Community organizers speak in a vacant house in West Oakland, Calif., that they occupied in 2019 and 2020 to bring attention to affordable housing.
Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images
‘Informal evictions’ in which landlords harass or pressure tenants out of their homes continued during the the pandemic and may have even seen an increase.
A child walks along a road in Mathare informal settlement.
Alissa Everett/Getty Images
Understanding the experiences of van dwellers is important not just for those looking to cut their ties to rents and mortgages, but also for community planners and employers.
The Albert Street public housing in North Melbourne.
David Crosling/AAP
Ghettos of crime, drugs and vice? Full of people bludging off the state? That’s typical of the unfair stigma attached to public housing, and it distracts us from more fundamental issues.
Americans without bank accounts may have delays in financial aid.
AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews
Current measures prohibiting the eviction of tenants and helping them through the financial crisis won’t last forever. A 40-year-old voucher program might be a longer term solution.
A pedestrian walks past graffiti in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
COVID-19 has brought about unprecedented unemployment and financial insecurity, but it’s not the first time people have faced challenges fulfilling some of their most basic needs.
Rent strikers from Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood and fellow protesters gather outside Social Justices Tribunal Ontario in February, 2018. The group refused to pay rent after the landlord applied for an increase in rents.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
The Earned Income Tax Credit was established in 1975 to reduce payroll taxes and help with rising prices for low-income families. Today, it could help poor families with housing.
New York has become a ‘city for the rich’ in recent decades, a shift in its real estate market that impacts policy-making, too.
Alessandro Colle / Shutterstock
New York City’s municipal budget relies heavily on the property taxes of extremely high-value real estate. That drives gentrification and distorts local policy in other ways that hurt residents.
Not all landlords see their properties purely as investments. As welfare reforms take hold, some are starting to take greater responsibility for the well-being of their tenants.
Eleven percent of Americans spend more than half of their paycheck on housing. These households rate their health as lower and are less likely to have access to enough nutritious food.