Government and Politics

If I said to you that thousands of deeply affordable homes could become available in Ontario through policy change, you might wonder if my head had come away from...

It's amazing how much society knows about tent encampments occupied by the unhoused, (or homeless, if you prefer). It seems we apparently know that: most are drug addicts...

Are you North American and worried about the seemingly unmanageable growth of homelessness in your state or province? Are you thinking perhaps of moving to a kindler, gentler world,...

Recently, Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario, invited Ontario's mayors to request that he invoke the Notwithstanding ClauseThe Notwithstanding Clause refers to a provision in Canada's constitution, which allows...

Cement. A universal building ingredient. Also a substantial source of CO2, which we humans have been producing in excessive amounts. We need housing and we need to get levels of...

In an annual race to the housing bottom, Canada generally (and Vancouver B.C specifically) has been anointed as proud losers. That's in world-wide competitions for cities demonstrating the least...

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...

We've deemed it suitable to worry about the sane future of heat pumps from Canada. That's affordablehousingaction.org's native home perspective: between the devil (USA) and the deep blue sea...

Let's set aside convenient fallacies that all cops are sadistic brutes. And that all the unhoused are crazoid drug fiends. Let's take a much broader view of the participants in...

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...

An article in Axios informs its readers about a 'pure' form of homeownership in the United States. How is it pure? The owner can't obtain mortgage insurance. The reporter,...

In 2020, New Castle County in Delaware found itself the proud owner of a multi-storey hotel. It was the early days of COVID, and the building was quickly repurposed...

The City of Calgary in Alberta is growing, but not in the right places. The City's plan calls for adding population in parts of the city that are already...

A recent article in TheMAYOR.eu reports on cautious explorations of new attitudes towards a power source that has been discredited but is now regaining acceptance. A startling aspect of...

It began as the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI). Actually, that's not quite correct. In 1990 it began as an organization called the Local Governments for Sustainability, a...

America, like many other countries around the world, is slowly waking up to a reality that many of its population can no longer afford housing. As a result, those...

The National government in the United Kingdom has introduced legislation to re-balance the relationship between private sector landlords and their tenants. Here are a few of the changes that...

A few short years ago, the term 'Affordable Housing' had one meaning securely anchored to the pocketbook of a householder. When housing cost more than 30% of gross income,...

Camp Resolution, a homeless encampment in Sacramento, was closed on August 27, 2024. About 50 people were living there when trespassing notices were issued. Residents were offered space in...

Experience the opportunity to idle at a newly-installed stop light protecting a shiny new housing development. Take sideways glances at shiny new residences. Do you feel you know who...

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 article linked to this post is a good example of bringing the voice of lived experience to research. The research subjects in the study are young people who...

This post is inspired by the Mayor of Aurora, Colorado, who undoubtedly sacrificed some comfort to experience Housing First. According to the Mayor, Housing First is a loser. It plain...

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on the case of Grants Pass v Johnson, what’s next? This post is the third in a four-part series about post-decision...

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on the case of Grants Pass v Johnson, what’s next? This post is the second in a four-part series about post-decision...

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on the case of Grants Pass v Johnson, what’s next? This post is the first in a four-part series about post-decision...

Just who in Multnomah CountyMultnomah County includes Portland and five other cities in the state of Oregon won an award for its innovations to serve older people who...

Fernanda Canales is an internationally celebrated architect from Mexico. In an interview with Erin Tallman of Archiexpo, Canales describes the effect of achieving international recognition, including gaining status as an...

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...

Morning constitutionals at affordablehousingaction.org occur often and usually take place among houses in a leafy neighbourhood. A fair number of churches dapple this leafy neighbourhood, and many have not...

Here in Canada, sleeping beside the United States, we are sometimes cautious in our departures from the latest loony tunes that trickle north across the border. Canada seems sensibly committed...

It would be nice to always snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, but sometimes we just have to make the most of grabbing a useful defeat from what...

Brownfields is the name given to lands that have been in commercial/industrial use and no longer needed for that purpose. They are often contaminated with industrial and chemical waste,...

If Shakespeare lived in a modern multimedia universe and wrote about extreme poverty instead of kings, would a part of his work product look anything like "Sandwiches?" Sandwiches is one of...

An ambitious guidebook has been produced for cities that have committed to reducing the carbon footprint of housing in their communities. The book includes product reviews of construction alternatives...

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...

After a dramatic rescue of a tourist-serving essential service (an ice cream van), who can doubt the admirable heroism of sea-going splurgers from outa town? Here's an example in...

The price of generating electricity with wind or the sun is coming down. Battery storage capacity is also growing. Plans for new coal plants are being cancelled and old...

Apartheid in South Africa officially ended 30 years ago. Even though the country's constitution confirms that all citizens have a right to adequate housing, cities are still physically divided...

The housing storm growling on the horizon is now overhead, beating down upon the United Kingdom and impacting significantly on its recent national election. The New Economics Foundation (NEF) offers...

Three academics who are based in Canada have written a thoughtful article about preventing homelessness as it is practised in the global north. The authors are strong advocates for prevention....

Did you know that a potato chip packet might survive for thousands of years in landfill, or alternately adrift on wind or ocean currants, literally helping to trash the...

What price shelter? It sure as heck doesn't come free. Whether you rent or own what many countries in the world see adequate shelter as an basic human right,...

The story linked to this post is about the art of the possible. A lot of the earth is covered with roofs, especially in urban areas. There are multiple roof...

Research in the United States has been connecting safe, stable affordable housing with health care. This post is the final in a short series about how the research is...

As the 10th most expensive city in the world to live in, Toronto has been trapped in a no-win nightmare of rental housing unaffordability. The price is being paid...

A collection of residents in Ontario, Canada, have been meeting to discuss how public policies and programs could end homelessness and make housing more affordable. The group includes people...

A conservative U.S. Supreme court is currently considering the circumstances, if any, that would permit an individual American to demand housing as a RIGHT. Since such a right is...

So how does a local government become an expert in managing homelessness, a problem that has been ignored for too long? Invest in salesmanship that something is being done when...

If you have been following the unfolding of Canada's commitment to the right to adequate housing, there's a new report to check out. The subject is evident in the report's...

There has been lots of media coverage about the rise in housing prices across the United States starting in 2020 and continuing through 2022, when COVID restrictions were widespread....

The Guardian published an article by author David Van Reybrouk in 2016, not long after the United Kingdom had voted by the slimmest of margins to leave the European...

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....

Unhoused, or in danger of becoming so? What are you at risk of losing? Some things are perfectly obvious: for example, a waterproof roof you can call your own. Not...

At affordablehousingaction.org, we often read that experience of homelessness should guide policy and program design. The article linked to this post delivers advice for the UK's refugee system, based...

Standing in front of parliament buildings and singing is not usual response to an eviction notice. But that's what Martin Leahy did. Leahy plays guitar, sings and composes. When he...

We've heard it all before. Zoning is blocking the path to building new housing. But when you read this article from National Public Radio (NPR), you begin to get...

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation reckons that 3.8 million people in the United Kingdom face destitution. Universal Credit, the country's social safety net, doesn't provide enough to cover basic needs....

Are you an older woman? If so, this post, as well as the report it unveils, speaks directly to you. The words and experiences are those of our global...

Folklore makes 'sneakers' into American running shoes. It can take considerably more than a few steps in a pair to make an immigrant into an American citizen. Part of that...

If your first language is English, you may be satisfied that the true peasant's revolt — the Peasants' Revolt — happened in England in the 14th centuryWikipedia offers a...

The second in three-post series explores how we as humans come to grips with social issues. The series starts in Australia, where cost-benefit analysis has been applied to two...

While there is general agreement that there is a housing crisis, there are longstanding debates about how to fix it. One of those debates is about where new housing...

In a recent publication, The Harvard Political Review details two forms pernicious ill-health that is killing increasing numbers of global citizens including Americans. Climate change is one. The other...

The article linked to this post is about Finland's remarkable achievement in reducing homelessness. The success lies in its country-wide adoption of Housing First, an evidence-based program to end...

Public power utilities are not a new idea, but the one described in this article is a little different. It started as a discussion about reducing flooding in the community...

One of the most powerful images expressed by a newpaper cartoon came in the 1950's from Pogo, a socially aware cartoon opossum. He reported on impending warfare with a...

Hospitals have discovered that there is more to the cost of demolishing houses than the demolition and disposal feeTry: Urban Redevelopment: A Case Of Failing To See Who’s There...

Welcome to the Brave New World of a "Green New Deal' for housing. Over the last thirty-odd years two major English language nations have demonstrated effective ways to slowly squeeze...

How much damage can politicians do? Can they kill people, directly or indirectly? Unfortunately, recent research is showing that in California at least that the answer is, intended or...

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...

Many countries in Far East are in a tizzy. The cause: their citizens are reluctant to have children. Public health incentives are being deployed everywhereAs one example, try: Waiting...

There are idylic properties, both realized and imagined, to be found beside rivers and lakes. As featured in the famous song written and sung by Otis Redding: "I'm sittin' on...

No Plan. No Zoning. No Partnerships. No Money. No Supervision. No purpose. A large American city is tackling a program to, at the very least, support SOME changes that...

"They paved paradise and put up a parking lot . . ." Joanie Mitchell's famous words featured 'paradise' destroyed by car culture. Times have changed, and parking lots have earned...

What the headline proposes seems a little harsh, doesn't it? And yet we can find articles about authorities that would seem to be moving tentatively down that road. Here...

'Gentle Densification' is one way (in the United Kingdom at least) to build more housing in a world gone unaffordably mad as housing 'financialization' forces housing prices up and...

Yes, it gets cold in the Mile-High-City, Denver Colorado. And yes, in Denver, like many American cities, the number of people who have no home is growing. It's not...

We admit to the attraction of leftie arguments that seldom hold sway in Parliament, but at least reflect exasperation with modern neoliberal non-solutions stalled-out around just about every government...

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...

Hey homies! How come your schemes to solve the growing community homeless problems keep falling flat? It may well be because you won’t stop listening to yourselves, even though you...

Hat's off and sunscreen on for members of Hong Kong's Fanling Golf Club, the oldest in the region. They've just managed to win a prestigious UNESCO (United Nations Educational,...

Every country creates its own responses to homelessness. The Kerslake Commission on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping (the Kerslake Commission) is one of many initiatives in the United Kingdom. The...

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...

A recent essay by Mario Polèse provides an opportunity to consider the usefulness of making comparisons of housing costs in different jurisdictions. Polèse is professeur émérite at the Institut...

COP28 was the world's latest climate change conference. The fooferaw about a phase-out of decidedly 'ungreen' fossil fuel energy somewhat obscured some other developments at the conference, including consideration...

We're all familiar with the damage that a hurricane can leave in its wake. People with damaged properties scramble to get temporary accommodation. Repairing and cleaning a property can...

The Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program (LIHTC by common usage, pronounced Lie-tek) has become the major source of affordable housing supply in the United States. With commitments to community...

Continuing with the theme of cross-subsidy funding for affordable housing, here is another article from the United Kingdom. This one is about greenfield development, which refers to building new...

Without pretending to be exhaustive in any way, this is a post that offers some assistance to folks looking to understand which way a 'green energy' future lies. Such issues...

"So . . . let's run these homeless leeches out of town. Surely it can't cost more than following them from park to park, sidewalk to sidewalk, in order...

The rest of the world slowly adapts to the idea that homeless people are not all depraved junkies, but mostly people who can't afford homes. Not in Missouri, however,...

Neoliberal thought has changed the world for several decades of application by governments and industries. That change has ultimately not fulfilled its dreams, although many still continue to adhere...

Last month, we shared the work of FRAPRU, a organization made up of 80+ national, regional and local organizations active in the Province of QuebecFRAPRU aligns with the organization's...

It's hard to pick a winner in tomorrow's great affordable energy race to avoid overheating the planet. Scotland is sure that the future belongs to Heat Pumps. They are already...

In answer to the question posed in the headline — 'point in time' counts tell us not a lot about absolute numbers of people experiencing homelessness. That's because unleashing...

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:...

Reading the news these days informs us that we are facing multiple crises: climate change, housing and political discord are three examples. The level of political discord makes it...

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...