare support for Austin's Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO), a nonprofit that plans and implements strategies to end homelessness in Travis County.

Public Housing To Be Demolished In Tampa For New Development

September 12, 2021 Hailey Ostwalt, Liberation News. Educate! Affordable Housing, Florida, Housing, Public Housing

Robles Park Village is a 433-unit public housing complex in Tampa Heights, Florida, near Ybor City. After months of inspections, city officials found that a small portion of this community was built on top of Zion Cemetery, a historic Black cemetery, forcing 88 units to be vacated to move forward with cemetery preservation processes. Following several surveying sessions, the remaining Robles Park residents were told by Tampa city officials that their homes were set to be demolished. The Tampa Housing Authority along with Baker Barrios Architects and Property Markets Group announced a “master plan” for the Robles Park Village which is set to include over 1,000 new houses, resource facilities, and a Zion Cemetery memorial site. The Tampa Housing Authority reports that 85 percent of the new development will be “affordable rental housing” while

Squatters’ History

September 8, 2021 The Free. Create! Homeless, Housing, Squatting, United Kingdom (UK)

On September 8th 1946, some 1500 men, women and children occupied properties in Kensington and Chelsea as part of the largest single direct action of trespass in a year marked by the squatting of military camps and empty residences across the UK. In defiance of the risk of arrest and absolutely zero guarantee of any rights to remain, these actions were executed with meticulous planning and coordination, with people arriving with their possessions in lorries and being directed by volunteers. Over 100 families entered the luxury flats of the Duchess of Bedford House, via conveniently unlocked doors and skylights. Within days overspill properties were opened near Regent’s Park, spreading through the city to the Ivanhoe Hotel in Bloomsbury and Fountain Court on Buckingham Palace Road.

Report Details Corporate Landlord Gluttony As Millions Face Eviction

September 3, 2021 Jake Johnson, Common Dreams. Educate! Corporatism, Eviction Moratorium, Evictions, Housing

Despite their loud public complaints to lawmakers about the supposed "economic hardships" caused by the CDC's now-terminated eviction moratorium, large real estate companies have privately touted their solid performance during the coronavirus pandemic—and they've rewarded their CEOs with major pay increases. A new report (pdf) provided exclusively to Common Dreams by the government watchdog group Accountable.US shows that large corporate landlords have reported "strong or stable" earnings to investors in recent months as millions of people across the U.S. worried about losing their homes. Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling against the eviction moratorium on Thursday, millions of people are now at imminent risk of eviction.

After Supreme Court Ruling, A Tsunami Of Evictions Is Set Overwhelm US

September 1, 2021 People's Dispatch. Resistance Report Eviction Moratorium, Housing, Pandemic, Supreme Court

Following a Supreme Court ruling that ended the moratorium, evictions are resuming in the United States. Eugene Puryear talks about the impact of this judgement on millions who might face a housing crisis even as the pandemic continues to rage on The Supreme Court of the United States has struck down the moratorium on evictions of tenants. Evictions are set to resume in many parts of the country from today. The ruling has left millions of Americans at risk of losing their shelter during the pandemic. Eugene Puryear of BreakThrough News talks about the judgment, its impact on the people, and the response of movements across the country.

Women In A Housing Cooperative Build Their Own Homes

September 1, 2021 Winnie Narváez Herrera, Tortilla con Sal. Create! Cooperative, Housing, Nicaragua, Sandinista Revolution

Like every other country, Nicaragua needs more affordable housing. To deal with the shortage, in many places it’s trying out community-based solutions, sharing responsibility between the government, the local authority and the families that need better conditions. It relies on mutual aid: hours of work put in voluntarily by those benefitting from a scheme, to build not only their own houses but those of their neighbours. It’s a cooperative that really works. I talked to two women members of one such group, Yadira Aguirre and Margine Martínez, about their work building houses in their small community in La Dalia in the mountainous north of Nicaragua. They are working women, part of a group whose main earnings come from coffee harvesting on large farms for three months each year.

Mass Evictions Underway In Starkville

August 30, 2021 Nick Judin, Mississippi Free Press. Educate! Housing

T. Young’s reprieve from homelessness was three days. The mother of four rushed home Friday when she heard the news. When she arrived, officers were still traveling door to door at Catherine Street Apartments in Starkville, flanking a representative from her new rental company. They were informing the residents that the mass-eviction process that started only weeks before was resolving, and resolving quickly.

Supreme Court Allows Evictions To Resume During Pandemic

August 27, 2021 Mark Sherman, Associated Press. Educate! COVID-19, Evictions, Housing, US Supreme Court

Washington — The Supreme Court’s conservative majority is allowing evictions to resume across the United States, blocking the Biden administration from enforcing a temporary ban that was put in place because of the coronavirus pandemic. The court’s action late Thursday ends protections for roughly 3.5 million people in the United States who said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to Census Bureau data from early August. The court said in an unsigned opinion that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reimposed the moratorium Aug. 3, lacked the authority to do so under federal law without explicit congressional authorization. The justices rejected the administration’s arguments in support of the CDC’s authority.

Denver’s Housing First Initiative A ‘Remarkable Success’

August 26, 2021 Robert Davis, Invisible People. Create! Denver, Homelessness, Housing, Housing First

Colorado - A five-year evaluation of Denver’s Social Impact Bond (SIB) program by The Urban Institute found the housing first initiative is a “remarkable success” at reducing chronic homelessness. In all, the study found that 79 percent of people who received treatment under the program were engaged in stable housing. Those referred to SIB spent an average of 560 more days in housing than people who received other community assistance. Overall, the study analyzed the cases of 724 program participants. After one year, 86 percent of people remained in stable housing. After two years, the number stood at 81 percent. And, after three years, over 77 percent of participants remained housed. The program—one of the first in the country—also reduced shelter visits and police contacts for participants.

Big Business Loves The Housing Crisis

August 22, 2021 Nick Bano, Tribune Magazine. Educate! COVID-19, Finance and the Economy, Gentrification, Housing

What’s your favourite type of landlord? It’s an odd question, but it’s one that commentators keep asking as housing crises of various types continue to take shape across the world. In a recent series of articles, economist Brett Christophers analysed the workings of Blackstone, a New York-based asset management firm which has become a phenomenally successful (and deeply harmful) institutional player in American housing markets. At the moment, the picture in the UK is very different—small-scale individuals vastly outnumber institutions in the buy-to-let market—but there are signs that this is starting to change. Last week, Lloyds Bank announced its plans to become one of the UK’s biggest landlords by buying 50,000 homes over the next four years – roughly equivalent to buying every dwelling in Exeter.

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