How The Chicago Housing Authority Plays Fast And Loose With Its Land
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,...
The Homeless Who Don’t Quite Notice They’ve ‘Sold Their Souls To The Devil’
There are some awfully ugly human behaviours out there in the real world. There are also bad habits that foolhardy local councils of one stripe of another can stumble...
Wraparound Supports, Sure! But Home Decorating? That, Too. Better Believe it!
Affordablehousingaction.org has emphasized the importance of ensuring that there are mental health and drug treatment supports for people who are moving from chronic homelessnessChronic homelessness means homelessness lasting for...
Prince William: The Next Proud Meddler In United Kingdom Politics?
"Who will rid me of this meddlesome prince?Words originally attributed to King Henry II and resulting in the murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury." Those words might well have...
American Music: Legacy of Hollywood Composers? Not For Its Soul. Think Again.
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...
Chronic Homeless Need Help, But Lived Experience Counters Incarceration
The latest fad(?) in solving homeless problems has been dominated by fed-up citizens endlessly encountering dangerous(?) chronic homeless people on the streets. Responding to the concerns of their citizens,...
Old, Tired, Sick? “There is no medicine as powerful as housing.”
The headline comment above comes from Dr. Margot Kushel, director of the University of California's San Francisco’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative. There's more:
"By the time homeless people are...
Bearing Witness To The End Of An Honourable Life
A warning to readers. This post might be a bit of a downer. Being the middle of winter and all, it's a time when tough stuff can be particularly...
America #1 Homelessness Crisis: California. Would You Guess #2: Vermont?
California has the largest number of homeless people per capita in the U.S. It is largely an urban problem, highly visible, much talked about nationally and beyond.
Vermont, the state...
Making Housing Payments Easier
For many of us, housing is the biggest single cost in a household budget. And, we do our best to make sure that housing costs are covered — if/when...
Can L.A. Mayor Karen Bass Pull The Plug On Homelessness, Drain The Wound?
Karen Bass is the new mayor of Los Angeles, California. She is putting her career on the line by committing to tackle effectively that city's mega-homelessness problem.
Already she's winning...
Struggling To Keep Your Home? You’re Not Alone
Many people are struggling to pay their bills. It's a hard reality to face, often because people believe it's their fault and reflects poorly on their character. Even though...
Scotland’s Disabled: There Are Lies, Damned Lies, And . . . Shocking Truths!
When it comes to understanding the plight of disabled Scots, how would you like your learning about the deteriorating availability of suitable affordable housing?
A buried-in-math abstraction? 150% increase to...
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...
Australia Rental Housing Crisis: Criminals Breaking Back Into Jail!
Well, all right. There's a teeny bit of exaggeration in this headline. Prisoners in the Australian State of Victoria aren't actually breaking back into jail. They don't need to,...
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...
The Serendipity Of Canada’s Commitment To Allow Suicide Of The Homeless
Well now, here's a convenience that nobody considered when Canada decided to allow mercy killing of those whose lives had become an unbearable torment. Physical pain was the torment...
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...
Uprooting The Homeless: Meet Them and Cheat Them Today, Lose Their Trust Tomorrow
"When you ain't got nothin', you got nothin' to lose," sang the Bob Dylan in his famous song "Like a Rolling Stone." Dylan is renowned for his great lyrics.
But...
Book Review Of “Rough Sleepers”: A World Revealed Through Loving Eyes
There's a hint that author Tracy Kidder is worth a read, regardless of the subject. His name on the cover of his new book is as prominent as the...
Modern U.S. Society Takes Lack Of ID Card To Be Proof You Don’t Exist
So you're American. Suppose you want to join the military, put your life on the line for your country (and earn the dollars that can lift you out of...
Will Neoliberalism Self-Destruct? Housing For All Is The Ultimate Challenge
Those of us who are immersed in Western society may well consider ourselves as comfortable frogs immersed in slowly heating water, unlikely even to notice being slowly cooked 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...
London, Ontario: Does A Civic Emergency Require Light At The End Of The Tunnel?
Ho Hum, Another Day, Another City Emergency. That's what London, Ontario might be trying to sell in order the access federal and provincial funds available to cities that are...
Unaffordable Housing And The Dumbing Down Of America
Five years ago, Charles Sturt University in New South Wales, Australia discovered that it was running a housing service in their library that they were entirely unaware ofRead more...
Gregory Ain, FBI-Hounded Architect With The Fairest Visions Of America
Gregory Ain wanted to build social housing in Los Angeles. During a lengthy, illustrious career he won a Guggenheim grant to research small, inexpensive, single family homes. Ultimately, the...
New York City Erodes Fragile Human Rights Protection For Mental Health Sufferers
The following Guardian article — a personal diary of one American with mental illness who was incarcerated against her will — is a vision of horror. . . for...
U.S. National Green Bank Can Help Stretch Affordable Housing Dollars
So, what does a green bank do, anyway? According to the article linked below, green banks help make investments in climate change by facilitating loans to customers that banks...
UK Doubts: Having Your Human Rights To Housing & Enjoying Them
Civil society groupsRead more about Civil Society in the World Economic Forum: Who and what is 'civil society?' in the United Kingdom feel they have their finger on...
COVID Avoided Homelessness. Oakland Seeks To Keep Those Good Times Rolling.
Every cloud has a silver lining. COVID's emergency measures to keep the homeless indoors and able to follow social distancing protocols demonstrated an unexpected bonus for preventing homelessness. Not...
Killing The Profiteering Beast: The Inhuman Right to Inadequate Housing
" . . .Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” was the way U.S. President Abraham Lincoln honoured Civil War...
Human Right To Housing: Four Steps To End A USA Eviction Crisis
In a country that is not yet a signatory to the United Nation's Right to Adequate housing, polls show that it has considerable support from the American population.
All very...
Why Living in Skellefteå, Sweden, Might Be Everybody’s Cup Of Teå
The Human Right to Housing commitment of the United Nations has evolved to include the addition of an all-important word: 'adequate.' The Human Right to Adequate Housing is a...
Buck Rogers Goes To Homeless Camp. Who’s That? Read On
Nothing like a little high-tech homeless help to provide a brightener for the day. This post features a modern day Buck Rogers . . . Wait, you've never heard...
NY Teachers Go The Extra Mile For Homelessness, But For How Long?
It's fairly clear by now that your average community citizen has some difficulties facing the human wreckage of homelessness. It provokes exasperation, annoyance and open anger among those whose...
Link Between Homelessness And Poverty Exposes How US Education Cheats Children
In America, large numbers of homeless children do not receive schooling support to which they are entitled. Federal law requires it, but nationally, a considerable number of education districts...
The Purgatory of Homelessness: Easing The Torment of An Endless Wait
Arguments can be (and are) made about the folly of easing the grinding hell of circumstance that imprisons those without housing:
"Governments at every level need to address this homeless...
What Does The Human Right To Adequate Housing Say About Caprice?
Look skyward to find Capricorn, the heavenly goat, among the stars. Look to Youtube and search for 'baby goat.' After a little browsing you'll have some idea of capricious...
Homelessness Triggered: Then The Same ‘Old’ Before-And-After Story
This post is about older lives, lived on a fixed income. That's a dangerous state of affairs, given that much of free market North American society accepts that just...
Can NIMBYs Change Their Spots? Yes! (But It May Take A Little Work)
Princeton, British Columbia. Ed Farkas and his wife freely admit they came out as full bore NIMBYs, spitting fire and raging on at local council to deal with the...
P.E.I. YIMBY — Like The Province, Small And Beautiful
Indignant behaviour is undoubtedly worthy of a seat at the front table of the housing crisis. It is such a commonplace entry in the blame game that the acronym...
A Homeless Man Pays Homage To His Pets
The importance of pets to people who are homeless is well understood by some, and dismissed as an undeserved indulgence by others. Affordablehousingaction.org has voiced support for pets with...
Homeless Prison Time? Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me.
Where, on a list of places to call home, does a prison fall? Right at the bottom for most. But, as it turns out, right at the top for...
A Bad Night’s Sleep For A Good Cause? Try Homeless Lived Experience
Lived Experience? Some decision-makers need more of it. Recently, there has been a considerable push for lived experience to back up government and homeless/housing support agencies by those advocated...
Can The Lure of Farming Lift Women Out of Homelessness?
It is said by experts that long ago, pre-history in fact, the men hung about uselessly, drinking and carousing in Stone Age men's clubs, reluctantly picking up a spear...
The Plight Of A Homeless Veteran — Lucky Old Fart
Consider an American veteran who fought for his country. Getting on now. A loner who led a successful life: money, home, car, etc, until bad investments brought him down...
America And Other Countries Are Treating The Tip Of The Homeless Iceberg
Isabel McDevitt kicks off her article for The Hill, with the following headline: The typical homeless person in America might surprise you.As she explains it, only one in five people who are...
Courage, Democratic Process, And Freedom: Keys To Strengthening Tenancies?
In 2017 (around the time affordablehousingaction.org started posting), researchers from universities in Spain and Chile published a review of academic literature that investigated the connection between eviction, health and...
Garden Allotment Wars: Something Public Housing Needs To Support?
Potty: United Kingdom slang for someone who is a little bit daft. (Daft, in turn, is slang for someone who is somewhat potty) Its origins are not generally agreed...
Outreach Police Officer Stabbed To Death In Homeless Encampment
Tent encampments are little islands of anarchy, with inhabitants attempting to survive in opposition to, or at best outside of, society's rules. Encampments of people experiencing homelessness in North...
Q: How Grateful Are The Homeless For Spare Change? A: Woof!
As we swing off Toronto's Lakeshore Boulevard away from Lake Ontario, we are caught frequently in a left-hand turn lane, waiting for a green light. Parading beside our car...
This Is Historic Wales. Does Just Anybody Have A Right To Live Here?
Wales, which is part of the United Kingdom, is currently experiencing a 'right to adequate housing' crisis — one that is frequently ignored by countries that have signed the...
Challenging Canada’s Denial Of Health Care: A Path To Housing Rights?
Ontario's Superior Court has issued a decision in a case with significant implications for the right to adequate housing. The case involves Nell Toussaint, who has been challenging the...
Shelter Or Starvation? Tough Choice On An Empty Stomach
Middle class and up? You can afford to be wasteful. There's at least a little bit of money to burn.
Very low — even no — income? Every penny has...
Bankers In The Boonies, Goat Farms In The City: A New Topsy-Turvy World?
Bankers in the Boonies? This writer first encountered it as a marry-in to the poor relations of a cottage-owning family. We got a snippet of holiday this year in...
Public Housing Musical Chairs With CryptoBucks? Sit This One Out?
Gather round, public housing poor folks with toothpaste money to invest. Skip the rinse and spit and put those hard working cavity-prevention pennies into the black magic of cryptocurrency!...
Time To Get Out Your Hip Waders And Plunge Into Sewer Socialism?
'Me Too, Me Too!' Canada has a tendency to behave like the annoying little kid on the block who hero-worships the Big Kid who lives one block south. For...
London, Ontario City Council Pulls Rank on Church Homeless Welfare Staffing
Consider a spat between a London, Ontario church on one hand and that city's council on the other. It brings to mind a recent spat between a historic English...
How Canada’s Housing Crisis Affects Newcomers
Canada made a big deal of welcoming refugees from Syria in 2015. Settlement services and communities geared up as the country prepared for a host of new children in...
Want A Civilized, Low Key, Homeless Tent Clearance? Ask A Peer To Do It.
Seattle Lawyer Lisa Daugaard is no foe of the police. In 2019 she won a MacArthur “genius” award for her assistance in developing a police-involved court diversion program. It...
Age Strips Away Our Shock Absorbers. Homelessness Kills Older People
The stability of your surroundings is a clear health benefit as you age. Nursing Home administrators have long known that your state of health can depend upon your particular...
Will LA Citizens Vote For Homeless Boinking In Their Adjacent Hotel Room?
Homeless Boinking? We're trying to imagine the worst here. What could be the result of Los Angeles voting to allow the homeless to overnight in unused hotel rooms? With...
‘True’ YIMBY? Yes In My Back Yard? Who Knew? Atlanta Did, And Still Does
Introducing Atlanta's Mad Housers, a name birthed from a really bad joke . . . that stuck. It all began with architectural students from Georgia Tech who designed some...
Who Cares? Barcelona Knows, And Is Setting Out To Care For Carers
A study by the Institute of Regional and Metropolitan Studies of Barcelona has identified some 355,000 citizens who spend at least a portion of their time caring for the...
Designing Tomorrow’s Social Housing. Will Humans Be Out Of A Job?
A picture is often worth a thousand words of fun and fancy. When it comes to truly affordable housing we know this because, over the past few years, one...
Boosting Tenants’ Safety And Stability
Have you ever been in the situation where someone told you with great authority that you had to do some particular thing? Whatever it was, you didn't want to...
From Free And Safe Transit To Jobs For Public Housing Tenants
Hop on, hop off. Free transit may well be a social leveller whose time has come. What has it got to do with public housing? 'Location, location, location' is...
What Would You Lose If Bulldozers Flattened Your Home?
Here's an opportunity to reflect on what you — and others — might cherish and mourn if your home was swept away by some deliberate, government approved action.
Two back-to-back...
Wait A Sec! Are Homeless Shelters Meant To Be Student Residences?
A Toronto homelessness story carries us firmly into the land of unexpected results, by way of understanding the evolving nature of homelessness.
One description of homelessness is most convenient for...
Homeless And Hospitalized — Where Next?
Jamille Whitlow is a journalism intern at NC Healthnews. She's winkled out this story about Samaritan House in Charlotte, North Carolina, an idea that is the brainchild of two...
A Penny For Your Life? Survival Costs In A Land No Longer Free
How quickly civilization fades in a deteriorating empire. Only a few decades ago, arguably the greatest country in the world could imagine a civilization without slums. To achieve it,...
Harris County Tries Something Different To End Homelessness
Harris County, Texas has had a Housing First program since 2011For more information about Housing First, try: What Is Housing First? Why Is It So Popular? and A Handbook...
Co-Housing Benefits Beyond Student House Parties On The Cheap
"And who shall tidy this?" quoth the elders (not very old) their faces freighted with wisdom beyond their years. And lo, the others hung their heads and scuttled away,...
Housing Community Design: ‘Right To Contribute’ Beyond ‘Right To Be Heard’
Victor Body-Lawson heads an architecture studio that designs affordable housing in the United States and Africa. He describes a recent moment of pleasure when he read a housing proposal...
Partner, Gone. House, Gone. Growing Old On A Car Ride To Nowhere
Young and Homeless because of
substance use
mental health
aging out of care
mistreatment at home
pure adventurism
financial mismanagement
relationship breakdown . . . .
The list of possible...
Evictees Unite! You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Debt
America is facing an extraordinary debt crisis. Before the COVID pandemic, it was already a new 'normal'.
Overwhelming debt creeps up on people in differing ways. Where housing rental is...
Back In The Closet Again? Lonely, Aging, Support Services For LGBT+
Aging? Attracted to those sunshine-filled photos of casually (and expensively) dressed, gorgeous older folks, cheering themselves with raised arms because their pickle-ball team has just won (again).
Who isn't attracted....
Lifting Up A Vision Of Community Through Gardening
Jacob Beaton and Jessica Ouellette were rookie gardeners when they bought a property near Kitwanga in a rural part of British Columbia. In the first year, the garden produced...
There Was A Basic Human Survival Need That Wasn’t Being Met. So . . .
This post features two stories about ways that people help each other out. One started in church. The other began with a question.
Back in 2005, Jacqui Haynes noticed that...
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...
How An Architect Stands Accused Of Trashing US Public Housing Tenants
Fifty years ago, could one ego-driven man have seriously damaged the health and integrity of America's public housing tenants by accusing them all of being driven "mad" or "bad"...
Housing And Support – Foundations For Mental Health
The UK government is at work revamping its mental health strategy. Organizations are offering up studies and advice. There are calls to strengthen the connection between mental health care...
A Story Of Homelessness In Los Angeles – From Pregnancy To Motherhood To Loss
The following story was born when videographer Claire Hannah Collins made a proposal to the Los Angeles Times. As the video developed, Gale, a Staff Writer at the Los...
Deeply Affordable Housing Is Needed – Is A Donation The Best I Can Do?
This post starts with an story about Mères avec pouvoir, which supports single moms in Montréal, Québec. The wraparound services include help with child care, education and housing. The...
Social Tenants, Move Out For A While. It’s Good For The Planet
"Social housing tenants need reassurance on decarbonising homes." That's a headline that is revisited below in this post.
These days, it's also the punch line, as in ". . ....
Why Not Confront The Sweltering Homeless With Frosty Love?
This summer of 2022, the media in Europe is replete with advice for mad dogs and Englishmen planning to go out in the midday sunRead in The Guardian: Why...
Homelessness And Litter: A Positive, Cheap-At-The Price Tale From San Diego
Disgruntled home/business owners, little or no civic budget, litter mounting up, the homeless lurking everywhere to take the blame for being alive and underfoot: it's a currently familiar tale...
Might Be A Risk As A Tenant? State Will Make It Risk-Free
For landlords, there's no such thing as a no-risk tenant. This writer lives in a 60 unit building and considers the superintendent a friend. The super has plenty of...
School Homeless Shelter Model Gives Families A Safety Net
One foot is planted in the alien distraction of a homeless shelter, the other in a nearby school, which is most likely a bus ride away. How are homeless...
Violence And Women’s Experiences Of Homelessness
For years, Canadian governments have responded to women's homelessness in two different ways. One provides supports to women living with a violent partner (domestic violence)When violence is part and...
What’s In An Irish Name? Living Wage Goes Toe To Toe With Minimum Wage
Once upon a time in Ireland, the minimum wage that employers were required to pay employees happened to be about 60% of the national medianThe median is the middle...
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...
A Story About Public Housing Success . . . (Missing: Public Housing)
Jeanette Taylor was an 18-year-old single mum when she applied to the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA). She was struggling to get through school — unthinkable that she wouldn't —...
Housing Help? You Could Kick Ass And Take Names Like Kwajo Tweneboa
It's not too hard to describe 'adequate housing.' The United Nations has done so. It shouldn't be all that difficult to get entire nations to commit to the principle...
Housing Opportunities In The Midst Of Extreme Poverty In Texas
Brownsville, Texas borders on Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico. It sits in the delta of the Rio Grande River. It is low and flat, floods regularly and "gets...
Australia Welcomes Its First Public Housing-Raised Prime Minister
Hats off to a public housing urchin who has made it all the way to Prime Minister of Australia. Anthony Albanese grew up in a 1927 public housing development...
Activists Take Note: Homelessness Needs Ambassadors, Too. Like These
Do we need more activist explanations that parse such critical details as 'visible' and 'invisible' homelessness, as well as the specific health challenges suffered by the 'chronic' homelessness (not...
A Garden That Grew Out Of The Tragedy Of The Grenfell Tower Fire
As the public inquiry about the Grenfell Tower fire grinds onFor example, read this account in The Guardian: ‘A merry-go-round of buck-passing’: inside the four-year Grenfell inquiry , it...
Darn! Another Unexpected Public Housing Good News Story
Happy to be happy? Or happy to be miserable? This writer was most likely enjoying the latter state of mind just a few days ago. He was pacing around...
Changing Modern Libraries: Needs To Suit, And Suits to Need
Over the years, different city libraries have experienced long-standing relationships with the poor and the homeless. For the quieter down-and-out visitors, or those prepared to put a lid on...
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