Public and Social Housing

Canada has a long history of public support for housing. A lot of that support has gone to the private sector for housing that people own and for housing...

Sure. We all know the poor decisions and poor choices that dump the unworthy into social housing. Let's spell some out, shall we? carelessness health issues illegal drugs ...

There's a new kid on the U.S. social housing block. Don't apologize if you find yourself frowning while noting that there are grey hairs trailing out from under its...

Mighty America, and to a minor degree, 'Us-Too' Canada, stumbled off the social housing rails roughly a century ago. During the 1930's depression, social housing in the United States...

Welcome to a Miss Piggy Post. (But what about MOI?) This writer once attempted to inveigle children into brainstorming a social space development project — a better school educational experience...

Suss out an abandoned house in Scotland and you could well get help from the government to make it habitable again. The Empty Home Partnership helps to pay for...

Kristen Hackett is someone you may identify with. Looking around the United States, she sees systems that systematically support segregation, even though it's officially illegal. She doesn't want to...

The City of New York has a chronic shortage of beach and swimming pool lifeguards. The City also runs a ferry service, which is constantly on the lookout for...

Older adults are special. Such a surprise! (Older adult reporting here). Home may be where the heart is, but as adults who are homeless get older, their changing needs may...

Some outside the United Kingdom are aware of a young dragon-slayer who materialized on that national stage in 2022. He was close enough to penniless, but enjoyed photography. And...

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry has issued its final report about the fire which took place in June 2017. Over 1000 pages in length, there's a lot to take in....

House Our Neighbors is an advocacy group that is based in Seattle. House Our Neighbors' mission is to build social housing — non-market housing that will rent at affordable...

Over the last decade, machines have migrated from printing clever 3D toys through more imaginative compact devices that include things as exotic as functioning firearms. The excitement over 3D printed...

Poor workers deserve housing. In 1930's America, the sentiment was just a hop, skip and jump away from 'poor workers deserve poor housing.' America did adopt a social housing (public-funded) program...

Home Sweet Fashionable Home! Out In Lawn mowers Bird's eye views from teeny balconies Polyethylene tricycles 15 minute walks to any/everywhere important Commutes Live theatre, noisy mufflers, sirens Cars Elevators Meaningful female existence (childbirth and children) Meaningless females - Cat-ladies according...

Couples write to you, qualifications included, requesting that you give them access to scarce social housing. Would you be completely unbiased in your evaluation of their request, choosing one over...

For those unfamiliar with Kwajo Tweneboa, (likely because you reside outside the United Kingdom), this young man has committed another act of social heroism, relating once again a story...

The American news publication Politico has decided to reflect political and economic developments that may influence European as well as American concerns, for better or for worse. Here's a headline...

The demands and destruction of World War II led to a postwar social housing era that placed expediency and affordability ahead of graceful architectural objectives. The result: massive postwar...

When Singapore declared independence from Maylaysia in 1965, planning was under way for the creation of the best social housing in the world. The planning panned out. Today nearly...

The mayor of São Paulo, Brazil, says the city needs 400,000 additional rental homes. Faced with such a large shortage, residents have taken housing matters into their own hands....

The architecture magazine dezeen has a bee in its bonnet about social housing, to the point of proposing a world-wide Social Housing Revival. The foundations of dezeen's interest and...

Thanks to the work of people at dozens of agencies across Canada, anyone with access to a computer and the internet explore the most affordable rental housing in selected...

Why go to Australia via Canada in order to understand the USA's RAD (Rental Assistance Demonstration program) — the social housing rescue initiative of Department of Housing and Urban...

With a limited number of builders in a local housing market, it is possible to build enough homes to sustain high profit levelsTry: Why Are Housing Starts Falling Short...

Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman for England, has issued a report chronicling the poor service meted out to social tenants by their landlords. Blakeway is making a case for retooling...

Meet Nathaniel Griffin, the mayor of Wellston, Missouri. One day he woke up and realized he had signed a deal that would see 20% of all of the city's...

Alex Beggs is a writer and housing activist who lives in England. He praises London’s Mayor for starting up a Right to Buy Back programThe London program's name references...

Hong Kong is encouraging women to have babies. How? Once they become moms, they can advance their position on the waiting list for public housing. Why? The government is faced...

Needs must. The needs for affordable housing worldwide has triggered a world of different results, much of it inspired by capitalist free enterprise necessity, not as an oft-derided 'entitlement'...

Pardon us if affordablehousingaction.org has displayed a particular fascination with the U.S. National Public Housing Museum. Public Housing in America was born to fail. Not of course in its earliest...

As of January 1, 2024, local governments in California may no longer pursue crime free neighborhood policies that turn upon laws triggering evictions from public housing. HUD (The U.S. Department...

If you accept that non-profit and co-operative housing are a drag on your country’s economy, the following report is here to make you think again. It tackles the question:...

To hear America talk about it, that nation is in a contest for top dog of the world. Maintaining its influence, it remains firmly committed to a capitalist, free-enterprise...

Scientific discoveries are flying thick and fast these days. News about AI and ChatGBT are getting a lot of media coverage, but we'd like to draw your attention to...

North America's growing rental housing housing crisis can be found expressed in its three major languages, English, Spanish and French. The third language, French, is prevalent in the province...

Have you heard of the three sisters? They are the corn, beans and squash plants, which have been grown together in indigenous gardens for centuries. Each one helps the...

NIMBY? YIMBY? Affordablehousingaction.org is based in Canada. We have taken the attitude that, where it comes to affordable housing, it is possible to learn from what's going on in...

It takes a certain amount of courage, or perhaps more accurately, desperation, to call yourself the 'Worst Landlord' in the state. This is particularly true if you are a...

There seems to be a universal sneaking feeling about architecture that it is a frill. If taxpayers are footing the bill, they may well be even more prone to...

We recently reported an interview with UK architect Peter Barber. In it, Barber speaks directly about the need for much more housing for people with very low incomes. Try:...

Here's a post based on material originally aimed at a United Kingdom market, but with most certainly a relevance elsewhere, particularly struggling North America. A winner of the UK's Neave...

Not all that long ago, renting a home on the free market was the essential penny-saving survival means in the UK. It was once cheaper and more readily available...

In the article linked below, Nasteho Said brings to life the experience of living in public housing in the US, UK and Australia. Said weaves three events together: ...

Two students who are enrolled at Harvard Medical School have collaborated on an article in which they speak up for the people who live in public housing. The students,...

We'll take a running jump at a predominantly American post, beginning on the east side of the Atlantic. Over the last few years, social housing tenants in the British...

A considerable number of folks in the United Kingdom, as well as other European countries, have been inclined to think of the human right to adequate housing as an...

"Sorry folks, you've got to go." "Really? Some of us think not." Recent articles from Australia suggest a more aggressive approach for social housing tenants allegedly 'living in squalor' who currently...

When Singapore separated from Malaysia in 1965 it had aspirations to become a regional and world-beating economy.  In 50-odd years it has achieved that goal. From the word go, Singapore...

In North America, the idea of regenerating 'public housing' is pretty much a dead duckPublic housing is not to be confused with 'social housing' in the United States. Social...

In Australia, Skynews recently interviewed Melina Morrison, the CEO of the Business Council of Cooperatives and Mutuals. Morrison was up to bat in order to speak about housing cooperatives,...

In some countries, social housing is seen as pretty much dead, with many still wondering why it won't lie down. Few, if any other means have emerged to provide truly...

We recently published a post about L&Q Housing, a large social housing landlord in the UK, which manages some 105,000 homes. It seems they have lost the plot, thrown...

L&Q Housing is a social housing landlord that rents out some 105,000 homes in Britain. The United Kingdom's Housing Ombudsman, newly armed with the recently passed Social Housing Act, slapped...

Is there life after social housing? Many countries over the last few decades have assumed that social housing has passed its sell-by date. That's after a supposed cornucopia of...

The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) seems much like the person at the coffee shop counter, endlessly recalculating a handful of small change in hopes that sooner or...

When Affordablehousingaction.org started exploring affordable housing six years ago, the general feeling was that public housing in the United States was a dead duck. Due to the outsized influence...

Over the last couple of years, a new vision of 'European Style' social housing has titillated the imagination of hopeful American affordable housing activists. In with the new, out...

30% of all people who are homeless in the United States live in California. That state has a to-die-for climate (a good deal of the time anyway). It's easy...

The United Kingdom housing activist, Kwajo Tweneboa, has apparently had his fifteen minutes of fame. But he has not quite retired into the fond obscurity that Google and the...

It was in a Toronto Fitness Centre locker room that a local University prof spilled the ugly beans to Affordablehousingaction.org about citizen self-protective(?) behaviour. "Immigrants are only pro-immigration until they...

Okay, So what has admirable Vienna, Austria done now to earn our applause? Only got itself accolades for being the most livable city in the world, from a list...

A recent story from the Independent.ie reports that as many as one in five Irish individuals/families who are offered a social housing home find reasons to turn it down....

In the gloom-occluded world of social housing in the United Kingdom, there are occasional tiny flashes of sunlight. Literally. But first, let's get the bad news out of the way. UK...

Actually, the devil made them do it. That is, if you are prepared to recognize the UK's national government as the devil in question. Housing Associations began over the last...

The Canadian Housing Survey was launched in 2018 as part of Canada's National Housing Strategy. It gives researchers and the public new insights into Canada's housing market. It is thanks...

Social Housing, newly minted for America! What is it? How does it offer to mitigate and, hopefully one day, end a current national housing crisis? This post introduces an...

Affordablehousingaction.org has been following one of the few currently active 'social housing' projects in the USA. With a touch of good old American self-interest, activists have decided that a...

The YIMBY breakthrough that everybody is buzzed about has delivered results to the City of Aukland, New Zealand. Unlike other major New Zealand cities, Aukland bit the YIMBY bullet...

Faced with a conspiracy to cheat you out of your home, what can one individual do? For example, consider an impoverished resident of the infamous Cabrini-Green housing project in...

For those needing to play catchup on the state of truly affordable public/social housing'Truly Affordable' is also referred to as 'Rent Geared To Income.' No income, no rent. Little...

The concept of a '15-minute city' is having a long moment of world-wide appreciation If you haven't yet focused upon 15-minute cities, here's an easy-reading description of how walking...

Three researchers have done a thorough analysis of renovations to social housing that is owned by the Portuguese city of Porto. The research is significant because the housing forms an...

Arguably, Seattle is getting too much of our attention these days. Yes, we're perhaps over-emphasizing the 'social housing' events that are currently occurring thereTry: A Self-Funding Form of Truly...

Churches have a history of speaking up for people who are oppressed in society. Faith based organizations have charitable arms that provide services and supports. Religious instruction also directs...

Some housing activists in North America are hoping to rekindle the importance of public housing as a solution to their local version of a world's ever-deepening affordable housing crisis. Philosophizing...

"Broadband is no longer a luxury that only a few people need; it is a critical service that supports . . . economic opportunity, health, education, recreation, and well-being." We...

The average age of young people leaving home in Spain? Nearing 30. Many, if not most, simply cannot afford to leave home, given the impossibly high cost of both...

The City of Ottawa has a new mayor, who naturally wants to make an impression on his city. To that end, he's put together a task force to review...

The post features stories about housing co-operatives. First up is a workers' cooperative in Chicago, which was founded in 2020 to provide employment for people who had been incarcerated. ChiFresh...

How can a nonprofit or a charity become significantly profitable? Answer: it can't. But non-profits can create a comfortable living for a group of employees. Some of them, with...

What's the most likely way to prevent public housing fire disasters? Consider the infamous 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London, England, and two fires in January 2022, one in...

For anyone who is interested in the history of housing policy in the United States, Gail Radford is a treasure. Radford is an academic historian who is based at...

Struggling to get more truly affordable housing built? Why might you despair over the future of adequate housing for those with the lowest incomes? It's the bad attitude of conservative...

Any time someone digs into public accounts, they deserve a medal in the estimation of this writer. Following the money is slow work. In the case of the report linked...

The financialization of housing is raising the cost of human shelter worldwide, leading to similar problems in many countries, with growing populations being priced out of housing altogether and...

Somewhere in many housing activist minds there are secure thoughts of assurance for their interests: in one or two locations in the world truly successful public housing projects exist! Wall...

This is a post that ignores the American public housing hellholes that developers and supporting local governments are at pains to discover everywhere — find them, fail them, flatten...

Here's an update about the government of Australia's Northern Territory and the housing it provides to its tenants. Last year, tenants brought a court case over the definition of adequate...

Tenants at the Clinton-Peabody Public Housing Project in St. Louis, Missouri were called to a meeting to talk about premature deaths among infants. The people who organized the meeting...

Seattle, Washington's newly approved 'Social Housing' nobility may or may not be ruled by a Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Still imaginary, such a creature will also have a faithful...

IKEA is a commercial home furnishing company known by vast numbers of people in many countries, offering attractive living at bargain prices. In the UK recently it has taken...

One advantage of reading an unabashedly lefty publication such as Jacobin is its relentless weeding of high-bush vegetation thrown up by earnest-sounding politicians that hint at meaningful policy flowerings...

Encouraging as it might superficially seem, America's Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) actually stood up in 2022 to allow Americans with criminal convictions to have access to...

A Seattle referendum on 'social housing' has recently recently received a 'thumbs up' from local citizenryFor background, try: As The World Reconsiders Social Housing Need, Faint USA Cries of...

With its eye firmly fixed outside of America, Seattle, Washington has recently voted to explore a new form of government-supported housing. The models for Seattle's newly initiated government supported...

In 2022, the Better Government Association (BGA) reported on activities of the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA). The BGA looked at the number of homes that the CHA had demolished,...

When it comes to affordable housing, centrally planned governments have one big advantage over the dispersed powers and inter-govermental squabbles of more democratic political structures. The advantage: centrally planned economies...

Here is another call to purchase existing housing to accomplish social objectives, this time from EnglandFor an example from Canada try: Canadian Bank Speaks Up In Favour Of Social...

So, why is an affordable housing blog with a home in Canada so enamoured with the National Public Housing Museum in Chicago? Millions of Americans were given the opportunity to...