HumanGood’s Post

Is your local government considering developing its own housing corporation? Staff resources is always a challenge but seems to have some wins - more over site of local government owned land, - stronger community connections, and - opportunity and variety for existing staff to be exposed to land development process as a developer. (And attracting staff) #localgoverment #affordablehousing

In the last 50 years, more people are renting nationwide, with a 15-year trend in Illinois showing a rise in renters and a decrease in rental vacancy rates. According to Housing Action Illinois, an accepted standard is that a home is considered “affordable” if it costs 30% or less of your total income, but many are spending much more than this. Nearly three quarters of extremely low-income renter households spend more than half of their income on rent and utilities, meaning they can be just one financial setback—a change in work hours or a broken-down car—away from an eviction notice.   For more than 35 years, Housing Action Illinois, a CFTEH grantee partner, has brought together member organizations from across Illinois united in their vision of expanding affordable housing and ending homelessness.   Learn more about the work they’re doing when you visit their website: https://lnkd.in/gq4RFXEZ

Did you know that the Mixed-Income housing team does far more than build new homes? These are 3 core buckets of their work: 1. Building new homes. 2. Creating and clearing pathways for people to become homeowners. 3. Supporting neighbors. Together, these three pieces are what make it possible for neighbors across the income spectrum to find the right home AND establish roots in the neighborhood. Stable housing is the cornerstone of a flourishing community. It’s how neighbors get to stay connected, build wealth, and transform the neighborhood with their dreams and skills.

“In 30 years of working in real estate development, I never seen construction pricing or supply problems like we are experiencing now". But it’s not the time to stop building. People need housing, it’s a critical issue for employers and for our communities. Evernorth’s portfolio of rental housing, along with all the other homes built with public funding, is a permanent, community asset, but we must do more. Read more in Kathy Beyer's VTDigger commentary! #InvestingInCommunitiesBuildingPossibilities #permanentlyaffordablehousing #community #workingtogether

BlockChange Louisville had a minor setback as one of our properties in West Louisville fell out of contract due to an appraisal short fall. We are disappointed for the first-time home buyer whose home ownership journey just got deterred. It is frustrating to see the linger effects of redlining continue to hinder redevelopment in West Louisville. We are trying to promote home ownership one property at a time with intentional community-based redevelopment plans. I plead with Louisville Metro Government to get serious about the blighted properties in West Louisville which are holding back community redevelopment. Craig Greenberg and Pat Mulloy this problem is not going to solve itself without some real energy and emphasis on the vacant and abandoned homes issue. It is nice to see affordable housing projects get funded but West Louisville also needs Home Ownership which will spur additional investment in the community. The time to act is now. I plan to spotlight this issue until there is meaningful action by City officials. I welcome others to support this effort. #BlockchangeLouisville #WestLousiville #Community #Homeownership

This new #RPregistration milestone allows Rentplus Homes to support even more communities in need. As a #RegisteredProvider, we can now address housing needs in areas not served by existing partners where LAs require RP status through local housing policies. #RSH #HousingForAll #RentSaveOwn

"Our model is a limited-equity cooperative model, which means families will be building some wealth as they are living in the cooperative. Building wealth is something that doesn't exist in much affordable rental housing because that hasn't been the model. But our approach is also about spreading out the risk, collectivizing as much of it as we can, so that the individual impact is lessened from individual families. Ours is also a project about remembering ancestral ways of doing things more collectively, more communal."   Read more about the BLUU x UHW Cooperative Housing Initiative ⤵️ https://lnkd.in/giMpcy8y

What we're reading: While it is great to see investments in the construction of new units, we can't take our eye off the preservation of the existing "natually occurring affordable housing stock" which is rapdily degrading. So many mom & pop landlords (who own a large share of NOAH) are asset rich, but cash poor. They have no incentive to let their asset degrade but may not want to increase their existing debt loads - especially with interest rates as they are. There are some amazing but still small scale programs where property owners are provided with access to grants and subsidized microloans with conditions of maintaining affordability for a defined period. (5-10 years) Would this incentive be enough on its own? Or would this carrot would also need to be combined with regulatory 'sticks' where local governments reserve the right to implement repairs on non-compliant properties, tied to higher than market interest rates and penalties? What are some other useful strategies to preserve and maintain existing affordable rental housing?

“Only by preserving existing housing at the same time as we build new housing will we move the needle on our supply shortage; building new units while hemorrhaging existing stock is treading water at best and losing ground at worst.” Our mission is to ensure that housing preservation is part of the solution to the housing crisis and this Shelterforce article hits on those key points — a proactive way forward.

Creativity and political willingness results in great things