New Reno development highlights the city's affordable housing shortage

Feb 14, 2022
The high-end project is clearing motels that provide an informal safety net for low-income renters. Officials say the motels are rife with code violations.
Roxanne DeCarlo, executive director for The Empowerment Center, visits the site of a 42-unit apartment complex for low-income renters the center is building in November.
Bert Johnson/Mountain West News Bureau

In addressing the housing shortage, we might need to rethink the way housing policy works

Feb 10, 2022
A new book by Jenny Schuetz, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, sheds light on possible solutions.
"The market wants very much to build more homes in high-demand locations, but we have a whole set of policies that make it virtually impossible to add housing," said Jenny Schuetz at the Brookings Institution.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

As more workers stay remote, developers eye the prospects of turning empty offices into housing

Feb 2, 2022
In Los Angeles, where there's a housing crisis, the pandemic has some looking at the "adaptive reuse" of under-used office buildings.
Converting empty offices to residential spaces could provide a solution to cities' affordable housing crises.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

Doing the numbers on affordable, carbon-neutral housing

Jan 10, 2022
A Colorado community is building affordable housing that uses solar power to offset its carbon emissions, thanks to its location.
The new Sunnyside affordable housing project. Its name refers to the abundant sunlight the south-facing hillside gets and to its rooftop solar panels, which generate clean energy.
Matt Hoisch

Hurricane Ida flooded their basement apartment. Months later, they've barely begun to recover.

Nov 9, 2021
Many New York basement apartments flooded in September. Most of the hardest-hit residents were low-income, and most were immigrants.
People clean up their flooded homes in Queens, New York, after the remnants of Ida passed through the area. The storm hit undocumented immigrants particularly hard.
Spencer Platt via Getty Images

Housing advocates fight to maintain place in social-spending bill

Oct 25, 2021
Advocates had high hopes for the $320 billion initially included for housing, but the plan’s funding is being cut during negotiations.
President Joe Biden promotes his Build Back Better agenda in New Jersey on Monday. His plan to expand the nation's social safety net is being pared back by congressional negotiators.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

California wants to make it easier to turn empty malls into affordable housing

Jun 2, 2021
But cities, who don't want to give up sales tax revenue, and stores may not be quick to give up mall space.
The mall-to-housing flip can be harder than it sounds.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

In Chicago, affordable housing development has bypassed wealthier neighborhoods

Apr 19, 2021
Most tax credits from a program encouraging developers to build or renovate affordable units went to majority-Black neighborhoods.
A racial equity study in Chicago found that most affordable housing wasn't going in areas that have amenities like public transportation. Above, people rally for affordable housing in Miami.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Biden acts on evictions, foreclosures, but long-term housing crisis looms

Jan 25, 2021
But how much can the federal government do about affordability?
Demonstrators at the Cancel Rent and Mortgages rally in Minneapolis in June. The U.S. faces a housing shortage and affordability crisis.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images

The pandemic poses challenges and new opportunities for city planning

Nov 27, 2020
New ways of urban living could emerge as the pandemic changes how people gather and move about cities.
On 75th Street in Chicago's Park Manor neighborhood, sidewalk pods were set up to encourage street life amid COVID-19.
Natalie Moore