What happens when housing for the poor is remodeled as luxury studios, By Emily Badger, November 12, 2014, Washington Post: “For years, this brown-brick building near Wrigley Field housed people who had nowhere else to go. It had peeling walls and broken smoke detectors. But its tiny one-room apartments offered homes to residents too poor for a one-bedroom, too risky to pass a credit check, too vulnerable — on the perpetual edge of homelessness — to sign a one-year lease. Today, from the outside, the building looks the same: six stories, with tall windows and an elaborately carved entryway that still announces the property by its pre-World War II name, the ‘Hotel Carlos.’ But it now contains studios remodeled with stainless steel appliances, granite countertops and hardwood floors. Rent reaches $1,125 a month. The ad in the window promises ‘vintage charm.’…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty