Housing and Urban Issues
Stresses on urban communities continue to affect housing, food security, child services, homelessness, business development and crime. Coverage includes stories about new solutions to how cities are run, how they develop as urban centers and about the people who live there.
Forty-one percent of unsheltered seniors were never homeless before age 50. Finding them all homes will be difficult but helps focus outreach efforts.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Lauren F. Louis said the 2022 map preserved the ethnic composition of the five-seat commission and that a goal of “diversity of representation” would benefit Miami.
Anthony Driver Jr. was one of the 9,000 Chicago residents who were robbed last year. But he’s also the president of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability and will help elect the city’s next police superintendent.
The County Council has passed legislation that would allow lawmakers to retroactively revoke planned unit developments if they inherit them from a former council member. Previously members could only modify or amend plans.
There’s a secret order to the way traffic moves in African cities — less regulated, more spontaneous.
The state’s Office of Public Advocacy is required to provide guardianship services for vulnerable adults, but recent turnover has increased workloads to approximately 1,600 cases per staff member. The agency wants it down to 60 each.
While the state’s two proposed bills targeting libraries and librarians failed, the effort to address what books libraries may stock and lend will appear in the next legislative session. Many of these bans target LGBTQ+ themes.
The Transportation Modernization Act will bring “choice lanes” to the state for the first time. Dubbed by some as "Lexus lanes," they will let drivers pay to bypass traffic, but aren’t likely to reduce congestion overall.
The city of Los Angeles uses a scoring system for subsidized housing gives Black and Latino people experiencing homelessness lower priority scores.
Officially, a victims assistance officer will help coordinate logistics and reimbursements in the wake of a homicide. But families say that rarely happens so they often take it upon themselves to investigate the crime.
A succession of mayors have tried and failed to eradicate the city’s rodent population. Now, Eric Adams has appointed Kathleen Corradi, a former schoolteacher and sustainability expert, to tackle the city's epic rat problem.
In our effort to make children’s play areas safe, we have taken some of the fun out of them. That's not the case in Europe, where the playgrounds are more adventurous and challenging.
Two centerpieces of Justin Bibb’s proposal are a $50 million plan to attract employers back to the city and a $15 million investment in the city’s southeast side. The City Council will review the plan in the coming days.
Nice public restrooms are a genuine urban amenity. Big cities can afford to build more of them. Why don’t they?
Hilly Los Angeles has hundreds of outdoor staircases connecting residential neighborhoods with main streets.
As the rainy season begins for most of the country, a new report offers the first baseline assessment of the systems in place using green infrastructure to manage stormwater.
If the Supreme Court strikes down the Indian Child Welfare Act, states are worried that it would displace children from their tribal communities and culture. Lawmakers in several states have put forth legislation to codify ICWA protections.
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced an award of $21 million for 64 communities to coordinate transit, mobility, and land-use plans and navigate infrastructure funding opportunities.
Denver County averaged a 2.4 percent annual rate of population growth between 2011 and 2019, but between 2020 and 2022 it lost population at a rate of 0.3 percent. Some worry that Colorado has lost its appeal.
Ya Fav Trashman wants to clean up Philadelphia. But even with an army of Instagram followers who volunteer to help, his personal war on illegal trash dumping hasn't been easy.
When bus service was eliminated for five years in Clayton County, in the Atlanta metro area, residents endured substantial increases in poverty and unemployment rates.
There are lots of ideas out there for bringing the numbers down. But so far nothing seems to work better than simply getting a roof over their heads, even if it’s only a dilapidated motel room.
State law gives Andalusia Mayor Earl Johnson the right to work directly with private partners. For years, he’s been using this freedom to make the most of city resources.
Voter turnout is lower in rural places, something researchers say is a symptom of unequal amounts of civic infrastructure.
The category 5 storm was the costliest hurricane in Florida history, causing $112.9 billion in damage and 66 direct deaths. Many residents cut their losses and left, but for those who remain, recovery is slow and ongoing.
More than $1.73 billion will go to 603 Community Development Financial Institutions nationwide, with three in San Diego County receiving funds. Much of the money will go to small-business lending in low-income regions.
Texas has seen more anti-LGBTQ+ protests than any other state besides California and accounts for about 12 percent of all protests nationwide. But many business owners aren’t going to let protesters stop them from hosting drag events.
Agencies are spending new money — lots of it, in some cases — to crack down on fare evasion, with new fare gates, updated collection systems and beefed-up policing. But some experts question the cost.
With more than 80 nonwhite members, this year’s General Assembly is the state’s most diverse ever. The Legislature is beginning to reflect the state’s population, which narrowly remained majority white in 2020.
Laws that were enacted to provide community-based alternatives to the state’s youth prisons may actually be fostering a new “shadow” juvenile system in which officials are circumventing transparency laws behind closed doors.
Gov. Jay Inslee proposed a plan to “transform the state’s mental health system” by 2023, but the state has failed to meet its deadline and the repercussions are frustrating families, advocates and law enforcement.
