Affordable Housing

Six Reasons Why Housing Is a Human Right
Is housing a human right? A law professor shares six reasons why it should be, from its role in protecting other rights to global recognition and U.S. legal traditions. As public support grows, could housing be the next right written into law?

Museum of Public Housing Opens in Chicago
The museum highlights the history of public housing in the United States using displays intimately woven with family artifacts.

HUD Ordered to Release Grant Funds After Anti-DEI Clawback
A federal judge ruled in favor of fair housing groups after the Trump administration tried to rescind housing grants.

San Diego School District Approves Affordable Housing Plan
The district plans to build workforce housing for 10 percent of its employees in the next decade and explore other ways to contribute to housing development.

Lawsuit Aims to Stop NYC’s ‘City of Yes’ Zoning Reforms
A lawsuit brought by local lawmakers and community groups claims the plan failed to conduct a comprehensive environmental review.

Affordable Housing Renovations Halt Mid-Air Amidst DOGE Clawbacks
HUD may rescind over a billion dollars earmarked for green building upgrades.

New Jersey Affordable Housing Law Turns 50
The Mount Laurel Doctrine tasks each city and town with creating enough affordable housing to meet their needs, but half a century after its passage, the law still faces opposition in some parts of the state.

Manufactured Crisis: Losing the Nation’s Largest Source of Unsubsidized Affordable Housing
Manufactured housing communities have long been an affordable housing option for millions of people living in the U.S., but that affordability is disappearing rapidly. How did we get here?

Preserving Houston’s ‘Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing’
Unsubsidized, low-cost rental housing is a significant source of affordable housing for Houston households, but the supply is declining as units fall into disrepair or are redeveloped into more expensive units.

Louisville Launches ‘Anti-Displacement Tool’
After a years-long, tenant-led effort, Louisville will use a new tool to analyze whether a proposed housing development can meet a neighborhood’s housing needs and income levels. If it doesn’t, the city won’t subsidize it.

The YIGBY Movement: Unlocking Church-Owned Land for Affordable Housing
As the housing crisis deepens, interest in faith-based development is spreading across the country. How do YIGBY zoning laws work, where are they being implemented or introduced, and what could it mean for communities and churches?

What Makes Rent ‘Fair’
Should monthly charges be pegged to the cost of financing, developing, and operating housing, or to household income? Or are there other ways to design how rent is calculated?

HUD Announces Plan to Build Housing on Public Lands
The agency will identify federally owned parcels appropriate for housing development and streamline the regulatory process to lease or transfer land to housing authorities and nonprofit developers.

Low-Income Columbus Households Struggle to Find Housing
The Ohio city has a more severe affordable housing crisis than more traditionally expensive cities like New York and San Francisco.

SXSW Panel Addresses Housing Affordability for Artists
Musicians are increasingly hard-pressed to find affordable housing in Austin, a city known for its music scene.

Planning Trends for 2025: Creative Housing Solutions, Ongoing Transit Woes, and the Ever-Creeping Tentacles of AI
Urban planners have no shortage of urgent issues to delve into, from a deepening housing crisis to an increasingly unpredictable climate to a new federal administration bent on slashing key funding for everything from electric cars to housing assistance.

How Single-Family Conversions Benefit Both Homeowners and Cities
Converting single-family homes to triplexes can ease the housing crisis and offer affordable, flexible options for more households. Why is it largely illegal?

February Must-Reads: Top 10 Articles From Last Month
Federal policy changes send shock waves through agencies at all levels of government as we continue to monitor the effects of the new administration’s slash-and-burn approach to government.

What Trump’s Executive Orders Mean for US Housing Programs
Orders related to DEI and accessibility, among others, may threaten housing programs for those who need them most.

Beltline Surpasses Annual Affordable Housing Goal
The Atlanta Beltline agency is actively working to prevent the displacement of longtime residents along the trail system, where property values are rising rapidly.
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