Affordable Housing

Why New Affordable Housing Draws the Short Straw in Los Angeles
Cecilia Estolano, former Executive Director of Los Angeles’s Community Redevelopment Agency, diagnoses why the region has been unable to provide housing for working-class citizens.

London Housing Prices Drive 30-Year-Olds Out of the City
Study finds 30-somethings in London leaving the city in increasing numbers.

Rent Control Gains Support in Oregon
A recent poll has found growing support for a repeal of the statewide ban on rent control in Oregon.

Op-Ed: Parking Concerns Can't Outweigh Affordable Housing
Recent development controversies in New York City inspired one writer to set some priorities.

Denver to Offer New Transit Oriented Height Bonuses for Affordable Housing
The city of Denver is going all in for incentive zoning to ensure affordable housing is included among new developments in the neighborhood around the new 38th and Blake transit station.
California Transit Agencies Bring Affordable Housing to Scale
From developer incentives to swapping parking for housing units, two transit systems have come up with plans that tackle the region's housing shortage and its economic inequality. What have they agreed to do, and who will hold them accountable?
Modular Housing for Homeless in San Francisco Hits Roadblocks
Lego-type housing construction has attracted the attention of two separate developers as an efficient means to provide housing for the city's large homeless population but has met objections from labor unions and the Mayor's Office.

Aspen's Workforce Housing Buckling Under Weight of Aging Population
As residents of Aspen, Colorado's limited supply of workforce housing begin to retire, they're staying put, creating a new affordable housing crunch for younger workers.

Denver Approves First-Ever Affordable Housing Fund
The Denver City Council approved a hard-fought, $150 million affordable housing fund this week.

Why California's By-Right Affordable Housing Proposal Died
California's average home prices are 2.5 times the national average and rising, so why is it so hard to build a political coalition to build more housing, and especially more affordable housing?

Four Ways L.A. Metro Is Increasing Affordable Housing
A median-income family in the L.A. metro area spends 73 percent of their income on housing and transportation alone. L.A. Metro explains why and how they're taking huge steps to get affordable housing on land they own—where it will do the most good.

Brooklyn Housing Supply Begins to Match Demand
About 6,500 apartments in 19 towers within 10 square blocks on Flatbush Avenue are expected to be available within two years, but don't expect rents to plunge. Renters should look for perks like one or more months of free rent.

Affordable Housing and the 2016 Election
The cost of housing affects millions across the country, but the issue has been conspicuously absent in the campaigns. Hillary Clinton's plan includes an imprecise remedy, while Donald Trump's pronouncements have been vaguer still.

California's $400 Million for By-Right Affordable Housing Dies in the Legislature
An affordable housing proposal proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown failed to marshal the necessary support in the State Legislature, facing opposition from a coalition of labor and environmental groups, as well as the League of California Cities.

Homelessness Is Falling Despite Worsening Conditions. Why?
In 2015, compared to 2009, the nation had more people and lower incomes, but higher rents. All things being equal, the number of people who are homeless should have gone up. But it did not. It went down. What changed, and what's next?
As Affordability Worsens, State and Local Governments Act on their Own
New data points to the continued worsening of rental housing affordability. Due to a lack of federal response, some state and municipal governments are taking matters into their own hands in an attempt to add to their supply of affordable housing.
Gentrification Concerns Sink Inclusionary Housing Development Proposal in Manhattan
Several publications were reporting the expected defeat of a proposed development project in Manhattan this week. The 15-story project was the first private application of the city's new Mandatory Inclusionary Housing policy.
Could an Anti-Homelessness Program Stabilize Affordable Housing?
Periodically in the affordable housing world, a few of us acknowledge that the vast majority of low-income people live in unsubsidized rentals in one- to four-unit buildings, and we wonder how to preserve and improve those units. Here is a way.
In 2016, Legal Battle Lines Are Drawn in the Back Yard
The legal, and social, challenges to building more second units in Los Angeles.

Neighborhoods Push for Benefits in New York Zoning Plan
The Brooklyn neighborhood of Gowanus was recently added to Mayor de Blasio’s sweeping zoning reform plan. But Gowanus also has plans of its own.
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EMC Planning Group, Inc.
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Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service