A general thread for stories about the ongoing housing crisis in America…
I’ll start…
I’m trying to figure out how 1800 a month is “affordable housing”? Unless they mean only the condos will be that much, and other units will be at the $800 that reflects the more accurate definition of affordable housing for many Newark residents?
Some more details:
The project will contain 16 affordable units based on income limits set by the Department of Housing and Urban Development for the area.
But again, if the starting rent is 1800, then that’s not affordable for many people.
Here’s the section 8 info for Newark. I think the last part shows the maximum amount of rent that will be subsidised. However it works those numbers indicate a very expensive housing market.
It was both an excellent and depressing piece. Sigh.
We rent and our landlord just raised our rent for next month (the second time since Covid-19 began). Luckily, we are still below market and state law prohibits her from raising the rent more than 5% for a 12-month period.
I feel for renters who live in states without rent control, and I feel even worse for renters who need to use rental assistance because they are treated so poorly by property managers. The woman they showed in the segment who lives in her car with her family…it just broke my heart.
Yeah, I had no idea how past evictions have been used. Weren’t credit checks or non-refundable application fees and deposits enough? Consolidation of ownership makes it more difficult to stay in one area and ever have a clean slate.
Last week, I noticed two new housing developments in a town that used to fight for open space preservation, after new retail stores opened there in the past few years. Down the road used to be a corporate headquarters campus that was half buildings, half trees. Now, the trees are gone, and multiple buildings are in various stages of construction. Local news mentioned this company, and it turns out they are not only developing the other half of the corporate campus. They are also building homes on land where a local golf course went out of business.
The company/developer’s name also appeared in the search results because he’d written and produced a movie about a guy from the Philly 'burbs who works to become a successful real estate developer:
All of this is in an area without enough affordable housing*, where people spend an average of 47 months on the waiting list for vouchers. So, added to those poor landlords John Oliver mentions who get very upset whenever renters can’t pay, developers are promoting themselves as examples of the ultimate success story. Do they really see themselves as some kind of working-class heroes, despite coming home to line their pockets by creating McMansions and luxury townhomes?
*In a county where 10% of the population lives below the federal poverty line, less than 4% of housing units are affordable units, and real estate investment groups are eating each other for breakfast.
That real estate attorney with the Rush hat made my blood boil. He was absolutely proud that he evicted elderly tenants disabled tenants, and even tenants going through cancer treatments. What kind of person does that?
I have a house that I rent in the city I used to live in. When I moved I was talking to management companies and they always stalled when I told them I wouldn’t evict people who were incapable of paying the rent because of things beyond their control. I tried explaining how evictions, except for property damage, just destabilized things, but they didn’t want to listen. It has never occurred to me to raise the rent-I know what my tenants earn and that would just be mean.
I wish more states were like Oregon, where there is not only rent stabilization but the requirement that developers balance luxury housing with affordable housing. Building a bunch of mcmansions? Great, you also have to build some affordable apartments before your permit is issued.
Now that I’ve seen the John Oliver segment, I’m jealous of New York’s mandate that renters have counsel during eviction proceedings. We need that, too, or the rent stabilization becomes virtually meaningless.
Yep.
I love the public art requirement in some places, where a percentage of any new development costs have to go toward public art.
I think we could achieve great things with similar programs aimed at affordable housing and pollinator habitat, to name just 2.
Consolidation of ownership makes it more difficult to stay in one area and ever have a clean slate.
John Oliver mentions who get very upset whenever renters can’t pay, developers are promoting themselves as examples of the ultimate success story. Do they really see themselves as some kind of working-class heroes, despite coming home to line their pockets by creating McMansions and luxury townhomes? 
