affordable

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS

Affordable Housing Is Slow To Recover After Disasters Like Hurricanes, And What Communities Can Do About It – 4 Reasons Why

How a community recovers after a disaster like Hurricane Ian is often a “chicken and egg” question: Which returns first – businesses or households? Businesses need employees and customers to be able to function. Households need jobs and the services businesses provide. As an urban planning researcher who focuses on housing recovery after disasters, I have found in my research that they’re mutually dependent. However, in coastal communities, the recovery of tourism-based businesses like restaurants and hotels depends in large part on the return of affordable housing for employees. Rockport, Texas, where Hurricane Harvey made landfall in 2017, is an example of the challenge. It’s a small community that caters to vacationers and sport fishermen, including celebrities like country singer Ge...

Renters Asking: Where Do We Go? Affordable Housing In The US Is Increasingly Scarce

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IMPACT, IN OTHER NEWS

Renters Asking: Where Do We Go? Affordable Housing In The US Is Increasingly Scarce

The United States is facing an expanding gap between how much workers earn and how much they have to pay for housing. Workers have faced stagnant wages for the past 40 years. Yet the cost of rent has steadily increased during that time, with sharp increases of 14% to 40% over the past two years. Now, more than ever, workers are feeling the stress of the affordable housing crisis. While I was conducting research in economically hard-hit communities from Appalachia to Oakland, California, for my recent book, published in November 2021, nearly every person I met was experiencing the painful reality of being caught between virtually stagnant wages and rising housing costs. As a sociologist, I had expected that low-wage workers would struggle with the cost of housing. I did not expect to m...

What Works And What Doesn’t With Affordable Housing In Pandemic Times

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

BUSINESS, IN OTHER NEWS, VIDEO REELS

What Works And What Doesn’t With Affordable Housing In Pandemic Times

Two years of pandemic disruptions have put a spotlight on shortcomings in the U.S. housing market. Some of these shortcomings have their origins in federal and local policy decisions made decades ago. But there are also positive examples of cities making zoning decisions that work to create affordable housing. On Feb. 10, 2022, SciLine interviewed Emily Hamilton, an economist and senior research fellow and director of the Urbanity Project at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, about housing policy and how it affects who can afford to live in American cities. Emily Hamilton talks to SciLine about housing policy. Below are some highlights from the discussion. Please note that answers have been edited for brevity and clarity. How have pandemic-linked economic shifts affected hous...

For The Millions Of People Who Need It Most Building More Homes Won’t Solve The Affordable Housing Problem

15Nov

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS

For The Millions Of People Who Need It Most Building More Homes Won’t Solve The Affordable Housing Problem

Alex Schwartz, The New School and Kirk McClure, University of Kansas Even before 2020, the U.S. faced an acute housing affordability crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic made it a whole lot worse after millions of people who lost their jobs fell behind on rent. While eviction bans forestalled mass homelessness – and emergency rental assistance has helped some – most moratoriums have now been lifted, putting a lot of people at risk of losing their homes. One solution pushed by the White House, state and local lawmakers and many others is to increase the supply of affordable housing, such as by reforming zoning and other land-use regulations. As experts on housing policy, we agree that increasing the supply of homes is necessary in areas with rapidly rising housing costs. But this won’t, by itse...

The Affordable Care Act Is Under Attack And May Cost You Free Preventive Health Care

7Sep

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS

The Affordable Care Act Is Under Attack And May Cost You Free Preventive Health Care

Paul Shafer, Boston University and Alex Hoagland, Boston University Many Americans breathed a sigh of relief when the Supreme Court left the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in place following its third major legal challenge in June 2021. This decision left widely supported policies in place, like ensuring coverage regardless of preexisting conditions, coverage for dependents up to age 26 on their parents’ plan and removal of annual and lifetime benefit limits. But the hits keep coming. One of the most popular benefits offered by the ACA, free preventive care through many employer-based and marketplace insurance plans, is under attack by another legal domino, Kelley v. Becerra. As University of Michigan law professor Nicholas Bagley sees it, “this time, the law’s opponents stand a good chance o...

Cost For Child Care And Preschool – US Parents Pay Nearly Double The ‘Affordable’ Cost

12May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL JUSTICE

Cost For Child Care And Preschool – US Parents Pay Nearly Double The ‘Affordable’ Cost

President Joe Biden wants to make child care more affordable across the U.S. Under his American Families Plan, proposed in April 2021, the federal government would subsidize the costs of child care to the tune of US$225 billion annually. Lower-income families could access child care free of charge, while middle-class families would pay no more than 7% of their income. CC BY-ND Additionally, the plan seeks to make free, high-quality preschool available for all 3- and 4-year-olds. Almost 60% of parents say preschool and day care expenses are a financial strain. Currently, child care eats up 14% of the incomes of middle-class working families – for example, those with a household income of $50,000-$100,000 for a family of four – according to the Center for American Progress, a prog...

Children With Lethal Cancers And Incurable Illnesses Have Benefited From The Affordable Care Act, They’ll Suffer If Overturned By The Supreme Court

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS

Children With Lethal Cancers And Incurable Illnesses Have Benefited From The Affordable Care Act, They’ll Suffer If Overturned By The Supreme Court

The Affordable Care Act once again is headed for a date with the Supreme Court, with health insurance coverage for tens of millions of Americans possibly on the line in a case that will be heard Nov. 10, 2020. But a much smaller group of people with exceptional needs could also lose coverage – children with cancer and other serious diseases. This benefit is an example of another benefit of the ACA, and one that many people don’t know about, that could go away if the court strikes down the ACA. Under the law, children with cancer and other serious illnesses who are enrolled in hospice care – or end-of-life care – can still receive coverage for medical treatment. Through this provision, the ACA gives these very ill children and their parents a glimmer of hope. The law mandates an option ca...

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

GAMING, TECHNOLOGY

Xiaomi Black Shark 2 review: An affordable flagship gaming phone

Gaming phones are an ancient idea. Nokia released the N-Gage, which was like a phone built into a game controller, in 2003. And it didn’t do very well. But the concept has made a resurgence recently thanks to devices from Razer, Asus, and Xiaomi. Now, Xiaomi has launched its second-generation gaming phone called the Black Shark 2. The Black Shark 2 has a suite of features that make it a great way to play games on the go. It’s also affordable, starting at $420 for the version with 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM. But I’m less convinced than ever that anyone really needs a gaming phone even if this a great example of the form. What you’ll like Nice design for smartphone gaming I used the Black Shark 2 to play a variety of games, and it was comfortable relative to other smartphones. ...

Will Banning Single-Family Housing Make for More Affordable Homes?

1Aug

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

Will Banning Single-Family Housing Make for More Affordable Homes?

Minneapolis effectively eliminated single-family zoning in order to undo decades of segregation and create more affordable housing options. Other states are watching closely. Nothing captures the housing affordability crisis as well as this fact: In no single city, state, or other municipality in the U.S. can someone earning minimum wage afford a two-bedroom apartment. This is compounded by the fact that housing prices continue to rise, and cities don’t have the ability (and in some cases, the physical space) to add more affordable housing to help keep costs down. So Minneapolis changed the rules, and others are taking notice. In December 2018, the city approved a plan that allows for duplexes and triplexes, effectively eliminating the future of building more single-family...

How the Ultra-Rich Can Help Fix the Affordable Housing Crisis

24Jul

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

How the Ultra-Rich Can Help Fix the Affordable Housing Crisis

A growing number of people invest in real estate they never intend to occupy and push up prices for the rest of us. Cities should make them pay. Down the street from my office, a luxury residential tower is rising, the fifth such project in Boston in the last decade. The 61-story “One Dalton Place” is being marketed as “New England’s tallest and most luxurious residential building.” Across the coastal cities of North America, cranes are rising to construct similar stunning new glass towers of both residential and commercial properties. Real estate in existing neighborhoods is being bid up by investors and wealthy buyers, pushing up the cost of land and housing for everyone else. A high percentage of these housing units will sit empty or rarely occupied. In Bosto...