Ed Gainey Wins Democratic Nomination for Pittsburgh Mayor The state representative will almost certainly be the city’s first Black mayor, and his victory follows a year of nationwide social upheaval over police and racial justice issues. Joshua Vaughn
How Demands for Affordable Housing Are Defining Pittsburgh’s Mayoral Race A disproportionate number of Black residents have left the city, and advocates say the next mayor needs to ensure greater access to housing. Joshua Vaughn
San Antonio Activists ‘Cannot in Good Faith’ Support This Year’s Mayoral Candidates Local activists have soured on incumbent Mayor Ron Nirenberg, and no other candidate offers a compelling alternative. Jerry Iannelli
What New York City’s Next Mayor Can Do to Solve the Homelessness Crisis Creating a commission and a new deputy mayor of housing will give directly impacted people a much-needed voice in government—and help ensure a right to housing for all. Shams DaBaron
San Antonio’s Response to Homelessness Is Broken. It’s Time to Put Housing First Shelters are not meeting people’s needs, and the city is clearing encampments, says City Councilmember Roberto Treviño. Roberto Treviño
The Major Real Estate Donors Influencing the St. Louis Mayoral Race Days before the election, campaign finance reports show that real-estate and construction industries favor Cara Spencer over Tishaura Jones. Jerry Iannelli
These Progressive Candidates Could Flip The Balance Of Power In St. Louis City Government Four first-time candidates could grant progressives a majority on the Board of Alders and transform public safety and housing policy. Eoin Higgins
Federal Funding Charts the Path for Local Eviction Right-To-Counsel Efforts To all of the state lawmakers wondering how to fund legal representation for tenants facing evictions: follow the federal COVID-19 relief packages. John Pollock
How Teri Castillo Plans to Protect San Antonio From ‘Salivating’ Housing Developers The housing advocate’s run for city council could be a Texan litmus test for the broad appeal of policies popular with working class voters. Eoin Higgins
Tishaura Jones and Cara Spencer Win St. Louis Mayoral Primary The two candidates will move on to the April 6 general election after securing the most votes under the city’s new approval voting system. Meg O'Connor
Washington State’s Most Populous County Curbed Covid-19 Among The Homeless By Moving Them To Hotels. But One Local Government Fought Back. Seattle suburb Renton is battling an emergency homeless shelter through its zoning code. Rachel M. Cohen
New York City Mayoral Candidates Blast de Blasio’s Housing Record In a forum with people experiencing homelessness, Democratic candidates criticized the mayor’s affordable housing plans, embraced a ‘right to housing,’ and rejected police intervention on homelessness calls. Chris Gelardi
Eviction Bans Saved Lives During The Pandemic, New Research Says Policies that helped keep people in their homes—and keep the utilities on—reduced COVID-19 deaths and infections. Joshua Vaughn
Carroll Fife’s Fight For Unhoused Mothers Sparked A Movement Across The Country. Now She’s On The Oakland City Council Ready To Transform The City. Fife has pledged to reinvest in the local community, aggressively combat the housing crisis, address income inequality, education, healthcare and more. Eoin Higgins
Esther Agbaje, Fighting For Affordable Housing And Prison Reform, Becomes Minnesota’s First Nigerian-American Legislator “I have always had a focus on public service, always a desire to make sure that I’m using my skills and talents to help people and to make the community around me a little bit better,” she said. Dawn R. Wolfe
Athena Hollins Wins Seat In Minnesota State House, Pledging To Fight For Broad Police Reforms Hollins’s ‘very personal’ decision to run was sparked in part by the Trump administration ‘catching everything on fire.’ Now she wants to advocate for subsidized child care, police reform, and more. Dawn R. Wolfe
Omar Fateh Wins Chance to Bring ‘People Power’ to Minnesota’s State Senate Minnesotans, Fateh said, “should be able to access the folks that are representing us and make sure that they’re partnering with the community.” Dawn R. Wolfe
Sara Innamorato Is Fighting to Reduce the Harms of COVID-19’s Economic Crush The state representative wants to bar landlords in Pennsylvania from reporting missed or late rent payments to credit agencies. Joshua Vaughn
Carroll Fife Is Fighting To Make Oakland Safer And More Equitable For Everyone In her run for City Council, Fife pushes back on the institutional barriers to Black people that come from a history of oppression. Eoin Higgins
The Role of Police in Gentrification A lawsuit alleges Breonna Taylor died because Louisville was trying to arrest its way toward economic redevelopment. Research shows this is common. Brenden Beck
Santa Cruz County Grand Jury Homelessness Report Calls for Defunding of Police A June report from the county’s independent judicial arm urges local government to reallocate law enforcement resources to social services. Ella Fassler
Maricopa County Moved Homeless People to Sweltering Parking Lots in Response to COVID-19 Hundreds were forced from an encampment to fenced-in, asphalt parking lots with no shade in Phoenix’s triple-digit summer heat. At least three people have died. Meg O'Connor
New York City’s Public Housing Rules Could Force Many Released Prisoners Into Homelessness As thousands of people are freed from local jails, a group of nonprofits and activist organizations says the city's housing authority must revamp its policies that banish the formerly incarcerated. Jerry Iannelli
Defund The Police – And Abolish Laws Used To Target Vulnerable People Making our communities safe requires not only the defunding of police departments, but also dismantling discriminatory laws that target survival activities such as sleeping, sitting, lying down, and eating in public space. Molly Beckhardt, Paul Boden, Erin Goodling
West Virginia Cities Use Evictions To Combat The Opioid Epidemic The ‘drug house’ ordinances that force landlords to kick out tenants are mostly compounding the overdose crisis, critics say. Leora Smith
Housing Is A Human Right. It Should Not Be Predicated On The Money In One’s Pocket. There are certain universal human needs that any governing structure — from local to federal — is responsible for. Among these are housing, healthcare, education, public parks, clean water, and clean air — the things that make life beautiful. These needs touch every single living being and as such, are non-negotiable. They do not belong on the open market. Molly Beckhardt, Paul Boden, June LS
Working-Class Tenants Are Seizing Vacant State-Owned Property in LA On the intersection of two public health crises: housing and COVID-19. Jonny Coleman
Tenants in Oakland Are Going on a Rent Strike Tomorrow Residents have been told to stay in their homes to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus—but little has been done to ensure they can afford to stay there, activists say. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
As Coronavirus Spreads, the Crisis LA’s Homeless Community Is Facing Has Been Decades in the Making It should not take a global pandemic for our elected officials to acknowledge that we are all safer if everyone can shower and wash their hands. Sabrina Johnson
As the Coronavirus Pandemic Continues, Homeless Communities Are Particularly Vulnerable How California, which is home to more than half of the country’s unsheltered homeless population, is addressing the needs of the unhoused. Kira Lerner
Ayanna Pressley’s Husband Spent 10 Years in Prison. Now He and Pressley Are Fighting for Re-Entry Reform The U.S. representative said her husband helped her realize that when one person is incarcerated, many more are affected. Kira Lerner
