Role Models

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

From abundance fifty years ago, the Christmas Island Forest Skink is now extinct. Gump died. She was the last of her kindTry:Extinction obituary: the sudden, sad disappearance of the...

How can you help if you're only fifteen? Suppose you became aware that some fifteen-year-olds are both like you, and profoundly NOT like you, because they are already mothers...

The world is scheduling the abandonment of gas and petroleum power. So bring on electricity! That demand is being energized by activists and, increasingly, by government. And when governments...

In North America, we're accustomed to Police Associations as reactive. Defending this officer or that from allegations of this or that. Lobbying this jurisdiction or that to prevent reduction...

It's only taken, what? — 900 odd years or so to make the change, but the United Kingdom has converted at least some corners of the National Office of...

Jan Grue has Muscular Dystrophy. He is a professor at the University of Oslo in the Department of Sociology and Human Geography. Grue was born in 1981, the International Year...

Americans near one of the world's longest borders as well as Canadians (indeed, most of the country's population), share the same winter weather. The homeless are the most vulnerable...

A city such as Hamilton, Ontario, with a population of 560,000, fields an emergency call whose sketchy details suggest it might — just might be — triggered by a...

L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, is one of the densest cities in Spain and lies just southwest of Barcelona. It's suffering from a serious crisis of housing price rises followed by...

Homelessness will be solved, nation by nation, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, as individuals are sufficiently moved by this tragedy to actively add their efforts, however small. to the collective will....

Here's a thoroughly heart warming piece of good news straight out of a child's storybook with a storybook's tearfully happy ending. A young boy with a serious disease is...

The COVID-19 pandemic initiated a scramble to protect both communities and residents who were homeless. Some of the actions have been shown to be well-intentioned but wrong-headedTry: Shelter “Option”...

For those of us who are on the lower end of the income scale, it's critical that we extract the best value for the money we spend. This principle...

If you live in a large city anywhere, it's not hard to put eyes on the dominating concept for the municipal change: "top down" city development. Just gaze on...

Fiercely Dependent? Well, it certainly makes a change from the more usual journalistic pronouncement: "Fiercely Independent: Reporting the news the way WE see it." The Halifax Examiner is looking for a little...

Advocates and community organizations are calling attention to inequities in the housing market in the United States. The burden of COVID-19 (who gets sick, who has to go to...

This post is part of a series about ways that people provide support to those who experience homelessness. The idea that "we treat everyone as kin" resonates through the...

Across Canada, we're somewhat envious of the Maritime provinces, which have managed to keep their COVID infection numbers to a minimum. However, COVID's economic effects are definitely being felt...

This post is part of a series about ways that people provide support to those who experience homelessness. The idea that "we treat everyone as kin" resonates through the...

This week, affordablehousingaction.org initiates a series of posts about projects where people provide support to those people who experience homelessness. The inspiration for this series draws from an indigenous definition...

It's easy to dismiss the ideas and perceptions of those who live in "housing of last resort." Barricaded in poorly maintained apartments, crunching across needles strewn in hallways, harassed for...

There is nothing new about the need to support education for lowest income families. Schooling is seen everywhere as the ticket out of poverty. Alas, in the US three...

When compared with Canada as a whole, people in the Territory of Nunavut are four times more likely to live in a home in need of major repairs. Homes...

Can't get elected as a city councillor in The Soo?The Soo is the nickname of Sault (pronounced 'Soo') Ste. Marie in the province of Ontario If you're a carpenter...

The Mayor of London is himself an example of the benefits of public housing, largely abandoned as unworkable in America. He grew up in one, takes pride in the...

At the latest Group of Seven(G7) get-together in Biarritz, France, Trump and his aides made it clear that official federal policy, regardless of the views of the American people,...

Marx was a classical economist who predicted that capitalism would self-destruct, then offered some predictions about what might replace it. It was Lenin, not Marx, who proposed putting capitalism...

It seems that the lucrative harvest of quasi-felons that enriches the American jailing industry is growing disproportionately female. Further, the lack of affordable housing may play a significant role...

If you are someone toiling in the trenches to develop affordable housing, you'll know it's a complex business, with a fair bit of learn-as-you-go. You've probably seen enough professional education...

NIMBY almost inevitably marred a recent heart-warming Toronto tale of a single family's selfless gift to homeless women. A family purchased a mansion-sized house on a five lane commuter corridor...

In every field of human endeavour, there are strong people with the courage and perseverance to overcome difficulties and achieve success. There are far fewer with the courage, compassion...

Perhaps you know Karl Marx as the spawn of the devil who invented the Soviet Union, winner of the free world's Top Evil Empire Prize year after year for...

Squatter's rights: hard to believe they have any. But they do, along with a host of wrongs, such as trespass. Ask Steven DeCaprio. He's been there. A squatter living in the...

In the United States, the current Republican-dominated congress, the president, big businesses and wealthy cronies have dined out on a 1.5 trillion dollar tax break which will supposedly more...

Are you friendly and outgoing? Shrewd, with a head for financial details and nose for business? Driven and hard-working? A team player with management skills necessary to effectively harness...