Apartment City

WASHINGTON (August 22, 2017) – (RealEstateRama) — The “ Rent Relief Act of 2017,” legislation announced today by U.S. Representative Joe Crowley (D-NY), would provide much- needed resources directly to struggling families and individuals to help them afford to keep a roof over their heads. The refundable tax credit would put more money in the pockets of the lowest income families , at a time when their wages have flatlined and housing costs have skyrocketed. Millions of families – including those with the greatest needs – would no longer be forced to make impossible choices between paying for rent and covering other basic needs like food and healthcare. The lack of affordable housing in the U.S. has reached crisis proportions . The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Housing , a report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), shows there is a shortage of 7.4 million affordable and available rental homes for America’s 11. 4 million extremely low -income (ELI) households, ...

The number of high-poverty neighborhoods in Colorado Springs rose from six to 22 between 2000 and 2015, a study conducted by the U.S. Census and published by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University has found. In the Springs, low-income neighborhoods used to occupy high- density urban areas , but, following a recent national trend , the study found that the city’s poor have increasingly dispersed into the city’s outer edges: fragmented neighborhoods with potentially limited access to public transportation or support programs. The study did not specify what outlying neighborhoods the growth has occurred in, but defined “high poverty” areas as those where 20 percent or more of the population lives below the federal poverty line . See image below . click to enlarge As more neighborhoods are becoming classified as high-poverty, individual families in Colorado Springs are experiencing noticeable financial struggles as well. According to a 2016 study by the Pew...

Seven years ago, a turn down Osage Street from West Colfax Avenue would take you to an area with pretty much the same people it has now: mostly Hispanic, mostly women, and mostly low-income. While the faces haven’t changed, the face of public housing has. Colorful new apartments now stand in the mixed- income neighborhood , surrounded by parks, and a new pool that replaced the Denver Housing Authority ’s severely depressed and obsolete South Lincoln Homes . Though the contemporary architecture might evoke fears of a “problem” population being driven out by a more affluent group of residents, the $ 197 million Mariposa District wasn ’t a ploy by DHA to build more luxury apartments in central Denver . Instead, it was a plan to give the residents who already lived there an upgrade – and more options by tripling the number of units available. RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post Doris Watson recently moved into a two bedroom apartment that is part of the $197 million redevelopment of the South L...

Last month, we cut ribbons on Talmadge Gateway and Cypress Apartments — two affordable-housing projects that will provide a combined 122 new homes in San Diego for struggling seniors and people who have been chronically homeless. At Talmadge Gateway, we met Marvina and Michael — two local seniors who expressed profound relief to finally have roofs over their heads and the chance to lead a stable life after years of instability. Projects like these are critical as housing has become increasingly unaffordable. Virtually every Californian can attest to the increased cost of living we have seen in recent years. Since 2000, the median rent in the San Diego region has spiked by 36 percent. However, the median household income for renters has risen just 4 percent. Our lowest- income earners spend nearly 70 percent of their income on housing and, to meet the current demand from the middle and working class, we would need to build 142,000 rental homes. The problem on its surface is supply-...

Courtesy of Mayor’s office/Edwin J. Torres Onlookers applaud after Mayor Bill de Blasio signs legislation that makes New York the first city in the nation to provide lawyers for low- income tenants facing wrongful evictions . By Bill Parry TimesLedger Newspapers Share on Twitter Tweet Share on Facebook Subscribe Get our stories in your inbox, free. Like TimesLedger on Facebook. Low-income New Yorkers facing wrongful eviction will be guaranteed legal representation in Housing Court after Mayor Bill de Blasio signed legislation into law last Friday. The program, which is overseen by the Civil Justice Coordinator at the Human Services Administration , will serve 400,000 tenants when it is fully implemented in five years. “New York City will be the first city in the country to ensure anyone facing an eviction case can access legal assistance thanks to this new law,” de Blasio said. “New Yorkers should not lose their homes because they cannot afford a lawyer, and stopping wrongful evi...

RIO DE JANEIRO ― Seven years ago, Vila Autódromo was little more than a tranquil fishing village on the edge of Jacarepagua Lagoon, next to the racetrack for which it was named. Like the hundreds of other favelas that dot Rio de Janeiro ’s landscape, it had long been neglected by the city government , and it lacked many basic public services that are standard in the fast- growing wealthier neighborhoods just across the water. But to the more than 600 families that lived there, it was home. “This was a paradise,” said Luiz Cláudio Silva, who lived in Autódromo for more than 20 years. “I thought that I would live here for the rest of my life.” By the time the Rio Olympics are over, just 20 of the families who lived in Autódromo in 2009, the year the International Olympic Committee chose the city to host the games, will remain. The community, which sits less than a mile away from Rio’s Olympic Park, was crushed so that the city could build new access roads to connect Olympic venues . ...

CLOSE Since January journalists David Plazas and George Walker IV have examined how pro-growth policies have prepared Nashville for prosperity, but it has been paired with growing inequality in their "Costs of Growth and Change in Nashville" series. Wochit The buyers of Riverchase Apartments say they don't plan to leave the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program, a move that would've allowed them to charge market rates for the apartments. Riverchase Apartments in McFerrin Park has a new owner. (Photo: Submitted) Story Highlights Riverchase Apartments is one of the few remaining low- income housing complexes near downtown. Roughly 99 residents use Section 8 vouchers to help pay their rents compared with 106 a year ago. Nashville- based Elmington Property Management now handles leasing and management of Riverchase Apartments. A new Nashville- based company  has paid $11.2 million for Riverchase Apartments, one of the few remaining low- income housing comple...

After a tense deadline last summer at the Highland Village apartments and nearly a year of wading through bureaucratic red tape , Bellevue has committed itself to the preservation of 76 below-market units. The Bellevue City Council voted 4 -0 to contribute $2 million from the city’s housing fund toward the King County Housing Authority to help purchase the property. The 86 families (and 85 children in local schools) of the Highland Village apartment complex were faced with an eviction notice last year, which told the residents to be out by the beginning of October. A developer, Intracorp, had sights on the property for market-rate condominiums. The residents, by-and-large, are near the 60 percent area median income level . Many of the residents speak English as a second language. According to the King County Housing Authority ’s own guidelines, the area median income for a family of four is $90,000. Highland Village was charging residents well below market rent, but many com...