Affordable housing

The headlines tell the story: “Half of all renters can’t afford the rent.” “Renters, get ready to take it on the chin.” “The rent crisis is about to get a lot worse.”

Shaun Donovan, Obama’s first secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), warned: “We are in the midst of the worst rental affordability crisis that this country has known.”

There are two ways to solve this problem: One, raise wages, and two, provide more subsidized housing to help fill the gap between incomes and rents. In recent years, the federal government has done neither.

Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates recently released a list of thirteen recommendations to spur housing development to address Berkeley's staggering affordable housing crisis. Some residents, however, see several components of mayor’s plan as an invitation for further displacement in Berkeley, where, according to a recent city staff report, the median rent jumped 12 percent in the last year alone.

Rick Jacobus' article, "Why We Must Build," published here on Shelterforce a couple of weeks ago has created quite a buzz. Jacobus is smart, and has been writing on the topic of affordable housing and land trusts for a while.

Affordable housing advocates are accusing Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and the city council of “gutting” housing assistance for low-income residents by redefining the definition of affordable housing. At a meeting of the city council’s Community and Economic Development Committee yesterday, dozens of people representing nonprofit housing groups condemned the city’s plan to shift millions in affordable housing subsidies away from low-income households and spend the money instead on subsidies for middle-class homebuyers.

Michelle Johnson and her three children have called a modest three bedroom apartment in North Philadelphia home for almost 20 years. Stepping into their apartment, it's easy to tell that it's a place where children have grown up. Small scuff marks in the hallway and old video game controllers stashed on the bottom shelf of a bookcase attest to the past presence of kids. In the family room, there is a collection of framed portraits and school photographs.

The Mountain View Whisman School District took small steps towards addressing a big problem Thursday night, when board members agreed to look at constructing teacher housing.

It's normal for millennials to still live at home these days. But what if you're a millennial who doesn't have a home to go back to?

Growing up, Alkeisha Porter says, she didn't like her mom's husband, and her dad had a drug problem. So at 16, she moved out and became homeless.

"I was basically just house-hopping from friends to some family members. Hey, it was comfortable to me. It wasn't cold. I wasn't sleeping outside," says Porter, now 23.

In equal measure of compassion for the homeless and outrage that more isn’t being done to alleviate their plight, demonstrators marched though the streets of Santa Rosa on a soggy Sunday demanding that Gov. Jerry Brown declare a housing “state of emergency.”

They carried placards reading “Homeless not Useless,” “Veterans need Housing” and names of homeless people who have died, their bodies found under a bridge or in a drainage ditch.

The demonstrators, who numbered about 100, chanted a “couch is not a home,” and “a tent is not a home.”

Activists rallied at Richmond City Hall on Thursday, vowing to spare this city from the gentrification that has swept low-income people out of San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and other Bay Area cities.

"We're not going anywhere," said emcee Melvin Willis of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE).

To afford anything larger than a one-bedroom rental unit in Santa Monica requires a household annual income of $100,000.

This was one of the findings in a report issued by the Rent Control Board that found the city's rental market became less affordable in 2015 than in any previous year.

When a rent-controlled unit is vacated, the owner can raise the rent to the market rate for the next tenant. The median rate for new tenants in 2015 was up in all categories, according to the report.