Edina Neighbors for Affordable Housing

Rent increases of 20% or more are making life difficult for low-income tenants in many cities, just as eviction bans and unemployment relief are running out.

The 96 affordable units atop the renovated La Samaritaine department store offer world-class views in one the city’s priciest neighborhoods for about $500 a month.

Homeownership is becoming even less attainable as bidding wars, cash offers and racist ideas about buyers further disadvantage people of color.

The new book Freedom to Discriminate argues that the real estate industry’s campaign to defend housing segregation still echoes in today’s politics.

A California factory cuts the cost of apartment construction by thirty percent.

So far, Minnesota has distributed just 13 percent of the $375 million in federal money for rental assistance it received in December.

Homeownership is often viewed as the entrée to the American dream and the gateway to intergenerational wealth. The loss of wealth in Black communities hastens a downward socioeconomic spiral.

Assemble is an Australian housing development organization dedicated to creating a better, fairer housing system. They have developed the innovative Build to Rent to Own Model – a hybrid build-to-rent model which offers stable rents, certainty of tenure, financial coaching, and community services to support low to moderate income Australians with a pathway to home ownership.

Even accounting for factors lenders said would explain disparities, people of color are denied mortgages at significantly higher rates than white people.

Even self-described progressives resist lifestyle changes.

The $46.5 billion rental aid program created to pay rent accrued during the pandemic continues to disburse money at a slow pace, as the White House braces for a Supreme Court order that could strike down a new national moratorium on evictions.

For the first time, Edina has a tenant protection ordinance, to take effect September 1, 2021. It applies to buildings with affordable rental units and its provisions include written notice of the transfer of ownership, notice of rent increases by a new owner, and, in some cases, relocation assistance.

Each side of the housing debate has a raft of prescriptions, whether mass public housing, upzoning, the unfettered building of market-rate apartments, or the construction of thousands of tiny structures for the unhoused.

For much of the 20th century, it was common practice to insert racial covenants into deeds. The covenants targeted people who were Asian, Latino and Jewish, but especially those who were Black.

In this video, John Oliver outlines the long history of housing discrimination in the U.S., the damage created, and what can be done about it.