Renting

Issues and events particular to affordable rental housing

A Residential Solar Statement In Germany

Solar panels are blooming on balconies across Germany: more than 1 million panels have been installed. Climate change is one of the reasons that people are installing the panels, but...

Housing Dead Weight? Habitat For Humanity Struggles

In 2019, Affordablehousingaction.org reported that Habitat For Humanity's highly successful housing ownership program was being threatened in California. A major problem was the high cost of housing in that...

The Canada Housing Benefit — A Journey In Wonderland?

A rent supplement program in the Canadian province of New Brunswick excludes people with disabilities. This seems odd, as people with disabilities have higher housing costs and lower incomes...

An Ingenious Way To Add To Ontario’s Supply Of Affordable Housing

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...

Australia’s Housing Policies Hold Tenants Back From Enjoying Their Homes

10 academic researchers have come together to investigate tenants in Australia. Why? The researchers wanted to find out whether the current laws and regulations are a good fit for people...

Head Leasing As An Australian Affordable Housing Solution

Successful and predominantly middle-class countries are nevertheless uniquely different around the world. Take investors, for example. Some 90 percent of them in Australia are 'Mum and Dad' investors. Small...

No More Little Boxes? Hong Kong Re-Thinks Its Housing Responsibility

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...

Putting Non-Market And Market Rental Housing To The Test In Canada

Canada has a long history of public support for housing. A lot of that support has gone to the private sector for housing that people own and for housing...

A Sorry Story For Canadian Renters

Canada's private rental housing market is no longer affordable for people with modest incomes. We know this thanks to research by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (the CCPA). The...

Are Rents Driving Food Bank Use In Toronto?

People in Toronto are struggling to put food on the table. The annual report of food bank activity, called Who's Hungry 2024, has some very large numbers. There were...

Charting An End To Eviction Law In The U.S.

"Civil government . . . is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have...

New Zealand Study Puts Bittersweet Boots To ‘No Place Like Home’

Here's a stunning conclusion from a New Zealand study of occupant satisfaction in major styles of housing. Public Housing tops the occupant satisfaction scale. Now surely there must be some...

Is The End Of United Kingdom No-Fault Evictions In Sight?

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...

Gardening While A Tenant – Why Not?

Jaimee Frances Edwards is growing plants in her garden. She has no illusions that she'll enjoy the fruits of her labour in the years ahead. She's well aware that...

Yes To Property Management Standards For The U.S. Housing Industry

Massive rent increases, poor housing conditions and high eviction rates are earning residential landlords some bad publicity. These practices have been linked to large private equity firms that have...

Low Income Family? Survival Practices That Can Backfire And Leave You Unhoused

Housing tailored to those least able to afford it? The concept is having something of a renaissance world-wide. Of the many possible ways of designing this kind of housing,...

Is Your Over-Age Stay-At-Home Kid Helping Mask A World Housing Crisis?

Worldwide, this year has brought Spain into focus as a country suffering from a housing imbalance caused by tourism. This post is NOT principally about that story — a...

Gunfights At The Not-So-OK Tourist Corral

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...

By 2028 10,000+ Homes In Barcelona Will Be For Citizens, Not Tourists

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...

Why New Rental Housing In Toronto Isn’t Easing Its Housing Crisis

Here's a post for Canadians and others who don't follow the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC) About That series. The story called Why are so many big-city condos sitting empty?...

Rents And Homelessness In The US: Are They Connected?

There is a debate about why people become homeless in the United States. Some people see the rental market as the issue. Others think that personal factors, such as...

A Lyrical Housing Protest In Ireland

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...

Tenants In Ontario Find An Ally In The Green Party

With two sitting members, the Green Party is not a big presence in Ontario's Legislative Assembly. When it comes to tenants, though, Green Party Members are definitely tuned in. The...

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...

Lifting The Curtain On Private Rental Housing In The U.S.

Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) reports annually on the state of the  private rental housing market in the United States. Recent reports have coined a new term:...

Sacrificing To Afford Housing. Really? Sacrificing? You Better Believe it!

The American Dream may well be anchored in your very own pot of gold that supports your Housing Ladder, offering you wealth and prosperity. Turns out, however, that earning...

Older Adults Leaving Big Cities To Escape High House Prices

Here are two reports that have significance for seniors living in England. The first report, prepared by Independent Age, analysed data about where seniors are living. The data is from...

Sharing Rents In Ontario To Level The Playing Field In Rent Negotiations

Tenants and housing advocates in Ontario may be surprised that Ontario's landlord-tenant rules on evictions are considered best practices in British ColumbiaFor more on proposed eviction reforms in British...

Why And How To Change Eviction Law In British Columbia, Canada

The phrase 'everyone needs a home' rings true as the snow flies outside this writer's window. Everyone Needs A Home is also a fitting title for First United's report...

“Just Let Us Build More” — Homelessness Solved! Er . . . Apparently 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...

Tenants’ Opportunity To Purchase In Washington D.C. Goes Under The Microscope

The Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) in Washington D.C. has been in place for more than 40 years. Until now no one has evaluated TOPA against its objectives....

Germany, Famous for Building Better, Builds Better Home Rental Lifestyles

Renting in the United Kingdom? Perhaps you have lived a life summed up by the following: moving through no less than 10 different homes over 15 years, the journey...

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...

World Hunt For Effective Affordable Housing Strategies, Canada Edition

NIMBY? YIMBY? Affordablehousingaction.org is based in Canada. We have taken the attitude that, where it comes to affordable housing, it is possible to learn from what's going on in...

How Many Renters Can Dance on A Housing Pinhead? In The UK, Not Enough

Renter-capabilities for an Oxbridge U. graduate with a plummy accent and impeccable manners? A breeze. Renter-capabilities for an average UK young adult of average colour (beige?), unimposing academic credentials (GCE),...

Here Today Gone Tomorrow – Housing Solutions That Don’t Satisfy ‘Adequate’ Right To Housing

There's something useful to be learned about housing in general by considering the health benefits of stable housing for older people. We may not be as adaptable as we'd...

Housing Discussion Forums – Opening Pandora’s Box?

If you are looking for ways to hold discussions about housing issues, you might want to check out the Housing Hangouts that are hosted by the University of North...

Housing Costs For Citizens In Spain Dragged Through The Roof By Tourists

In 2017, the Spanish anarchist group, Arran, undertook a series of actions against tourists. These added up to some frightening encounters in which international visitors imagined themselves on the...

Economists Speak Out In Support Of Rent Controls In The United States

A group of economists have signed on to a letter in support of rent controls in the United States. The letter, which has 30 signatures, responds to a call from...

Evictions In Public Housing: No Good Guy Landlord Here

We'll take a running jump at a predominantly American post, beginning on the east side of the Atlantic. Over the last few years, social housing tenants in the British...

In A Land Of Accused Bad Tenants, Police To Finger Landlords To Take The Fall

Do we dare wish for global acceptance of a recent directive to the London, England police? It highlights landlords as the probable culprits in landlord/tenant disputes over evictions. Rather...

Why Efforts To Fix Canada’s Housing Crisis Aren’t Working

Ricardo Tranjan works at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. He's spent quite a bit of time there focussing on employment and poverty, but at the beginning of COVID,...

Vienna: The Social Housing Good Penny That Keeps On Turning Up

Okay, So what has admirable Vienna, Austria done now to earn our applause? Only got itself accolades for being the most livable city in the world, from a list...

United Kingdom: The Fatal Weakness Of Housing Allowance, Unmasked Yet Again

In an era of housing affordability crises, a variety of broken solutions have been adopted by a number of countries. The advertised success and persistent failure the solutions is...

A Promising Case For Tenants With Section 8 Vouchers In Los Angeles

After a long search to rent a home in Los Angeles using a Section 8 VoucherSection 8 refers to a rental subsidy program in the United States, where qualifying...

What Does A Commercial Real Estate Crash Tell Us About Residential Landlords?

Buried in the bad news about the state of commercial real estate in America is a hint of why 'landlordism' will fight tooth and nail to maintain healthy profits...

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...

Chariots Of The VanLords: New Gods Happy To Take The Homeless For A Ride In LA

You have to hand it to capitalists! They are indeed the gods of profit, and can find the narrowest niche market in which to make a few bucks. But...

Renters: We Have Seen Poverty, And It Is Us!

A little too early perhaps, to sound a version of Pogo's famous cartoon statement: "We have seen the enemy, and it is us." Yes, perhaps. But here at affordablehousingaction.org, where...

Can Social Housing Pets Piggyback On New Renter Rights In England ? Alas, Not Yet

Private sector landlords in England will likely soon be forced to abandon their right to kick out tenants for any reason or, no reason at all. That's hugely important...

Up Against The Wiles of Free Enterprise: Who Suffers? The Vulnerable, Along With Everybody Else

Neoliberal politicans took the trouble to convince their constituents that governments (all good politicians, bureaucrats and assorted fellow-travellers) were utterly hopeless at just about anything. But the private sector,...

Los Angeles Tenants Speak Up For A Carbon Neutral Future

Tenants in Los Angeles want to reduce emissions and energy consumption. That wish is clouded by two concerns: their rents will go up a lot and/or they will be...

Regulations That Trip Up Affordable Housing Design

You know, for such a small planet, we can be pretty blind to opportunities. Take housing design for example. For reasons that are explained in the article linked to...

Landlords Take Note: Discrimination Is Costly. Tenants? The Law Can Be A Valuable Friend

In the United States, Section 8 (Housing Choice) Vouchers are issued to a lot of people with very low incomes. The Section 8 Voucher provides financial support to reduce...

To Hell With Home Ownership, You Government Touts! Help Give Us A Break On Renting

Then there's the brother-in-law, needing to replace an old porch door. Alas, it's old enough to be a non-standard size and so needs to be custom-ordered, skyrocketing the cost....

Eviction And The Rights Of Renters In The United States

Homelessness happens for a number of reasons. Eviction is one. This post is about three different ways that people in the United States have been working to help people...

Been Homeless? No? A Property Guardian Maybe — Not Quite Homeless, But Usefully Close

Late in life, I'm pleased to learn a little about property guardianship. Seems I was a property guardian and never knew it. So was my daughter, at least in...

Private Rental Housing: Pipelines To Homelessness That Spirit Rent Away From Communities

Padraic Kenna and Mark Jordan, writing in The Conversation, argue that the responsibility for homelessness rests squarely with the private rental sector, which has a penchant for evicting its...

US Rental Housing Market Is Under Control. Says Who?

Whitney Airgood-Obricki has been studying the rental housing market in the US and recently reported on trends she's observed. Airgood-Obricki is based at the Joint Center For Housing Studies...

Pitching In For Better Housing In Louisville, Kentucky

When you think about tenant organizing in Kentucky, you might visualize Black tenants calling out their housing authority for poor conditions. The article linked to this post tells a...

Three Tatami Mat Life: Coming Soon To Home Near You? Or Even Your Home?

Over the past decade at least, it's been easy to view housing circumstances in Hong Kong as otherworldly. There, a combination of limited land and total devotion to free...

Why Not Hand Landlords Billions To Improve Properties, Stimulate Rent Increases?

Many are concerned about the impact on human lives of scarce truly affordable housing. Those same folks are well aware that in the face of growing affordable housing crises, neoliberal...

Absolute Freedom For The Housing Free Market: A New Way To Protect Renters

Those of you who follow Scottish politics will have noted the departure of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon from the political stage. The reason for her departure is largely due...

American Housing Vouchers: New Study Quantifies Government . . . . Fraud?

How difficult is it in America to make use of Housing Choice Voucher (a.k.a Section 8 Voucher)? Asking that question mid-February, 2023 produced an "I dunno" answer. The last...

Porto Gambles On Friendly Free Enterprise To Solve Affordable Housing Crisis

Portugal shares the Iberian Peninsula with Spain, which is currently in the affordable housing news for its 'Right to Housing' law. Spain's new law includes regulatory solutions for renters,...

Spain’s Right To Housing Law: Freedom From Housing Price Extortion. Or. . .Not!

Spain has just passed a Right to Housing law. The law allows rent controls in any and all housing markets that are deemed by local governments to be 'stressed.' This...

Wealthy Incomers: Economy Boosters? Or Trojan Horses Bent On Plunder?

Countries, states, and cities, be careful what you wish for! Wealthy foreigners may boost your economy by dropping a trail of cash across companies linked to tourism. Ask Portugal,...

1 Magic Bullet To Create Affordable Housing? Amsterdam Looks To Many

Like so many cities around the world, Amsterdam has been gambling on shelter as a means to generating wealth for all. And like many other communities, it is discovering...

New U.S. Federal ‘Renter Bill of Rights.’ Housing Help Or Hot Air Balloon?

The strains of the COVID-19 pandemic have laid bare the increasing crisis faced by America's renters that is now reaching into the middle classes. The U.S. Biden administration plans...

How Changing Public Decision Making Might Lead To Better Housing

In a democracy, elected representatives are supposed to reflect the interests of their constituents. That mission doesn't always match up with reality, partly because voters don't all hold the...

Corporate Landlords And The Fight To Protect Tenants

ShelterforceShelterforce is a U.S. based non-profit dedicated to community development, affordable housing, and neighbourhood stabilization. recently convened a discussion about corporate investment in rental housing and tenant protections in...

Big Landlords Beware: Activists In Berlin Celebrate The City’s Right To Expropriate

If you haven't been following the rental housing fight in Berlin, Germany, it's time to catch up. Berlin is a city/state where renters far outnumber homeowners. A considerable majority...

Steps To Close The Door On Private Rental Evictions In The UK

The Centre for Homelessness Impact (the Centre) has issued a report about renting homes in the private marketThere is certain irony in the timing of this report. For years,...

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...

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...

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...

Spanish Economic Dancers To Take A Whirl At Universal Basic Income

The Spanish region of Catalonia will soon be taking a kick at the Universal Basic Income (UBI) can. UBI is invariably of interest to idealists, not to mention individuals...

New Jersey Bans Landlords From Refusing Former Prison Inmates

America, with its world-class incarceration ratesRead, for example, this article in the Clarion Ledger: 'Foolishly sticking with failed system': Mississippi leads the world in mass incarceration , has over...

A Collection Of Thoughts: Why The US Rental Housing Market Sucks

The article linked below actually sets out with a more ambitious agenda than 'a collection of thoughts.' It considers Why the rental housing market is so deeply broken. As...

UK Cost Of Living No Longer A Brake On Rising Social Housing Rents

For some years now, there has been an informal world-wide agreement that 30% of family income is a reasonable upper limit for 'truly affordable' rent. Above this, an individual...

Section 8 Vouchers: Broadly Unfilled Promise, But A Tiny Ray of Light In CA

Affordablehousingaction.org, has been consistently down on Section 8, a.k.a. Housing Choice, vouchers — once upon a time touted as the solution to America's truly affordable housing woes. The current federal commitment...

Right to Buy: A Dream That Even The Poorest Can Be Become Home Owners

United Kingdom Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher popularized a political philosophy of small government, together with a free market for all manner of goods and services. The political theories that...

Making Winnipeg A Safer Place To Live

"Winnipeggers deserve to feel safe where they live work and play" These remarks were made during a recent funding announcement by the provincial government in Manitoba. Some of the funding...

Can Eviction Prevention Programs Succeed By Paying Arrears?

If a tenant is behind in their rent, how important is financial assistance in preventing an eviction? It might seem that the answer is obvious, but as six researchers...

Welsh Government Tips Housing Scale To Favour Local Residents

The Welsh Government is giving local governments more the power to control the use of homesLocal residents are having more and more trouble finding homes they can afford. Tempers...

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...

Social Housing After A 13 Year Fizzle: Private Landlords To Blame?

Is the private housing rental market a fall guy for blame-game government failure to live up to its social responsibilities? There's seems to be an argument, based on number crunching...

Public Housing Housing Wait-Lists: Worth Waiting For?

"Low income renters face long waits for public housing. What happens to those who can't wait?" That question is posed as the headline of the article linked below. 'Wait,' like...

Wales: Torching Unaffordable Homes: Impotent Mutterings Or Real Threat?

The world's populations are more and more denied access to adequate affordable housing. The primary — and growing — barrier to renting or owning a home is 'financialization' —...

Aussie Mixed Development Will Build Bare Minimum Of Social Housing

Is it time to abandon the neoliberal religion? The coming of its messiahs were prophesied some 40 or so years ago. These saviours of society would be the financier-angels,...

Why Do I Have An Eviction Notice? I’ve Been Paying My Rent…

Do you rent? Suppose you found an eviction notice in your mail. Reason: failure to pay your rent. But that can't be! You've paid it faithfully for . . ....

Death By Zombie Evictee: Miami Landlord Proxy Nightmares

Current Miami-Dade local politics feature some efforts to at least consider changes to the legalities of landlord-tenant relationships in an era when rents are increasing far faster than wages. City...

Getting A Grip On Profit In Rental Housing

Imagine for a moment that you own a home and you've lived there for 10 years. In that time, the value of your home has gone up. Depending on...

How England’s ‘Right to Buy’ Supports Unaffordable Rents

'Small government' is the opposite of the 'nanny state,' where bumbling bureaucrats supposedly bludgeon struggling citizens with overmuch interference in their lives. 'Thatcherism,' 'Reaganism,' and 'Neoliberalism' are celebrations of...

Facing The Facts About Renting A Home In Canada – Part II

Affordablehousingaction.org is featuring two posts about housing for renters in Canada. The first post is about is a remarkable production by students from Ryerson University. This one is remarkable in...

Facing The Facts About Renting A Home In Canada – Part I

Housing prices are going up. Housing prices are going up. Housing prices are going up. Not very catchy, but certainly a consistent reprise in the media. Many of these...

Facing The Facts About Renting A Home In The United States

The magic 30% rule has its difficulties. We're speaking about the housing affordability rule that 30% of gross income is a reasonable amount to pay toward housing costs. Research...

Rent Control Unpacked

The UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence has just published a report about rent control. The report reviews evidence published in academic journals and grey literatureFor a good discussion...

Pandemic Evictions In America – Some Good News

It is important to begin by saying that eviction is not a good situation under any circumstances. An eviction during COVID made a bad situation worse. For this reason,...

Challenges In Building An Eviction Prevention Program – Data

The entire housing advocacy community in North America is holding its breath as we wait to see what will happen with evictions in the days, months and years following...
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