Housing

Housing is a critical area of focus for local and state government agencies, addressing the need for affordable, safe, and accessible living conditions for all residents. Governments are tasked with developing policies and programs that support housing development, zoning, and homelessness prevention. This directory offers articles on housing and related topics like planning, which examines the design and regulation of the physical spaces in which communities live and work, ensuring sustainable and equitable growth.

The goal of the operation is to identify buildings at risk of collapse and prevent firefighters from going inside
Nearly 9% of all homebuyer assistance programs currently available benefit firefighters and other first responders
Ithaca, New York, would be the first city in the U.S. to institute a rent forgiveness program for residents impacted by COVID-19
To be truly effective, not to mention cost-effective, a prevention program would have to be able to identify that one person who will become homeless with reasonable accuracy. Researchers at UCLA’s California Policy Lab and the University of Chicago Poverty Lab are working to make this possible.
To survive the next inevitable flood, Winslow, Nebraska, residents must raise their homes, leave or restart the town at a site a few miles away and 100 feet higher with government financial help. Town leaders are pushing for the latter.
The former San Antonio mayor’s campaign has emphasized reaching out to marginalized and overlooked communities, such as homeless people and people of color.
For Houston families who have endured floods, it’s hard to sustain traditions around furniture that isn’t there anymore or build traditions when there’s no guarantee your home will stay the way it is.
“We know we’ve been through a lot in 2019. People are just beginning to unpack it; I’m just unpacking it,” said Mayor Nan Whaley. "[But] to see Dayton be kind and proud of itself through such terrible, painful, hateful acts has been really beautiful at the same time.”
Police yellow tape and makeshift memorials with flowers, stuffed animals and balloons have become common in some neighborhoods of this deeply segregated city.
State Farm, the largest in the state, Allstate and other insurers declined to renew roughly 350,000 policies in areas at high risk for wildfires since 2015, the California Department of Insurance said back in August.
Saturday’s fire was possibly the deadliest in the Las Vegas area since 1980, when 87 people died and more than 700 were injured in a fire at the MGM Grand Hotel.
“The net result, in my opinion,” said Howard Belodoff, the Idaho Legal Aid attorney who represented the Boise homeless residents in the case, “is that local officials and municipalities will have to address the issues surrounding homelessness, and not just make it a crime to sleep.”
Through this series of personal portraits and interviews, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has created a window into the lives of America’s most vulnerable populations.
While it’s more expensive to live in Seattle, San Francisco and other cities known for a housing crisis and homelessness, Phoenix rents are outpacing salaries.
The council’s quick action was a victory for KC Tenants, which formed earlier this year and assembled tenant leaders from across the city. But the group lost a key battle: protections for low-income tenants who pay rent using housing vouchers.
Detroit’s recent resurgence has led to refurbished downtown buildings, new boutique hotels and an invigorated arts community. But the renaissance has done little for some residents who live in persistent poverty and harbor lingering mistrust after decades of racial upheaval.
Greta Johnson, chief of staff for Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro, said the program will not only benefit 80 people with disabilities, but also their families and communities.
A Georgia pastor wants to use a vacant building that previously housed a residential drug treatment program for teenagers to house up to 50 unaccompanied migrant children. Residents, however, are pushing back.
Many of Fresno’s poorest neighborhoods rank highest for a wide range of health risks, a fact public health experts say is no accident