News & Commentary
10/30/24
Harvard Law Reports on Renters Right to Counsel
A new Harvard Law Review report by a Kentucky state senator offers strong background on why America's ongoing "renters right to council" is gaining ground.
Cassie Chambers Armstrong, an assistant professor of law at the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law and a former member of Louisville's Metro Council, begins by noting that "Before 2017, no jurisdiction had a home renters’ right-to-counsel law. Yet, a mere five years later, three states and fifteen cities afforded renters facing eviction the right to legal representation. This policy intervention, which began in New York, has quickly and decisively swept across America."
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10/27/24
Socioeconomic divisions include homeownership
Cal Matters, the California non-profit journalism website, published reporting from Dan Walters that the Golden State has the second-lowest percentage of residents living in homes that they (or their families) own at 55.5 percent. No surprise, New York was the lowest at one percent less than California.
Walters, widely considered a dean of California political columnists, observes that "... those owners are sitting on immense equity, roughly $2 trillion, thanks to the state’s highest-in-the-nation home prices." His point is that one of California's many socioeconomic divisions is homeownership, and the trend continues as that "immense equity" is passed on to the next generation.
Latest Episodes
Housing: A National Priority You Can Help Fix Locally
Host Orion Breen introduces the Yes To Housing podcast concept from both the national and local perspectives. Find out how anyone can show up at a local town meeting and make a difference when it comes to housing. Guests include Todd Morse, founder of the Urbanist Coalition of Portland, Maine www.urbanistportland.me and Sonja Trauss, California YIMBY Movement Founder. It is regular people moving from caring about housing and complaining about housing to actually doing something about it, that is really moving the needle. Thank you to the MEREDA Matters podcast and to GPCOG for access to their housing summit audio.
Local Zoning's Role In The Housing Shortage and Systemic Racism
With a history of segregated housing zones and antiquated thinking, zoning restrictions are one of the biggest problems when it comes to increasing inclusive, affordable housing. Orion speaks with Pedro Vazquez of the South Portland Human Rights Commission and Jeff Levine of MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning about the housing crisis and systemic racism. And Victoria Morales of the Quality Housing Coalition speaks in favor of housing at town meetings.
Yes To Housing
Yes To Housing (Y2H) is not only a podcast, it’s also a resource and community for those who want to join the movement of saying “YES TO HOUSING!” From Maine to California, young people can’t afford a down payment on the American Dream, families are being discriminated against, employers can’t attract and retain employees when “missing middle” workforce housing is nowhere to be found.
On the national stage, including during presidential debates, the housing crisis is front and center. Y2H will connect the local to the national and the policy to the people, with the hope of inspiring thoughtful and effective action to improve the quality of life for our communities and our neighbors by increasing inclusive, affordable housing stock.
While national leadership may offer some welcomed (or not) tools, housing is very much a state-by-state, community-by-community, even home-by-home endeavor. There's a reason back yards are literally part of the conversation (think ADUs).
Welcome to Yes To Housing. We are just getting started, but for those of us obsessed with housing both as human sanctuary and as part of the American Dream, maybe together we can build a home – or many homes!