More from The Appeal:
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 | March 1, 2021
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 | February 18, 2021
Seattle suburb Renton is battling an emergency homeless shelter through its zoning code.
Rachel M. Cohen | February 10, 2021
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 | February 5, 2021
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 | February 4, 2021
Policies that helped keep people in their homes—and keep the utilities on—reduced COVID-19 deaths and infections.
Joshua Vaughn | January 28, 2021
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 | January 27, 2021
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 | January 26, 2021
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 | January 12, 2021
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 | January 11, 2021
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 | December 18, 2020
The CDC must immediately extend its emergency eviction moratorium to give the Biden administration and Congress time to provide additional emergency rental assistance.
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 | December 3, 2020
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 | December 2, 2020
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.
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 | November 3, 2020
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 | October 28, 2020
‘Our Congress should be reflective of the people here, and it’s not,’ the Texas resident said.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg | October 27, 2020
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 | October 20, 2020
After defeating long-time incumbents in Democratic primaries, progressive candidates are championing cancelling rent and banning evictions.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg | October 15, 2020
Governor Newsom should sign the CRISES Act into law this week and invest in community partners who support people in crisis situations.
Asantewaa Boykin | September 29, 2020
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 | September 29, 2020
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.
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 | September 14, 2020
Sports venues like the new SoFi Stadium have been crushing poor communities around the country for over a century.
Jonny Coleman | September 10, 2020
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.
Some corporate landlords who received federal PPP loans are notorious for mistreating tenants.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg | August 13, 2020
Although the agency has vacant properties, public housing has been out of reach for nearly a decade for many who need it.
Joshua Vaughn | August 6, 2020
A lawsuit alleges Breonna Taylor died because Louisville was trying to arrest its way toward economic redevelopment. Research shows this is common.
Brenden Beck | August 4, 2020
A June report from the county’s independent judicial arm urges local government to reallocate law enforcement resources to social services.
Ella Fassler | July 31, 2020
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 | July 27, 2020
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 | July 24, 2020
Police should no longer occupy all of our vital support systems in our communities.
Alex S. Vitale | July 20, 2020
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.
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 | July 15, 2020
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 | July 14, 2020
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 | July 8, 2020
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 | July 7, 2020
The nation has an opportunity to take advantage of this transformative event and pursue an alternative to the current system.
David A. Love | June 30, 2020
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.
Safe and healthy communities start with less police and more investment in community services that work.
A’Brianna Morgan | June 25, 2020
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 | June 16, 2020
The country’s homeless population was already struggling to access services during the pandemic.
Kira Lerner | June 10, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed Florida lawmakers’ failure to build affordable housing for its residents.
Jerry Iannelli | June 5, 2020
This weekend’s string of errors is just the latest in his career of cruelty.
Jonny Coleman | June 4, 2020
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 | May 29, 2020
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 | May 28, 2020
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 | May 27, 2020
Expansion of an existing federal rental subsidy program, the Housing Choice Voucher, could stabilize housing for millions of households.
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 | May 13, 2020
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 | May 5, 2020
Laid-off workers say they face insurmountable debt and homelessness if they have to pay back months of rent after the pandemic.
Supriya Yelimeli | April 30, 2020
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.
Elected officials need to stop making excuses for not getting unhoused people into hotel rooms.
Jonny Coleman | April 24, 2020
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 | April 23, 2020
As millions file for unemployment, tenants are banding together to support their neighbors who can't pay the rent.
Zack Haber | April 23, 2020
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 | April 23, 2020
The city has created the structural conditions that have engendered disproportionately high rates of infection and death among its Black and Latinx residents.
Their proposals move beyond Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 90-day eviction moratorium and call for suspending or forgiving rent payments longer term.
Bryce Covert | April 21, 2020
Taking emergency measures to protect homeless people from the pandemic is simply common sense.
Jonathan Ben-Menachem | April 14, 2020
Advocates say the “progressive” city has left them to die.
Rebecca Chowdhury | April 14, 2020
On the intersection of two public health crises: housing and COVID-19.
Jonny Coleman | April 9, 2020
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 | April 7, 2020
To leave hundreds of people in mass congregate shelters could be a death sentence for many of our vulnerable neighbors.
Quiver Watts | April 6, 2020
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 | March 31, 2020
There’s still a chance to make sure some of the most vulnerable people can benefit from the federal stimulus bill.
Yonah Freemark | March 31, 2020
The COVID-19 crisis is shining a light on America’s worsening housing crisis and limited resources for response.
Mara Kardas-Nelson | March 27, 2020
Advocates for the area’s homeless residents say the pandemic will worsen the crisis they have already been living through.
Jay Willis | March 26, 2020
Cascading crises have significantly increased the stakes for the city’s most vulnerable residents.
Jonny Coleman | March 19, 2020
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 | March 19, 2020
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 | March 18, 2020
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 | March 13, 2020