The Times-Picayune
Chris Kirkham // November 3, 2009
After pressure from federal housing officials and a pending lawsuit in federal court, the St. Bernard Parish Council on Tuesday officially rescinded an item on this month's special election ballot that would have given voters the chance to permanently ban large apartment complexes in the parish.
The move came on advice from the parish's lawyers, who last month told the council that they believed the potential apartment ban would jeopardize federal financing for recovery projects and hurt the parish's appeals of its ongoing fair housing lawsuit.
The council proposed the voter referendum on future apartment complexes after three defeats in federal court this year over its attempt to block construction of four 72-unit mixed-income apartment buildings in Chalmette. U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan sided with a local fair housing group and a Dallas real estate company on the four apartment complexes, and the parish eventually granted the building permits necessary for the developers, Provident Realty Advisors, to begin construction.
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Saturday, December 26, 2009
Friday, December 25, 2009
How to Solve Homelessness? Try Providing Housing
NextAmericanCity
Akua Nyame-Mensah // October 26, 2009
As the amount of housing foreclosures has jumped, the number of individuals who have found them themselves without appropriate, permanent shelter has increased. In addition to the Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) The U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) decided this summer to tract homelessness in specific regions quarterly. The new report, The Homelessness Pulse Project is meant to help HUD “gain a better understanding of the impact of the current economic crisis on homelessness.” In their 2008 Report to Congress HUD found that “[o]n a single night in January 2008, there were 664,414 sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons nationwide. Nearly 6 in 10 people who were homeless at a single point-in-time were in emergency shelters or transitional housing programs, while 42 percent were unsheltered on the “street” or in other places not meant for human habitation.” The Homeless Cost Study, recently released by The United Way of Great Los Angeles, is another report that finds placing chronically homeless people into permanent supportive housing will not only give those without shelter a safe place to live but save metropolitan areas and taxpayers thousands of dollars.
Other recent reports and studies done by organizations share this view. In a 2009 Policy Guide of the National Alliance to End Homelessness found that providing “[a]ffordable housing is the primary solution to ending episodic homelessness” and created a guide about adopting a ‘Housing First approach.’ Other current studies have focused on the cost of homeless individuals on hospitals. An article about studies conducted in Chicago and Seattle “found that hospitals saved hundreds of thousands of dollars by helping to provide… services together with local advocacy groups.”
Akua Nyame-Mensah // October 26, 2009
As the amount of housing foreclosures has jumped, the number of individuals who have found them themselves without appropriate, permanent shelter has increased. In addition to the Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) The U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) decided this summer to tract homelessness in specific regions quarterly. The new report, The Homelessness Pulse Project is meant to help HUD “gain a better understanding of the impact of the current economic crisis on homelessness.” In their 2008 Report to Congress HUD found that “[o]n a single night in January 2008, there were 664,414 sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons nationwide. Nearly 6 in 10 people who were homeless at a single point-in-time were in emergency shelters or transitional housing programs, while 42 percent were unsheltered on the “street” or in other places not meant for human habitation.” The Homeless Cost Study, recently released by The United Way of Great Los Angeles, is another report that finds placing chronically homeless people into permanent supportive housing will not only give those without shelter a safe place to live but save metropolitan areas and taxpayers thousands of dollars.
Other recent reports and studies done by organizations share this view. In a 2009 Policy Guide of the National Alliance to End Homelessness found that providing “[a]ffordable housing is the primary solution to ending episodic homelessness” and created a guide about adopting a ‘Housing First approach.’ Other current studies have focused on the cost of homeless individuals on hospitals. An article about studies conducted in Chicago and Seattle “found that hospitals saved hundreds of thousands of dollars by helping to provide… services together with local advocacy groups.”
Housing group alleges bias by town of Sunnyvale
Dallas Morning News
Ray Leszcynski // October 27, 2009
The Inclusive Communities Project, a Dallas fair housing agency, filed court documents against the town of Sunnyvale on Monday, citing a failure to live up to a 2005 agreement and discriminatory practices the plaintiffs say date to the town's incorporation.
The action marks the latest salvo by plaintiffs in a legal battle that has dragged on for more than 20 years over the right to develop affordable housing in Sunnyvale, a rural enclave of mostly upper-end homes in eastern Dallas County.
Monday's filing was triggered after the town denied a multifamily development on ICP property, the third low-income housing development attempted unsuccessfully in Sunnyvale since 2008.
There are no apartments and no Section 8 residents in Sunnyvale, where the average home has a market value of $274,081.
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Ray Leszcynski // October 27, 2009
The Inclusive Communities Project, a Dallas fair housing agency, filed court documents against the town of Sunnyvale on Monday, citing a failure to live up to a 2005 agreement and discriminatory practices the plaintiffs say date to the town's incorporation.
The action marks the latest salvo by plaintiffs in a legal battle that has dragged on for more than 20 years over the right to develop affordable housing in Sunnyvale, a rural enclave of mostly upper-end homes in eastern Dallas County.
Monday's filing was triggered after the town denied a multifamily development on ICP property, the third low-income housing development attempted unsuccessfully in Sunnyvale since 2008.
There are no apartments and no Section 8 residents in Sunnyvale, where the average home has a market value of $274,081.
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Monday, November 16, 2009
Taking Sides in Fight over NIMBYism
Link to --> Article in Units Magazine November 2009 on new focus on Fair Housing issues, including St. Bernard Parish, LA and Westchester County, NY cases
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Housing Battle Reveals Post-Katrina Tensions
From: The New York Times
By: Campbell Robertson // October 3, 2009
CHALMETTE, La. — The parish of St. Bernard, a quiet, insular suburb just east of New Orleans, has in the end agreed to allow housing for low-income families.
By: Campbell Robertson // October 3, 2009
CHALMETTE, La. — The parish of St. Bernard, a quiet, insular suburb just east of New Orleans, has in the end agreed to allow housing for low-income families.
But even though it is only a few hundred apartment units, it had to be ordered by a federal judge. The parish has fought desperately to prevent such housing and an influx of renters, at one point even approving a law that prohibited homeowners from renting to anyone other than a blood relative, before it was challenged and repealed.
The battle over low-income housing has been one of the most bitter that anyone in the middle-class, mostly white parish can remember, one that has stoked issues the region has been grappling with since Hurricane Katrina: anger at the federal government and long-simmering class and racial tensions.
It also reflects widespread anxiety about just how drastically the area changed after the floodwaters receded.
“I think people have adopted this issue as one that goes far beyond the reality of its impact,” said Craig Taffaro Jr., the parish president. “It tapped into the soul of our recovery.”
Fight for affordable housing heats up
From: The Leader
By: Susan C. Moller
By: Susan C. Moller
RUTHERFORD, NJ —The number of affordable housing units to be included in plans for the Highland Cross Redevelopment Area in Rutherford remains in dispute.
Linque-H.C. Partners, LLC, the developer that owns the controversial property east of Route 17, filed a lawsuit Friday, Sept. 18, challenging the 2008 regulations established by the state’s Council on Affordable Housing — the agency charged with insuring that the state’s court-mandated affordable housing quotas are met.
When Rutherford submitted its affordable housing plan to COAH, officials included Highland Cross as a possible location of low-income units, despite historic opposition from residents. By submitting the plan, borough officials were hopeful that Rutherford would be deemed compliant and protected from litigation-induced loss of zoning power.
But, the borough’s efforts, and the COAH regulations on which they were based, have not met with approval from Linque.
MOREMilbridge upholds building moratorium
From: Bangor Daily News
By: Sharon Kiley Mack // September 29, 2009
By: Sharon Kiley Mack // September 29, 2009
MILBRIDGE, Maine — In two separate votes Monday night, more than 165 Milbridge residents upheld a building moratorium that was enacted last June for multiunit housing.
In the first vote, which would have rescinded the entire moratorium, the vote was 65 yes, 100 no.
The second vote, which would have excluded from the moratorium Mano en Mano’s six-family housing unit proposed for Wyman Road, also was defeated but by a much smaller margin. The vote was 72 yes, 82 no.
The votes pave the way for a federal lawsuit filed by Mano en Mano against the town to proceed. A hearing on the suit had been scheduled for Friday, Oct. 2, but a continuance was granted earlier Monday.
If the town had voted to rescind the moratorium, the lawsuit would have been moot.
The court will set a new hearing date later this week.
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