Category: Weekly Round-Up

Housing Equity Week in Review

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Here’s the latest news from housing law and equity, for the week of November 6-10, 2017:

  • The Public Health Institute released a study that calculates the number of children with lead poisoning in the United States.
  • A new law in Seattle will prevent landlords from screening tenants based on their criminal history, via The Regulatory Review.
  • “It’s time to stop ignoring our crumbling housing code enforcement” — coverage of APHA2017 sessions on housing code enforcement, featuring CPHLR Director Scott Burris and the Five Essential Public Health Law Services Framework developed in collaboration with ChangeLab Solutions and the Network for Public Health Law, via Public Health Newswire.
  • San Jose has a new plan to get downtown landlords to clean up their vacant storefronts using a pilot program that would create a registry of vacant buildings and fine property owners who are neglecting their properties, via NextCity.
  • Civil rights groups are fighting the suspension of a HUD rule they say helps low-income families move to better neighborhoods, via CityLab.
  • Texans voted to loosen some of the tightest home lending restrictions in the country. via Governing.

Housing Equity Week in Review

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An update from the world of housing law and equity, for the week of October 30-November 3, 2017

  • New viewpoint article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, from Megan Sandel, MD, MPH and Matthew Desmond, PhD, says investing in housing for health improves mission and margin.
  • An analysis from the Seattle Times asks, “Will allowing more housing types in some single-family zones make Seattle’s whitest neighborhoods more racially diverse?”
  • As sea levels rise, wealthy people can more easily afford to move to high ground, making gentrification worse, via Yale Climate Connections.
  • A new study finds a correlation between the number of patents a city produces and economic segregation within its limits, via the Atlantic.
  • Benjamin Somogyi argues in the Regulatory Review, to solve the next foreclosure crisis, look to Sacramento
  • New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., have approved funding to provide legal defense to low-income tenants at risk of eviction. A look at how free legal help could prevent evictions, via Huffington Post.

Housing Equity Week in Review

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The week of Sept. 4-11, 2017 brought more housing-related news from the southeast in the wake of Harvey and Irma, and a few new resources. The latest in housing equity and the law, below:

  • Matthew Desmond writes a Housing State of the Union for the Stanford Center on Inequality and Poverty’s Pathways Magazine State of the Union issue. The report emphasizes the home-ownership racial gap, the relationship with the affordability crisis, and the reform that is needed for the mortgage interest tax deduction.
  • A report by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank on gentrification sheds light on the fact that gentrification is not a new phenomenon
  • The New York Times ran an op-ed on the impact of land use regulation on economic growth.
  • Paul Krugman of the New York Times writes about the need to find equilibrium between negative sprawl (such as in Houston) and NIMBYism (as experienced in San Francisco). He asks, “Why can’t we get cities right?”
  • Community Land Trust has a tool for community focused development.

Housing Equity Week in Review

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Much of the devastation from Harvey is centered on homes and housing. Our focus this week is on the housing and equity issues related to displacement, and recovery and development in the future. The news from the world of housing after Harvey, for the week of August 28-September 5, 2017:

  • Although tenants’ homes are under water, their landlords are still demanding that they pay rent. Texas law allows a tenant or a landlord to terminate a contract due to a natural disaster only if the property is “totally unusable,” via the Guardian.
  • Harvey will dramatically change the housing market in Houston for a long time. Once a city with a glut of rental properties, Houston almost overnight became a city without enough habitable housing units. Some estimate that 60,000 units have been damaged in the storm, about 85 percent of all available units before the storm. Rents are expected to go up as much as 10 percent in the area, the Wall Street Journal reports.
  • Susan Popkin at the Urban Institute writes on the importance of inclusive development and learning from the past after a disaster.
  • Follow the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s updates on Hurricane Harvey housing recovery
  • Although unrelated to Harvey, still in Texas: The Austin American-Statesman reports Austin sues Texas for a law preempting the city’s “source of income” discrimination protection.

Housing Equity Week in Review

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Here’s the latest news from housing law and equity, from the week of August 21-28, 2017:

  • Economists from the Federal Reserve of San Francisco show the enduring negative effects of redlining on communities of color, via the New York Times.
  • The Atlanta Black Star published a review of the impact and persisting health effects of segregation on communities of color.
  • A new report by the Urban Institute shed light on the costs of segregation for metropolitan regions. Read a review of the report on How Housing Matters: https://howhousingmatters.org/articles/what-are-the-costs-of-segregation/
  • New York Magazine ran an expose about HUD under the leadership of Ben Carson
  • As relief efforts continue in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, we are reminded by the July 2016 piece on privately owned subsidized housing in flood areas in Houston, via the Houston Chronicle.

Housing Equity Week in Review

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Here’s the latest news in housing law and equity, for the week of August 15-21, 2017:

  • The Urban Institute has released a new tool about using fair housing data. The report contains details on data sources related to demographics and segregation, housing, land use, disability, education, employment, environment, health, and public safety.
  • The Washington Post reports that California lawmakers are planning on putting housing as a top priority after the summer.
  • Richard Rothstein, author of the critically acclaimed book The Color of Law, writes an op-ed for the LA Times about the role law plays in maintaining racial segregation in Los Angeles.
  • From the Brookings Cafeteria Podcast: How past racial segregation predicts modern-day economic (im)mobility.
  • Durham County, the county with the highest eviction rate in North Carolina, is taking on the eviction crisis by launching an eviction diversion program. Story via IndyWeek.
  • Bill de Blasio signed the first law in the nation to establish a right to counsel for the poor in housing cases. Story via CityLab.
  • New York Magazine and ProPublica collaborate on an in-depth look into Ben Carson’s HUD.

Housing Equity Week in Review

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Here is our weekly round-up of developments from the world of housing law and health. For the week of August 7-14, 2017:

  • HUD released its “Worst Case Housing Needs” report to Congress providing national data and analysis of the problems facing low-income renting families. CityLab offers a summary of the report here.
  • Is California’s housing laws making its housing crisis worse? Natalie Delgadillo at Governing analyzes the impact of the 1985 Ellis Act, which allows landlords to mass-evict tenants in order to leave the rental business.
  • A new study from University of Hawaii researchers finds homelessness and inadequate housing are major causes of unnecessary hospitalizations. Read more.
  • HUD is inviting paper submissions for a symposium on housing and health. Submissions will be accepted through September 30. Full details here.
  • A new Colorado law requires landlords to give 21-days notice of rent increases and lease terminations, via HousingWire.
  • Amy Clark at the National Housing Conference offers an explanation of YIMBYism — “yes, in my backyard” — via NHC’s Open House blog.

Housing Equity Week in Review

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Below is our weekly review of news and publications related to housing law and equity. This week — July 17-23, 2017 — included news about zoning, segregation and lead poisoning:

  • Dr. Herbert L. Needleman died on July 18. Dr. Needleman was a pioneer in the study of the impacts of lead on children’s cognitive ability. Dr. Needleman’s research was a catalyst for wide ranging safety regulations. His obituary appeared in the Washington Post.
  • Jake Blumgart of PlanPhilly writes for Slate on the neighborhood that he grew up in, the persistence of microsegregation, and the importance of continuing to push for diversity in neighborhoods.
  • ThinkProgress published a series of articles about lead poisoning.
  • Toledo considers Rochester, NY and its success in reducing the incidence of lead poisoning as a model, via the Toledo Blade.
  • The National Apartment Association and the National Multifamily Housing Council released a new report on the need of affordable housing units to meet demand in US metro areas by 2030.
  • After a long battle between the Westchester, NY, and HUD, the department decided that zoning in Westchester is not exclusionary, although similar data was rejected multiple times in the past. Story via the Journal News.

Housing Equity Week in Review

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We’re back after a few weeks’ hiatus because of summer holidays. There was much ado this week about the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), spurred by an article in the NY Times (third bullet down). Some of the conversation circling that article are captured in the subsequent bullets.

Here are the latest news stories in housing law and equity for the week of July 2-10, 2017:

  • Given the local context of housing policy, it is hard to find “one glove fit all” solutions. There is a growing consensus that zoning and  land use regulations have made the affordability crisis in booming cities such as New York City and San Francisco worse. Could the policy that harmed one area saved another? Richard Florida of CityLab argues that land use regulation saved the Rust Belt.
  • Suburbia is still largely thought of as white and affluent, while inner cities are thought of as poor and black. A new book by Scott Allard of the University of Washington, called Places in Need, debunks misconceptions about suburban poverty. The author was interviewed by CityLab.
  • The United States spends $8 billion each year in tax credits to provide more affordable housing. A The New York Times article on the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) suggests the program entrenches segregation on the lines of class and race.
  • On the other hand, the Washington Post covers a Stanford study (originally published in NBER in April 2016) that shows that building LIHTC affordable housing developments into low income neighborhoods can increase property values and lead to income and racial integration.
  • Daniel Hemel, an assistant professor at University of Chicago school of Law, responds to the New York Times article, in his own post here.
  • In May 2016, Daniel Hertz of City Observatory responded to the Stanford study, pointing at methodological issues and challenging the study’s conclusion, here.

Housing Equity Week in Review

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Our latest round-up of the biggest stories in housing law and equity, for the week of June 12-18, 2017:

  • The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University released the yearly State of the Nation Housing report. The report encourages a renewed national commitment to expand the range of housing options available.
  • A NY State Appellate Court struck down a chronic nuisance ordinance in Groton, NY, because of provisions that led to the eviction of those who seek emergency services. Story via Ithaca.com
  • The Out of Reach report and tool that was published a couple of weeks ago by the National Low Income Housing Coalition is getting press around the country for showing the gap between current wages and rents in most US cities. This article, from CNBC highlights the lack of affordable housing for minimum wage workers.
  • An opinion piece in The Hill makes, again, the case for investment in housing as an investment in childhood development and health.
  • 79 people are presumed dead in the fire at Grenfell Tower in London. Some argue that the tragedy should be a red light for distressed public housing in the US.
  • The Philadelphia Inquirer posted its second article in its Toxic City series. This most recent article investigates lead-poisoned soil in the city’s River Wards neighborhoods. While lead paint is often considered the biggest danger to children, in these areas and others, the soil may be a great danger.