Los Angeles County Homeless Residents Say Sheriff’s Department Is Targeting Them Francisco Aviles Pino
The Movement to Guarantee Legal Help for Struggling Renters Is ‘Taking Root’ in Connecticut Bryce Covert
Maryland Could Be the First State to Provide Lawyers for Tenants Facing Eviction Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
New York City Considers A Bold Idea To Keep People From Being Pushed Out Of Their Homes Abigail Savitch-Lew
Anchorage’s Anti-Homeless Movement May Elect the City’s Next Mayor One of the leading candidates for Anchorage’s mayoral race is backed by a far-right Facebook group tied to the U.S. Capitol riot. Jerry Iannelli
How Tenants’ Right to Counsel Can End Inequality in the Eviction System—and Save Lives Ensuring renters have representation in housing court would help close a “justice gap” and be a life-saving intervention for those at risk of losing their homes. Emily Benfer
The Housing Justice Group Fighting to Put Power Back in Tenant Hands KC Tenants has secured passage of a tenant "bill of rights" and successfully blocked hundreds of evictions through civil action in the Kansas City, Missouri area. Bryce Covert
The Future of Housing in St. Louis Hinges on the Mayoral Race Whether the city will do more to keep people in their homes or simply do more of the same depends on who voters elect as the next mayor. Meg O'Connor
Most Tenants Facing Eviction Don’t Have a Right to an Attorney. Lawmakers Want to Change That Numerous city councils and state legislatures are debating giving renters a right to counsel, which can make the difference between stability and catastrophe. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
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
Austin To Buy Second Hotel That Will Become Permanent Supportive Housing The city will use funds diverted from its police budget to set up wraparound services for the people who will live at the hotel. Meg O'Connor
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
Austin Will Use Money Cut From Police Budget To Establish Supportive Housing The City Council voted to buy one hotel and use funds diverted from its police budget to set up wraparound services for the homeless people who will live there. Meg O'Connor
Austin May Use Money Cut From Police Budget To Establish Permanent Supportive Housing The City Council will decide whether to buy two hotels and use funds diverted from its police budget to set up wraparound services for the homeless people who will live there. Meg O'Connor
A Judge Suspended Evictions in Kansas City. Advocates Say That’s Not Enough The order halts evictions in the city and surrounding area until Jan. 24, but a housing rights group says greater protections are needed for the most vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic. Joshua Vaughn
Cities Are Pressuring Landlords to Evict People Under ‘Crime-Free’ Housing Laws In Granite City, Illinois, landlords have been penalized for refusing to evict tenants who have criminal records or are simply living with someone who does. Cinnamon Janzer
The Pandemic Hasn’t Stopped Landlords From Evicting Tenants—And It’s About To Get Much Worse Landlords have continued forcing renters out of their homes, despite a patchwork of protections from federal and local governments. Now, with the CDC moratorium set to expire on Dec. 31, millions of Americans could be evicted. Meg O'Connor
The Coming Wave of Evictions Will Significantly Worsen America’s COVID-19 Crisis The CDC must immediately extend its emergency eviction moratorium to give the Biden administration and Congress time to provide additional emergency rental assistance. Emily Benfer, Gregg Gonsalves, Danya Keene
Why Los Angeles Activists Don’t Want Their Mayor In Biden’s Cabinet Eric Garcetti, who may be considered for a position in the administration, is out of touch with the city’s working class and poor people, activists say. And they fear he’ll bring that sensibility to national politics. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
Against CDC Guidance, Denver Displaces Hundreds Of Homeless People Amid COVID-19 Spike Cities across the country have continued to displace and criminalize homelessness during the pandemic, though the CDC cautions clearing encampments can heighten the potential for the spread of COVID-19. Meg O'Connor
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Is Fresh Off His Book Tour, But Activists Say He Doesn’t Live Up to His National Reputation Progressive lawmakers and activists say Cuomo has failed to adequately protect those who are out of work, at risk of losing their homes, or living behind bars, where the virus has spread rapidly. Tara Francis Chan, Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
A Clash of Housing Philosophies Is At The Heart of a High-Profile California State Senate Race First-time state Senate candidate Jackie Fielder’s housing plans are geared toward government investment, while incumbent Scott Wiener’s plans have relied on the construction of market rate housing with some affordable units. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
In California Rent Control Battle, Controversies Swirl Around Funders on Both Sides Corporate backers of a group opposed to Proposition 21 don’t match the protective image it portrays. And a nonprofit that has contributed to supporters has been accused of financial improprieties. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
How Julie Oliver’s Personal Experiences With Healthcare And Housing Have Influenced Her Run For Congress ‘Our Congress should be reflective of the people here, and it’s not,’ the Texas resident said. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
How Organizers Are Defending Against Evictions Amid a Pandemic Tenants rights groups in Brooklyn, Kansas City, New Orleans, and elsewhere are using physical blockades and direct action to keep people in their homes. Bryce Covert
Tenant Organizers Are Running To Keep New Yorkers In Their Homes After defeating long-time incumbents in Democratic primaries, progressive candidates are championing cancelling rent and banning evictions. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
California Needs A Community-Based Response To People In Crisis, Not Law Enforcement Governor Newsom should sign the CRISES Act into law this week and invest in community partners who support people in crisis situations. Asantewaa Boykin
Philadelphia Housing Advocates Declare Victory After Monthslong Battle With City The city will give advocates 50 vacant homes to be used for permanent housing for low-income residents, according to a tentative agreement. Joshua Vaughn
The Trump Administration Is Pushing To Make It Harder For Trans People To Seek Shelter During The Pandemic The Trump administration mishandled COVID-19, creating conditions that left transgender people even more vulnerable to housing instability than before. Now it’s pushing for a rule change that would allow homeless shelters to discriminate against trans people. Gillian Branstetter, Sarah Saadian
The Mississippi Program That’s Showing How Effective Direct Cash Transfers Can Be Researchers say that programs like the Magnolia Mother’s Trust, which gives Black women $1,000 a month, could be crucial in reducing the racial wealth gap. Lauren Gill
The Struggle Against A Stadium’s Construction Became A Battle for the Soul Of Los Angeles Sports venues like the new SoFi Stadium have been crushing poor communities around the country for over a century. Jonny Coleman
Cities Must Stop Homeless Sweeps And Instead Provide People With Concrete Opportunities For Housing In order to get real about addressing homelessness in America, we need to get real about how we have demonized, dehumanized, and criminalized the presence of unhoused people in our local community. Paul Boden, Molly Beckhardt, Erin Goodling
Corporate Landlords Have Gotten Government Aid. Tenants Haven’t. Some corporate landlords who received federal PPP loans are notorious for mistreating tenants. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
Philadelphia Housing Authority Is Failing at Its Mission, Advocates Say Although the agency has vacant properties, public housing has been out of reach for nearly a decade for many who need it. Joshua Vaughn
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
As Eviction Cliff Looms, Calls To Cancel Rent Grow Housing rights activists in California are pushing for taxation of rich residents to help the hundreds of thousands of people who may be at risk of losing housing after COVID-19 eviction restrictions end. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
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
10 Ways To Reduce Our Reliance On Policing And Make Our Communities Safer For Everyone Police should no longer occupy all of our vital support systems in our communities. Alex S. Vitale
People Are About To Be Pushed Into Homelessness On A Large Scale. Hotels Are Key To Keeping Them Off The Streets. Tens of thousands of people in Los Angeles County are at high risk for becoming homeless after the temporary halt on evictions is lifted—one of the largest mass displacements the region has ever seen. Ananya Roy, Jonny Coleman
How The Largest Known Homeless Encampment In Minneapolis History Came To Be The frustrations of residents in the Powderhorn neighborhood, not far from where George Floyd was killed, have gotten some national coverage. But the homelessness crisis in the city isn’t new, and it could soon get worse. Rachel M. Cohen
A National Evictions Cliff Is Coming. America’s Failing Legal System Will Make It Worse COVID-19 is disproportionately putting Black and Latinx people at higher risk of eviction, fueling a housing crisis that is already in progress. Jay Willis
COVID-19 Hit New York City Homeless Shelters Hard, But Some Are Forced to Stay There Many city residents who’ve served time for sexual crimes have families who want them back, but a 19-year-old law keeps them away. Steven Yoder
Healthcare In The U.S. Is Still Segregated, So Community Organizations Are Taking COVID-19 Testing Into Their Own Hands Predominantly Black neighborhoods have less access to primary care physicians and healthcare services, at a time when COVID-19 is killing Black Americans at a rate 2.3 times higher than white Americans. Now grassroots organizations are trying to compensate for failures of public health. Akilah Wise
The Pandemic Shows It’s Time for an Alternative to American Capitalism The nation has an opportunity to take advantage of this transformative event and pursue an alternative to the current system. David A. Love
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
Defund The Police. Our Lives Depend On It. Safe and healthy communities start with less police and more investment in community services that work. A’Brianna Morgan
Cops, Climate, COVID: Why There Is Only One Crisis Although the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis are both provoked by natural phenomena, the dangers they present are just as political as the crisis of police violence. Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò
The Toll That Curfews Have Taken On Homeless Americans The country’s homeless population was already struggling to access services during the pandemic. Kira Lerner
Florida Residents Trapped In Substandard Housing Face A New Threat: An Eviction Moratorium Set To Expire In Weeks. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed Florida lawmakers’ failure to build affordable housing for its residents. Jerry Iannelli
L.A. Mayor’s Reaction to Protests Proves He’s Unfit to Govern This weekend’s string of errors is just the latest in his career of cruelty. Jonny Coleman
Lack Of Access To Clean Water Is Putting Homeless People At Risk Even As Cities Reopen Amid COVID-19 Health officials say hand washing is key to avoiding the novel coronavirus, but millions of homeless people continue to have little or no access to hygiene stations. Elizabeth Brico
Honolulu Police Keep Putting Homeless People in Jail The city is flouting CDC guidance by continuing to dismantle homeless encampments during the COVID-19 pandemic, though it does not have nearly enough shelter space. Meg O'Connor
Nonprofit Landlords Have Gone The Extra Mile To Support Tenants During The Pandemic. But There’s Trouble Ahead. Many community development corporations assist not only tenants, but also a wider community of low-income people with a range of social services. Abigail Savitch-Lew
The Case For Universal Rental Assistance Expansion of an existing federal rental subsidy program, the Housing Choice Voucher, could stabilize housing for millions of households. Kirk McClure, Alex F. Schwartz
For Striking NYC Tenants With Notorious Landlords, the Problem Is Not Just COVID-19 Some are striking because they can’t afford to pay the rent. Others are striking in protest against what they say is inhumane treatment. Abigail Savitch-Lew
Why Is COVID-19 Hitting Black Communities Harder? Residential Segregation Is a Key Factor. Segregation not only increases individuals' exposure to the novel coronavirus, it also leaves them more susceptible to its effects and limits the quality of care they will receive, experts say. Akilah Wise
California Tenants Will Go on a Rent Strike if the State Falls Short of Cancelling Rent Laid-off workers say they face insurmountable debt and homelessness if they have to pay back months of rent after the pandemic. Supriya Yelimeli
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
The Battle to Convert California Hotels into Housing Has Begun Elected officials need to stop making excuses for not getting unhoused people into hotel rooms. Jonny Coleman
Closure of D.C.’s Only Men’s Halfway House Leaves Residents Scrambling For A Safe Place To Live The Bureau of Prisons could send those without homes to alternative halfway houses far from D.C. or back to prison at the end of the month. Kira Lerner
Bay Area Residents Are Forming Tenants’ Unions in Response to COVID-19 As millions file for unemployment, tenants are banding together to support their neighbors who can't pay the rent. Zack Haber
Rep. Rashida Tlaib: The Case For An Emergency Responder Corps As the coronavirus crisis continues to expand, it is clear that America needs a robust assistance program for the most vulnerable, such as the elderly and physically disabled, to ensure they have what they need to survive. The health, safety, and stability of all communities depend on it. Rashida Tlaib
New York City Must Take Action to Ensure the Most Vulnerable Survive the Pandemic The city has created the structural conditions that have engendered disproportionately high rates of infection and death among its Black and Latinx residents. TS Candii, Darializa Avila Chevalier
New York Lawmakers Push for Real Rent Relief Amid COVID-19 Outbreak Their proposals move beyond Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 90-day eviction moratorium and call for suspending or forgiving rent payments longer term. Bryce Covert
Cities Fighting Coronavirus Must Provide Housing For The Homeless Taking emergency measures to protect homeless people from the pandemic is simply common sense. Jonathan Ben-Menachem
Transgender Sex Workers in New York City Struggle to Survive the Pandemic Advocates say the “progressive” city has left them to die. Rebecca Chowdhury
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
Under Pressure, San Francisco Shifts Plan For Mass Indoor Homeless Camps This is still a severely inadequate response to this deadly pandemic. The Mayor has both the power and the obligation to house every single person in hotels; failing to do so puts thousands of lives at risk. Quiver Watts
San Francisco Mayor Opts For Mass Indoor Homeless Camps To Further Concentrate Vulnerable People To leave hundreds of people in mass congregate shelters could be a death sentence for many of our vulnerable neighbors. Quiver Watts
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
Congress Failed to Make Cash Assistance Universal. Now Local Governments Must Step Up There’s still a chance to make sure some of the most vulnerable people can benefit from the federal stimulus bill. Yonah Freemark
As the Coronavirus Pandemic Worsens, Olympia’s Homeless Community Scrambles for Support The COVID-19 crisis is shining a light on America’s worsening housing crisis and limited resources for response. Mara Kardas-Nelson
Seattle Was Struggling To Care For Its Unhoused Population. Then Coronavirus Arrived. Advocates for the area’s homeless residents say the pandemic will worsen the crisis they have already been living through. Jay Willis
How Coronavirus Is Making the Fight for Homeless Communities in LA More Difficult Cascading crises have significantly increased the stakes for the city’s most vulnerable residents. Jonny Coleman
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
To Stop the Spread of Coronavirus, California Officials and Attorneys Call for Eviction Bans Experts say evictions cause a ‘downward spiral’ of health problems for renters, and that housing security is necessary to slow the spread of the pandemic. Darwin BondGraham
