My Landlord Helped Me Find A Job. I Like That!
Unity Homes and Enterprise (Unity) operates 1,400 units of social rent housing in Leeds, England. It also runs a tenant outreach program to support its residents. As a landlord,...
Kiddywinks To Develop Social Housing? Surely Not!
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...
Learning To Swim: More Than Good Fun, Possible Career Employment
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...
UK Social Housing Health & Safety: Who Pays The Politician Piper?
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...
Social Housing In A 15-Minute City
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...
Eligible For Affordable Social Housing. Or Not. Who Decides And How?
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...
When Your Parent Dies in Social Housing, Be Ready For Eviction
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...
Future Social Housing: Why Beauty Should Bite The Beast
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...
After 35 Years Slinking Thru The Shadows, Singapore’s Cats Finally Shine
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...
dezeen: Is Housing That Everyone Can Afford The Solution To A World Housing Crisis?
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...
Shining A Light On Affordable Rental Housing In Canada
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...
Saving Housing Stock From The Wrecking Ball
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...
Waiting And Waiting For Public Housing – Hong Kong Version
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...
U.S. Public Housing: A Century of Barren Landscape? Or Rich Culture?
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...
One Strike Evicts You From California Public Housing . . . No Longer!
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...
Make America Great In Social Housing: Follow China’s New Lead?
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...
DNA Sampling Speaks To The Value Of Social Housing
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...
Who’s Standing Up As UN Right To Adequate Housing Falls Flat In Canada?
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...
We Have Seen The Worst Landlord, And It Is Us!
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...
How Architectural Triumph Can Defeat The Urge To Skimp On Inferior Building Construction
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...
Social Housing: We Know What It Means. Is It Time To Understand Social Energy?
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...
Bulldozed Social Housing: Resident Input Under-Appreciated & Over-Ignored
"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...
Social Housing Group Goes The Extra Mile In Support Of Its Tenants
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...
Kwajo Tweneboa: Housing Activist Found Worthy Of A Medal, But Gave It A “No Thanks”
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...
Canadian Housing Survey Sheds Light On High Eviction Rates In British Columbia
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...
Yukon Considers: Who Deserves Social Housing When There’s Never Enough?
The following problem is a conundrum for all social housing suppliers virtually everywhere in the world. We're going to examine that problem in Canada's Yukon Territory, where the homeless...
UK Social Housing Rights Activist Kwajo Tweneboa: Time For A Twofer
It's not often our blog can piece together social housing activism on two continents, same timeframe (more or less), and same activist.
In this case, it's the respected young UK...
A Once-Homeless Socialist Who Wants More Upscale Housing Built?
No, this isn't about an influential person who experienced homelessness, saw the light, and embarked on a fight for the Human Right To Adequate Housing via the power of...
A Seattle Quickie For 10,000 Public Housing Folks — 35mph & More — Free Transit!
There's a kind of deliberate blindness when it comes to understanding the meaning of "living in comfort — poor," versus "living in comfort — middle class and up."
Accommodation may...
Affordable-> Unaffordable. Temporary-> Permanent. UK Plays Name Change Game
The United Kingdom National charity, Shelter, laments something affordablehousingaction.org has moaned about for a long time: Canada's federal government, like the UK national government, has conspired with builders. They...
Social Housing Mould Killed Awaab Ishak. Will Institutional Apathy Kill Others?
In the wake of a two-year-old boy's mould-related death, what most struck the Manchester Evening News and the UK Charity Shelter, which shared a now internationally known investigation, was...
Can Live-In ‘Mr. Fixits’ Fix Public Housing Better? Victoria, AU Aims To Find Out
The Labour Government in the Australian State of Victoria is sharing some of its 'labour' ideology with workers who live in Public housing.
Isn't it most efficient and economical to...
Calling Non-Profit Housing Providers To Account
Non-profit housing providers are often held up as good landlords. However, as the article attached to this post demonstrates, it isn't always the case. Bathrooms that don't function in...
A ‘Right’ To Get Rich Clashes With The Right To Adequate Housing
Is there any agreed-upon human right for people to get rich? It's certainly an underlying premise of unfettered capitalism. Many, if not most who live in capitalist societies see...
Approaching A Human Right to Housing Beyond Life In A Cold, Leaky Tent
In the words quoted from an article below by Morris Copeland, the Miami-made county administrator who oversees housing: “ should be a right, not an amenity.”
Alas for Americans, the...
An Internet Light Illuminates The Dark Art Of Ignoring Public Housing Tenants
Ignoring deplorable conditions in housing for low and no income citizens has become a worldwide technique for trimming local government budgets. In North America, it goes hand in hand...
Tomorrow’s Chest Pains Might Lead You To Nearby Public Housing
At affordablehousingaction.org, our posts are replete with the 'yes-no-maybe' issues surrounding existing social/public housing as it exists today. As well as being admittedly much-maligned, it offers potential benefits for...
Lived Experience Tenants Say: ‘One Size Fits All’ Is A Public Housing Bad Idea
Ask movers and shakers among North American public housing activists about their thinking on the grandest scale: what's new? The top of the pops these days is a 'retro'...
Punishment For UK Public Housing Death: A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
Written in 1962, Sung by Bob Dylan without lyrics relating to a Vietnam-linked future ever expressly stated, A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall nevertheless became a prophecy of the horrors...
Post-Covid, Can Vital Internet Access Continue to Support Low Income Folks?
With the COVID-19 pandemic, home internet connectivity became not just desirable, but essential to allow safe distancing from infection. At the heart of this essential connectivity was education, which...
West Australia Report: Non-Profits Can Do Social Housing Better
The current trajectory of almost all deeply affordable housing was decided towards the end of the last century, with the triumph of neoliberal 'small government' politics in influential modern...
COVID Responses Deepen Our Understanding Of The Housing-Health Connection
The connection between housing and health came late to the table when researchers began studying the social determinants of healthTry: Connecting The Housing And Health Dots . Researchers have...
Public Housing May Be Healthier For Your Brain Than Free-Market Palaces
Hey, North American! How would you like to take a tour of a public housing building, get to view the playgrounds, the corridors, and even take a peek inside...
Toronto Seniors Public Housing: Why Big Wasn’t Necessarily Beautiful
Founded in 2002, the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) owned 60,000 homes in the City of Toronto. It was the second largest public housing authority in North America. That's...
Killers Crashing On Public Housing Couches: Time To Mitigate The Myths?
After nearly a century of America's commitment to public housing, a portion of it has survived a relentless propaganda campaign against it by political and business interests, which have...
A Consequence Of Waiting For Social Housing: Collective Ill Health
Why would an Australian state worry itself about a wide range of possible health issues for those living in social housing?
There is a declining stock of social housing that...
Love Thy Neighbours? Report On UK Social Housing Community
A somewhat unconventional collection of survey partners in the United Kingdom have established possible links between a sense of community that binds social housing tenants on one hand and...
Is EnerPHit the Future of Affordable Housing?
Can affordable housing high rises serve the needs of low-income people and cut carbon dioxide emissions at the same time — all at a competitive cost? Let's look at...
Is The Bloom Coming Off HUD’s RAD Roses? Ask Winston-Salem
Are the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and local housing authorities together losing faith in the promise of free enterprise? The test of that question is the...
Phoenix Bike Share: Green And Healthy, Sure. But A Public Service?
Trapped in the public housing heart of a low income community on the wrong side of the tracks? With a little help from the community at large, why not...
Built In 1769, Chase Lloyd Women’s Home Soldiers On In Spirit
What do you do when your mission dies an untimely death? Find another.
Built in 1769 as a private residence, Chase Lloyd House in Annapolis, Maryland has been housing senior...
The High Cost Of Connecting With Social Housing Tenants
With the the 2020 White Paper on Social Housing, the national government of the United Kingdom has sent a message to local governments and housing associations. They need to...
Clawing Back Some Clawbacks Might Reduce Nova Scotia Public Housing Rent
Clawbacks are an almost irresistible government method for penny-pinching. First, harvest good will by promoting a program that seems to provide a kind of lottery win for some lucky...
The Police Dunnit: A Challenging View On Public Housing Crime
There are a variety of opinions on the causes of crime and violence in America's public housing. For example, the architects dunnit: their design failures with their low-budget, corner-cutting...
On The Logic Of Locating Deeply Affordable Housing Close To Work Opportunities
If public housing is meant to be transitional rather than transformativeTry: Public Housing Futures: Transitional Or Transformative?, it follows that public housing must be located within striking distance of...
How Victim-Bashing Has Become A US Housing Solution For The Poor
Governments in the United States (and likely pretty much everywhere else) depend on a docile underclass of unhoused and precariously housed citizens.
In big cities, those applying for limited public...
Getting To The Roots Of The COVID-Poverty “Link”
Eight months ago, The Neighborhood Developers (TND), a non-profit housing provider in the city of Chelsea, Massachusetts, shared news about the COVID infection rates at their properties.
Chelsea residents have...
Mapping A Route To End Domestic Violence In Canada
When you're tackling something as complex as domestic and gender-based violence, it's helpful to have a roadmap. Women's Shelters Canada and others have just completed a Roadmap for the...
“Ambulance Chasing” Lawyers Turn From Whiplash to Social Housing
"Ambulance chasers" is a derogatory term referring to opportunistic lawyers who see an opportunity to earn a fee from an accident situation that was in some way preventable and...
Public or Private landlords: Which Do Rental Housing Most Efficiently?
An article in Sydney, Australia turns conventional wisdom upside down to consider where Australian governments might look to best support housing for tenants.
In doing so, the article overturns some...
Province Ensuring Greater Accessibility In Public Housing
The Canadian Province of British Columbia is evaluating all of BC Housing's homes built since 2019 to determine which units deserve certification as both liveable and accessible. One indication of...
UK Social Landlords: How May I Love Thee? Let Me Discount The Ways
The UK last year published a white paper that outlined more "tenant-friendly" policies, which badly needed implementation on behalf of those who live in the nation's social housing. The...
Public Housing Needs Arts At Its Core. Who Knew? (Other Than Artists)
A Seattle, Washington public housing arts project provides an alternative meaning to "public housing" that has been much neglected in America. That meaning is a focus on "community" rather...
One Bright Idea To Clamp Down On Public Housing Lawbreakers
Policing in poor neighbourhoods of cities, no matter how large or small, is contentious. Public Housing neighbourhoods are no exception. And public housing tenants, particularly in Black dominated American public...
Landlord Unfair: Who’s To Judge? England Believes “Lived Experience” Can Help
The recent United Kingdom Social Housing White Paper put public housing landlords and their managers on notice. A new era is to be born in which fair tenant concerns...
Speaking Up For Public Housing In Connecticut
One third of the households on the waiting list at the Housing Authority of New Haven live outside New Haven's boundaries. The Housing Authority is only allowed to build...
We Had To Go To The Aussie Outback To Learn About Courses For Rental Tenants
Well, we didn't actually go, there, but we found a story published in Australia that turned out to be exactly to the point.
As free market renters, it never actually...
Social/Public Housing An Aboriginal Disaster? Why Not Papakāinga?
There would seem to be nothing quite as catastrophic as Inuit housing in Canada's far north, where much of the population was forcibly resettled much less than a century...
Empty Housing Not Just A Waste Of Shelter But Also A Community Disease
Empty houses plague not only cities, but the countryside. Some are empty because speculators are holding them for a quick turnover in a hot housing market.Try: City Of Vancouver...
The OECD Recommends More Social Housing. It’s A Global Need
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has just issued a policy brief about affordable housing. It begins with an 20 year overview of trends in housing affordability....
“A [COVID] Factor That Came Late To Public Attention: Ventilation.”
Ventilation came late to COVID 19 public attention? Really? Not in this writer's Canadian household, where stories out of East Asia early last spring described in diagrammatic detail how...
Canadian First Nation Seeks Sovereignty Through Housing
Indigenous people who are resident in modern nations may value their often unasked for (and sometimes unwanted) citizenship. But many, if not most, harbour a strong sense of maintaining...
Greet Once-Employed, Now Homeless Hoards: No Salary, Not Even Tips
Good Value = Popular = Crowding = Exuberant Conversation = Infected Spittle-Spatter blown away in a patio wind, but sucked into deadly circulation when trapped indoors. The future of...
Public Housing: For Heaven’s Sake Let The Good Times Roll!
Is social housing a disease or a cure? Half a century spent pondering that question has left neoliberal governments around the world no closer to an answer.
One thing is...
Tenants Call For Green Kitchens In NYCHA Buildings
Tenants living in housing owned by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) have come up with a great idea to get the ball rolling on a Green New...
Can Existing Social Housing Go ‘Green’ One Baby Step At A Time?
A local article from a Welsh newspaper paints in one corner of an enormous issue: 'decarbonization' of United Kingdom's social housing.
Viewed from America, decarbonization or greening, or energy efficiency,...
Calls For Public Housing: Part Of A UK Economic Recovery Plan
In the early days of COVID-19, Guardian reporter Laura Spinney asked if COVID was a consequence of the economy, and not the other way round.Try: COVID-19: Brought To You...
Why Taking The Sting Out Of Debt Letters Isn’t Enough
The UK government is revising the rules for debt letters — those nasty surprises that arrive in the mail to inform you that you are behind in your payments...
Social Housing Tenants Can Manage Themselves, Despite Govt Seal Of Disapproval
As regular as the sun rising in the morning, governments find the management of social housing to be incompetent. CEO of Toronto Community Housing Corporation? It may soon be...
Vancouver, B.C. Eyes A Cleanup Of Downtown SROs Through Public Ownership
Vancouver, B.C. is cursed with one of the highest costs of living in the world and blessed (a teeny tiny blessing) with a considerable quantity of still-existing affordable rent...
An Artist’s Perspective On Community And Housing: Undervalued And Overdue
Artists of many stripes often expect and receive a rough ride when it comes to public understanding and appreciation of their work, let alone in convincing someone or anyone...
Housing Authorities See Benefit In The Education/Training Biz
Crises of affordable housing in many countries are bringing a new appreciation of the importance of government-financed social housing for low and no-income citizens.
Where countries such as the United...
Socially Rented Homes And A Green Recovery
Public housing in Scotland is leading the way to a green recovery, at least according to two people who work at Shepperd and Wedderburn, a UK law firm. Andrew...
Albany Housing Authority Is Ducking COVID News Sensationalism — Plans To DIY
The housing authority in Albany, New York, is apparently fed up with the cacophony of amplified voices providing changes in direction, advice and best practices from moment to moment...
The Selective Seduction Of Adult Homework: For Whom The Siren Doesn’t Call
This scribbler, having been one for much of his adult life, has always enjoyed the benefits of working from home. Also suffered some of the consequences — it's not...
Landlords Vs. Tenants: The New Warm Is Cold
The US is suffering the effects of climate change along with many other countries. Like those countries, it has taken literally centuries before both landlords and governments have come...
Suffering From Illness? Take One Tiny House and Call Us When You’re Better
Imagine that a member of your family has a contagious disease, and your home is too small to protect other family members from the risk of infection. No problem!...
Delaware Experiment: Can Open Door To Public Housing Keep Former Felons From Reoffending?
For many years, U.S. governments at every level have been determined to provide no "free ride" for those newly released from various prison systems.
One incredibly self-defeating consequence of these...
Clever Designs for Tomorrow’s Hobo Jungles
Does a spontaneous camp of the starving homeless profit from design or planning? There are architects who believe so.
Applying the thought to past hobo jungles of the Great Depression...
Nanaimo BC Activists Want Social Housing As A Neighbourhood Feature
A new article about Nanaimo, B.C. affordable housing is an example of growing sophistication by activists who weigh in on truly affordable housing proposals for their local neighbourhoods.
The traditional,...
UK Tenants and Landlords Propose Government Assisted Sharing Structure For COVID-19 Losses
OMG, landlords and Tenants are getting together to put forward a comprehensive plan that will share the burden of COVID-19 with the government. Brilliant! Can this be a signal...
A Call For Change As Promises To Build Social Housing Fail To Deliver
The government of Western Australia recently announced plans to build 15,000 units of green social housing as part of its COVID-19 recovery strategy.Try: WA COVID-19 Recovery Plans Include Green...
Is Belle Park On Its Way To Becoming A Land Trust?
Last month, we shared a story about a homeless encampment at Belle Park in Kingston, Ontario.See: Homelessness Underfoot: Grey Problems For Black And White Decision-Making As of today, the...
Could Remote Working Herald A Transit and Housing Revolution?
The internet has had a remarkable impact on human life, creating powerful new ways in which people can interact. But business has been reluctant to abandon itself to the...
Keys To Ending Homelessness
A team of 15 researchers across Canada wanted to find out what services helped people experiencing homelessness who are living with a mental illness. They reviewed every published study...
Women’s Experience Of Homelessness: What Are We Missing?
A colleague of mine always asks two questions: what are we missing and who is being left out? These questions are especially important in an era where funders and...
Groundbreaking Decision In Vancouver For People Who Are Homeless And People Who Are Two Spirited
Tamara Loyer runs a drop-in for trans women in Vancouver. Loyer welcomed the announcement about a housing project that will be dedicated to people who are transgendered and people...
COVID-19 And A Tested Program That Helps Tenants To Pay Rent
This is a shout out to the Rent Assist program, which operates in the province of Manitoba. It helps all tenants with low incomes to pay their rent and...
Homeless Services For Indigenous People In Canada Get A Boost
A group of researchers in Canada has just issued a guideline for those assisting Indigenous people experiencing homelessness. This assistance is most timely, as Indigenous people are eight times...
Political Shaming Has All But Killed Social Housing In America
Whatever the many reasons behind the collective government destruction of social housing in America, the mechanism of that destruction was straightforward — shaming. Shaming those who lived in social housing...