Category: Housing News
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Affordable housing disaster prep helps with hurricane and pandemic needs
Hurricane Laura came ashore last week near the Texas-Louisiana border as one of the strongest hurricanes on record. Laura’s 150 mph winds left a trail of devastation hundreds of miles inland. Following on the heels of hurricane Marco, thousands of low-income renters now find themselves displaced. Affordable housing agencies will be working overtime to help…
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How to get recovery assistance for Hurricane Laura and Marco
After both Hurricane Laura and Marco hit U.S. land last week, residents of Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Puerto Rico are in need of emergency services for shelter and repairs. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is the federal agency that provides support for communities and persons in need after a natural disaster. You can…
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Federal judge rules cities cannot issue fines for being homeless
A federal judge recently ruled that the City of Grants Pass, Oregon, cannot issue citations and civil fines to homeless people sleeping in public. Following up on an earlier case that outlawed criminal penalties for sleeping in parks and on sidewalks, the ruling will force local governments to rethink how they address the challenge of…
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Carson approves flexibility for CDBG CARES Act Funds
New flexibility of CARES Act funding being used by HUD has been approved by Secretary Ben Carson, as announced by a HUD press release last Friday. These are Community Development Block Grant (CDBG-CV) funds, which are used across the country to help local communities that are struggling during the coronavirus pandemic. “As communities recover from…
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Trump executive orders will not help workers or stop evictions
President Trump issued executive orders last weekend that he promised would help jobless workers. He made this move, he said, because of the stalemate in Congress over the next coronavirus stimulus package. But these orders are just more false promises from a president who has hurt millions with his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic. One…
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Housing Authorities receive CARES Act funding to help HCV residents
$472 million in CARES Act funding is being used to help Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) residents during the coronavirus pandemic. “This funding will provide additional resources to public housing authorities to make sure people have a decent, safe, and affordable place to call home,” said HUD Secretary Ben Carson in HUD’s press release.…
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HUD to resume REAC inspections after months long pause
HUD announced on Friday that it will resume physical Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) inspections of its multifamily and public housing properties, after they were paused in March due to the coronavirus outbreak. REAC inspections are periodic check-ins of HUD properties that rate the condition of properties on a scale of 1 to 100. Properties…
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Low-income, minority, and immigrant renters hurt by Trump cutting census short
The U.S. Census Bureau will cut short the time for the 2020 Census count by a month, which will leave millions of people uncounted; most of those being low-income, minority, and immigrant households. This cynical move by the Trump administration will short-change states and cities with large minority or immigrant populations for a decade. Ironically,…
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Trump fans race and class tensions as HUD guts key fair housing rule
The Trump administration abruptly terminated a key fair housing regulation last week that required states and cities to reduce historic patterns of housing segregation. This rule change will allow local governments to continue policies that restrict housing choice for low-income and minority renters. The rule being targeted promotes Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH). This requires…
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Report shows that affordable housing is “Out of Reach” everywhere in the country
A new report shows that even before the coronavirus pandemic there is no place in the country where a full-time minimum wage worker can afford a modest apartment. With millions already paying more than half of what they earn for rent, the Out of Reach 2020 annual report by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC)…