- Millions of poor families could benefit from housing aid Trump wants to cut, By Tracy Jan, August 10, 2017, Washington Post: “The number of poor families struggling to pay their monthly rents or living in deplorable accommodations has grown 41 percent since the beginning of the Great Recession a decade ago, despite a stronger national economy, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. More than 8.3 million very low-income households in 2015 qualified for, but did not receive, federal housing assistance because there is not enough to go around, according to the agency’s latest biennial assessment of ‘worst case housing needs.’ That approaches the record high of 8.5 million in 2011 after historic increases during the mortgage foreclosure crisis…”
- More than half of L.A.’s 1 million poor households live in unaffordable or substandard rentals, study says, By Gale Holland, August 10, 2017, Los Angeles Times: “Los Angeles and New York City top the list of U.S. cities with the most poor people laboring under heavy rent burdens, living in substandard housing, or both, according to a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Affairs study released Wednesday. More than half of Los Angeles’ 1 million very poor households, or 567,000, spent more than half their income on rent or resorted to undesirable housing in 2015, the study said…”
- More Boston neighborhoods seeing affordable housing units, By Tim Logan, August 8, 2017, Boston Globe: “Boston’s building boom is bringing more affordable housing to some of its most affluent neighborhoods. A city program requiring developers to include low-cost apartments in or near their buildings has created more than 400 units of affordable housing in the Seaport and in South Boston since 2000, according to new figures released by the city this week. Nearly 430 more have come in the South End and several neighborhoods in downtown Boston…”
Tag: Low-income housing
Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program
Housing program worth billions lacks ‘basic accountability,’ says GAO, By Laura Sullivan, August 1, 2017, National Public Radio: “An $8 billion federal program to build housing for the poor is so lacking oversight that virtually no one in government knows how it is working, a government auditor testified before Congress today…”
Affordable Housing – Buffalo, NY
The other side of Buffalo’s rental boom? Not enough low-income apartments, By Susan Schulman, June 19, 2017, Buffalo News: “When a nonprofit housing agency recently built a low-income apartment complex on Jefferson Avenue, the 30 apartments were rented – sight unseen – before the building was completed. ‘They were rented up before I could show an apartment, before there was a certificate of occupancy,’ said Michael Riegel, president of Belmont Shelter, the city’s premier low-income housing assistance agency. That was the first time in his 30 years in the nonprofit housing business that he’s experienced such a demand, Riegel said…”