Housing shortage
Rising Construction Costs Stall Affordable Housing Projects
To start building an 80-unit affordable housing project in Texas, real estate developer MVAH Partners must find a way to fill a million financing gap due to the rising cost of construction. MVAH Partners received federal tax credits in February of last year to build the apartments. Since then, however, building material and labor costs […]
Small Towns Drew Most New Pandemic Residents
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the number of people who moved out of Manhattan during the first year of the pandemic. Bend, Oregon, is in the middle of nowhere—two and a half hours from Eugene over a mountain pass that can be treacherous even in springtime. And that’s what people like […]
Homeless Camping Bans Are Spreading. This Group Shaped the Bills.
Georgia state Sen. Carden Summers said he drove around Atlanta before presenting a bill earlier this year that would ban homeless encampments and cut state funding from cities that refuse to enforce the ban. “I made it a point to ride around almost every night and take 30 minutes and just drive a different route […]
As Rents Soar, States Take Aim at Local Zoning Rules
Caitlyn Mann, 29, moved to the Phoenix metro area from Boston in January 2021 after taking a job as a Maricopa County court clerk. She found a studio apartment downtown and signed a 14-month lease for $1,295 a month. In January, when she tried to renew her contract, the landlord said her rent would be […]
Here’s One Way States Are Boosting Affordable Housing
Brian Swanton is the president of Gorman & Company, a development firm that builds and manages low-income housing nationwide, including some 2,000 affordable housing units in Arizona, where he is based. The demand for such apartments greatly exceeds the supply. Every year, Swanton said, managers of his properties turn away thousands of families who want […]
Most Emergency Rental Aid Went to Low-Income Households Last Year
Low-income Americans received more than 80% of federal emergency rental assistance money distributed last year, according to data released this week by the U.S. Treasury Department. Some 2.47 million households received .6 billion in Emergency Rental Assistance program assistance in 2021, the data shows. Nearly 64% of the aid went to households earning 30% or […]
Texas Claws Back Some Rent Relief Aid, Prompting Evictions
HOUSTON — More than 300,000 Texans were helped during the pandemic by the state’s .9 billion rental relief program. Even though it had a slow start, the Texas Rent Relief Program was one of the top performing programs in the country when it ran out of money and stopped taking applications in November, according to […]
Evictions Rise to Pre-Pandemic Levels
Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct a statement from Diane Yentel warning of a rise in evictions. Read Stateline coverage of the inequities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. SPRING, Texas — Dionna Jackson, 40, sat on a long wooden bench nervously scrolling through old text messages on her phone while waiting for her eviction case […]
This City Has a New Way to Fight Homelessness With COVID Aid
Read Stateline coverage of the inequities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. DALLAS — In March 2020, when the pandemic first hit, Raharish Velu was living on the streets of downtown Dallas. “They rounded us all up and took us to hotels,” Velu said of city officials and case workers. “We were all tested, and I […]