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.
A pair of bills that would encourage construction are moving through the state Senate despite the opposition of key committee chairs.
Vice President Kamala Harris proposed a $40 billion “housing innovation fund” to help local governments build more affordable housing. It could be a potential break from most federal housing assistance programs, which are tightly defined.
They’re a constant in urban history, typically launching with excitement but achieving modest results. That doesn’t stop the enthusiasts from dreaming.
California is notorious for its lack of affordable housing. Still, it's seen a dramatic expansion of one type of housing over the past five years, known as ADUs, offering lessons for other states.
The U.S. is currently building dense housing at the highest rate since the mid-1980s. Former President Barack Obama noted in his convention speech that “we need to build more units and clear away some of the outdated laws and regulations.”
This nonprofit model for increasing affordable housing supply is seeing success in convincing socially motivated investors to accept lower rates of return on rental units.
Groups of renters in five cities have formed a Tenant Union Federation to build power locally and advocate for changes to federal housing policy.
Each year, more trees fall in cities than are harvested from national forests, putting infrastructure at risk. Researchers estimate that urban trees could replace about 10 percent of the nation’s annual lumber consumption.
A report found that residents who work minimum wage jobs would need to work 82 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom rental home. But many cities across the state do not have enough low-cost housing to accommodate the number of low-wage workers.
Despite fires and floods, they keep coming in search of affordability and warm winters. But there are strong signs that the stampede is slowing.
Zoning changes in cities such as Minneapolis have helped prompt new construction, but allowing more units on formerly single-family lots isn’t a panacea for housing shortages.
Millions of Americans are evicted each year. Lack of detailed information about their circumstances makes addressing affordable housing needs more difficult.
Gavin Newsom has been dealing with the issue since long before he became governor, working to undo a Reagan-era legacy of deinstitutionalization. It’s common-sense progress.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development will change its rule that treated service-related disability benefits as income. Now disability compensation will be counted just for income to calculate the amount vets must pay for rent.
Latinos make up only about 16 percent of the city’s population, but their total number has risen from 129,000 in 2000 to 244,000 last year. Overall, the city has experienced slight population decline since 2020.
A study found that Chicago’s white families have the highest median net wealth ($210,000), while typical Black families report no wealth and U.S.-born Mexican families have just 19 percent of a typical white family’s wealth.
A ballot measure that would have let voters decide the fate of a massive land development project in California has been called off.
Jonathan Daniels, an experienced crisis manager, is getting Baltimore’s port back in business.
Nonprofit service providers publish plenty of metrics about their activities, but too often they don’t reflect actual success in reducing homelessness. Measuring impact would help them do more good.
Michigan’s Homeowners’ Energy Policy Act will take effect in October and will prevent HOAs from blocking the installation of a wide range of energy-efficient measures at their homes. Residents of mobile home communities might be next.
The swing states of Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania are changing — and fast.
Texas ranked 10th in the nation for auto thefts per capita last year and Dallas had the fifth-highest number of car thefts among U.S. cities. But early data from this year reports that thefts are down by about 7.25 percent so far.
The movement to protect historic buildings seemed unbeatable for decades, but it has spawned sophisticated, well-funded critics — and critics of the critics. Is it really “a good idea that has gone too far”?
If approved, the changes would be the first major amendments to the city’s general plan since 2008. Blueprint SD would change zoning across the city to reverse decades of racial and ethnic segregation.
Florida’s once crime-ridden metropolis has forged a new identity in the 21st century.
The Minneapolis-based Stairstep Foundation works with more than 100 Black churches and argued that the Minnesota Advisory Committee has not encouraged or allocated subsidized housing appropriately.
Rush University Medical Center is using its classes of barber and hair stylist students to help combat the opioid crisis by providing them training about substance use disorders and how to administer Narcan.
The Bay Area city had recently touted a 33 percent year-over-year decrease in crime. But a review of police data found that the city overstated the improvements and has been using incomplete information for years.
The nation suffers from a housing shortage of between 1.5 million and 5.5 million units. Renters occupy about 15.9 million single-family homes and corporate landlords own about 3 percent of them.
The court’s recent ruling prompted concern in some quarters that police could become the primary face of homeless response. But some chiefs worry they’re caught in the middle of societal problems they aren’t equipped to handle.
The leader of San Antonio’s public housing authority built strong relationships with tenants and committed to preserving public housing units. The board fired him last month.
