People

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,...

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...

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...

"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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

"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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

" . . .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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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? 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...

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!...

'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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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, 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...

"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,...

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...

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...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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"...

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...

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...

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 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 ". . ....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 —...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...