Tag: The Closer
Why Biden’s plan to help make housing affordable will make it more expensive
Because the 2020 election was largely a referendum on President Donald Trump, many of Joe Biden’s policy proposals have been overlooked until now. The...
Pre-pandemic economy was reaching unprecedented heights for Black and Hispanic Americans, new data show
The grim and isolated life many Americans have adopted during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis is often referred to as the “new normal.” But when...
Canceling rent won’t solve housing woes
As Americans stagger through a bewildering pandemic summer, buffeted by shutdowns and job losses, millions face each coming month with an additional dread: making...
Politicians seek relief for renters, but landlords have rights too
State and local governments have closed businesses across the country in response to COVID-19, putting millions of Americans out of work. Right now, those...
Nation in lockdown
I live in California, whose governor, Gavin Newsom, in March issued Executive Order N-33-20. The order requires Californians to shelter at home unless they...
Rent control is illegal
New York City recently implemented its far-reaching Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019. That law enacted extensive amendments, all plaintiff protective, to...
Making Disparate Impact deliver fairness
HUD’s proposed revisions to our disparate-impact rule enhance our commitment to fairness for everyone. Everyone agrees that discrimination has no place in society. But everyone...
New York City’s rent control laws erase property rights and worsen housing supply
Owning property means more than having your name on a deed. Lawyers and judges often refer to property ownership as a “bundle of rights,”...
The one issue every economist can agree is bad: Rent control
But there are a few questions where there’s near unanimity, and rent control is one of them. Pretty much every economist agrees that rent...
Incivility and its discontents
Recently, in a rare moment, the Pennsylvania state party chairs, Democrat Nancy Patton Mills and Republican Val DiGigiorgio, agreed to participate in a student-organized...
Challenging Disparate Impact
“No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any...
The new housing problem facing low-income renters
There’s a new problem facing low-income individuals seeking affordable housing: Even if they have a housing choice voucher to subsidize rents in the private...
Sec. Ben Carson’s approach to affordable housing might work
The new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson, aims to succeed where the Obama administration failed. Carson’s department intends to revise one...
The death of the small apartment building
Developers in the U.S. built 358,000 units of new multifamily housing in 2017. That’s less than half the number of single-family homes built last...
New lawsuit in Seattle: Housing ordinance is unfair and unconstitutional
Seattle’s Fair Chance Housing Ordinance, passed by city council in 2017, forbids landlords from considering applicants’ criminal histories when selecting tenants. In other words,...
