Edina Neighbors for Affordable Housing

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.

At least 73% of residential land in the Twin Cities is governed by local zoning ordinances that only allow single-family detached homes, according to a Star Tribune analysis of 2019 land use regulations from 102 metro communities. Additional regulations — such as the size of the lot or the number of garage stalls — drive up the cost of those homes and are common throughout the metro.

The new ban would temporarily halt evictions in counties with “substantial and high levels” of virus transmission and is expected to cover areas where 90% of the U.S. population lives.

Urban Institute researchers published a report titled “Who Owns the Twin Cities?” in which they investigated who owns homes across the metro area and how property ownership has changed over recent decades. They found there has been a growing number of investor landlords, or landlords who own more than three properties, and an increase in single-family rentals. As a result, poor and BIPOC residents have been displaced.

With home prices already up about 15 percent from last year and rents soaring at nearly triple their normal rate in just the first six months of 2021, there’s growing concern that housing costs could soon begin to nudge inflation higher.