National Equity Atlas: “Our rent debt dashboard, produced in partnership with the Right to the City Alliance, equips policymakers and advocates with data on the extent and nature of rent debt in their communities to inform policies to eliminate debt and prevent the looming crisis of mass eviction. Mounting rent debt and the potential for mass… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Housing
The Secret Bias Hidden in Mortgage-Approval Algorithms
The MarkUp: “Nationally, loan applicants of color were 40%–80% more likely to be denied than their White counterparts In certain metro areas, the disparity was greater than 250%… An investigation by The Markup has found that lenders in 2019 were more likely to deny home loans to people of color than to White people with… Continue Reading
How You Can Leverage Census Bureau’s New Building Permit Visualization Tool
Census Bureau: “Building permits are one of the earliest indicators of economic activity. For decades, building permit data has been available online in a very unusable, clunky format. The Census Bureau’s new visualization and extraction tool empowers users to engage this rich, sub county-level source of information about the critical first step in construction –… Continue Reading
Why we should build for wildlife as well as people
BBC Future – “From green roofs to bee bricks and hedgehog drawers, there are plenty of ways to make sterile buildings more accommodating to nature….Part of the problem is that human civilisation, so dependent on built infrastructure, has colonised swathes of land once home to wildlife. While just 1% of the planet’s habitable land is… Continue Reading
Redfin Will Now Tell You How At-Risk Your Dream Home Is to Climate Change
Gizmodo: “It hard enough to buy a home, but the climate crisis is making it even more challenging. Will a prospective house be underwater? Catch on fire? Real estate brokerage firm Redfin is offering a new tool to assess those and other climate risks. Anyone who visits the site will soon be able to see… Continue Reading
Federal housing protections have ended – Learn how to avoid foreclosure and eviction
CFPB: “Some important federal protections put in place to protect homeowners from foreclosure and renters from eviction during the COVID-19 pandemic ended on July 31. If you are having trouble making your rent or mortgage payments, it’s important to take action to prevent foreclosure or eviction. Help for renters – As a renter—or a landlord—you… Continue Reading
Senate Bill Aims to Create National Database of Restrictive Property Covenants
WSJ (paywall – see alternative full text): “A new bill backed by a slate of Senate Democrats would allocate competitive grants to colleges and universities to analyze, digitize and map historic housing discrimination records, creating the first national database of its kind. The focus of the effort is to research covenants attached to housing deeds,… Continue Reading
New Eviction Laws Database Reveals Striking Differences in Eviction Processes Around the Country
“The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) launched the LSC Eviction Laws Database today, a new online tool that will aid users in better understanding the significant variation in eviction laws across the country and the effect these differences have on eviction outcomes. LSC produced the database in partnership with the Center for Public Health Law Research at Temple University’s Beasley School… Continue Reading
Join NYT Today for Netting Zero Virtual Event Series on Climate Change
“Each episode of Netting Zero brings together New York Times journalists with climate experts from business, policy, government, and civil society. Join us on July 1 to discuss our built environment – The New York Times Thursday, July 11:30 p.m. E.T. | 10:30 a.m. P.T. | 6:30 p.m. B.S.T. In the past year, as cities… Continue Reading
The State of the Nation’s Housing 2020
Joint Center for Housing Studies Harvard University, The State of the Nation’s Housing 2020: “For most of 2020, the country has been beset by the COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest sparked by longstanding racial injustice, and the devastating impacts of climate change. Although low interest rates and continued growth in some sectors have bolstered homebuying and… Continue Reading
Where Millennials Are Moving – 2021 Edition
Smart Asset: “Young professionals have long looked to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and other bustling cities as places of opportunity. But in the last few years, migration patterns have shifted to show that a smaller share of Americans are moving to these cities. And after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, another study also… Continue Reading
Google Maps can be used to help people experiencing homelessness
Tech Crunch Video – “Mashable’s Siobhan Neela-Stock talks to Google Maps innovator Ashley Sundquist about how to connect unhoused people in your city with resources. You can read more about how Sundquist thought of using Google Maps in this way here.” Continue Reading
