California housing crisis: Working but on the brink of homelessness, By Kirk Siegler and Linda Wang, April 16, 2018, National Public Radio: “Family photos, Bible verse decals and wedding mementos adorn Jimmy Mejia and Patty Garrido’s living room walls in South Los Angeles. Despite their efforts, the decorations can’t mask the unpatched holes in the ceiling and the roaches that crawl around their kitchen. In one corner, there’s a hole where the drywall caved in after a recent storm…”
Tag: Renters
Eviction in US Cities
In 83 million eviction records, a sweeping and intimate new look at housing in America, By Emily Badger and Quoctrung Bui, April 7, 2018, New York Times: “Before the first hearings on the morning docket, the line starts to clog the lobby of the John Marshall Courthouse. No cellphones are allowed inside, but many of the people who’ve been summoned don’t learn that until they arrive. “Put it in your car,” the sheriff’s deputies suggest at the metal detector. That advice is no help to renters who have come by bus. To make it inside, some tuck their phones in the bushes nearby. This courthouse handles every eviction in Richmond, a city with one of the highest eviction rates in the country, according to new data covering dozens of states and compiled by a team led by the Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond…”
Housing Discrimination – Rhode Island
R.I. bill seeks to end Section 8 stigma, By Christine Dunn, March 19, 2018, Providence Journal: “The federal Housing Choice Voucher program was created during the Reagan administration to give low-income tenants a way to find housing of their own choosing in the private market, instead of being limited to Section 8-financed projects. But in Rhode Island, that intended choice and mobility are often pre-empted by landlords who say: ‘No Section 8…’”