Document 31gQKBx44R5v8dg2Yj4eyBY6

FW: <External Message> HUD Daily Briefing (3-24-25) From: To: Date: Attachments: "Lee, Jessica K. EOP/OMB" (b) (6) "Askew, Emily E. EOP/OMB" (ID) (6) "Belford, Sarah H. EOP/OMB" (b) (6) Chase, Anthony N. EOP/OMB" (b) (6) "King, Kelly C. EOP/OMB" (b) (6) 'Kruse, Megan K. EOP/OMB" (b) (6) "Radzinschi, Lucas R. EOP/OMB" (b) (6) "Reynado, Kharl M. EOP/OMB" (b) (6) (b) (6) 'Stoffers, Ryan E. EOP/OMB" Mon, 24 Mar 2025 09:31:21 -0400 HUD Daily Briefing (3-24-25).docx (415.65 kB) Good raining Monday morning! From: Ballard, Daniel L <(b) (6) Sent: Monday, March 24, 2025 7:30 AM To: Lee, Jessica K. E0P/OMB (b) (6) Subject: FW: <External Message> HUD Daily Briefing (3-24-25) From: HUD Daily .(b) (6) Sent: Monday, March 24, 2025 7:23:39 AM (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada) To: b) (6) Subject: <External Message> HUD Daily Briefing (3-24-25) CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not dick links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. If you have concerns about the content of the email, please send it to phishinanhud.aov or click the Report Phishing Button on the Outlook ribbon or Phishing option within OWA. HUD DAILY BRIEFING Prepared for the Office of Public Affairs, U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development By TechMIS HUD.TechMlS.com Mobile User Copy 1 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023582 TO: DATE: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development & Staff Monday, March 24, 2025 7:00 AM ET HUD News and Opinion HUD secretary talks homelessness strategy with Dallas officials, nonprofit leaders (HousingWire) full text 'We Want to be Faithful Stewards': HUD Secretary Scott Turner's Vision for Caring for the Homeless (CBN News) HUD, Department of Interior Announce Federal Land Affordable Housing Project (Washington Informer, DC) - full text Building homes on federal land could lower costs -- if cities are held in check (The Hill) - full text Trump's Admin Has One Idea That Could Totally Change How Gov't Uses Federal Land (Daily Caller) - full text Selling federal lands for housing worth exploring (Sun Gazette, PA) - full text Federal Land Can Be Used to Build Affordable Housing (NewsMax.com) - full text Housing Shake-Up: HUD And FHFA Slash Staff, Close Offices (National Mortgage Professional) full text J.NYIAlleged exclusion of disabled people behind federal denial to redevelop LI public housing complex (Newsday, NY) - full text INYI Why are illegal migrants still allowed to live in public housing? (New York Post, NY) - full text fMS1 Mississippi public housing struggles as federal funding falls short (Mississippi Today, MS) - full text IMO) Missouri affordable housing programs are vulnerable to federal funding cuts (KOMU, Columbia, MO) - full text 1OH1 Big dollars at stake - Butler County leaders have heated discussion about plan for spending on housing for homeless (Journal-News, Hamilton, OH) - full text (OH Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity commits $600K to Lorain housing improvement program (Lorain Morning Journal, OH) - full text JVVY1Trump Administration Calls For More Affordable Homes On Public Land (Cowboy State Daily, WY) - full text JWA1 Marcia L. Fudge and Steve Stivers - Washington's housing crisis demands real solutions, not rent caps (Spokesman-Review, WA) - full text 1OM Northwest lawmakers fight closure of Portland, Seattle Department of Housing and Urban Development offices (KGW.com, Portland, OR) - full text 2 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023583 JCA1 Funds still coming for Corning Veterans Hall remodel (San Luis Obispo.com, CA) - full text JCA] Trump Cuts Hit IRS and HUD. Is SF's Affordable Housing Next? (The Frisc, CA) - full text National Housing News Trump's New Chief Embarks on Shake-Up at Mortgage Giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (Wall Street Journal) - full text Trump Administration Eyes Move to Privatize Fannie, Freddie, WSJ Says (Bloomberg) - full text Top Freddie Mac, FHFA executives dismissed in latest shakeup (Inman) - full text FHFA Removes Reid as Freddie's CEO (Inside Mortgage Finance) Bessent Considers Including GSEs in a U.S. Sovereign Wealth Fund (Inside Mortgage Finance) What happens to mortgage rates if conservatorship ends for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae? (Fast Company) - full text How recent U.S. policy changes will impact the housing market (Investing.com) - full text The real estate world is fighting over secret listings and the future of how homes are sold (Yahoo! Finance) - full text Builder Confidence Hits 7 Month Low in March (MortgageNewsDaily) Refi Demand Remains Elevated, But Off Recent Highs (MortgageNewsDaily) - full text Rocket vs Zillow: The battle for 'super app' supremacy (HousingWire.com) - full text Tariff fears are raising construction costs by up to 20%, says Related Group CEO (NBC News) - full text Federal jobs were seen as a gateway to the middle class for Black America, then came DOGE (USA Today) - full text JPA] Rats don't run this city - Why Philly fields fewer rat complaints than New York City and D.C. (Philadelphia Inquirer, PA) - full text I-DC] Are expensive building materials hurting the DC housing market? (HousingWire.com) - full text jAL] A Birmingham community center gives local youth a safe space - 'No place like this' (AL.com, AL) - full text jOH] Landlords aren't running charities, and they shouldn't have to - Justice B. Hill (Cleveland.com, OH) - full text JCA1 An OG crypto founder on the triumph of Bitcoin--and rejection by San Francisco liberals (Fortune) - full text Broadcast (TV and Radio) HUD Secretary Scott Turner joins the Joe Pags Show in Dallas [Part Onel (WBAP-AM Dallas, TX) 3 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023584 HUD Secretary Scott Turner joins the Joe Pags Show in Dallas [Part Two] (WBAP-AM Dallas, TX) HUD Secretary Scott Turner joins the Bret Baier Show (WSBA-AM Harrisburg, PA) [CT] NBC Connecticut celebrates housing head Seila Mosquera-Bruno for Women's History Month (WVIT-TV NBC Hartford, CT) JVA1 Potential HUD cuts could affect millions of dollars in Hampton Roads funding (WVEC-TV ABC Norfolk, VA) [VA] Two families awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in landmark housing discrimination case (WSLS-TV NBC Roanoke, VA) fGAIEdmond Estates residents forced to leave after unsafe conditions found on property (WTVMTV ABC Columbus, GA) JFL1 Affordable Lake Bradford Apartments breaks ground in Tallahassee (WTXL-TV ABC Tallahassee, FL) [KY] Dosker Manor workers find human remains on property; Housing authority cooperates with police (WAVE-TV NBC Louisville, KY) [TN1 Council for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services in Chattanooga breaks ground on sober living complex (VVTVC-TV ABC Chattanooga, TN) [AL] Residents forced to leave after life-threatening issues found at Edmond Estates in Phenix City (WSFA-TV NBC Montgomery, AL) JAZZ Tenants of Tucson House concerned about health issues as building is being renovated (KGUN-TV ABC Tucson, AZ) 1OR] Concerns arise over funds for affordable housing in Lane County (KMTR-TV NBC Eugene, OR) JCAI Coachella Valley renters could be impacted as pandemic-era housing program ends (KESQTV ABC Palm Springs, CA) [HI] Kuhio Park Terrace project gets new development company (KHVH-AM Fox Honolulu, HI) [HI1 Association of Hawaiians for Homestead Lands objects to funding allocation (KGMB-TV CBS Honolulu, HI) Housing Supply Existing-Home Sales Jump as Homebuyers Adjust to Economic Conditions (The Mortgage Point) full text Highest Existing Home Sales in a Year (MortgageNewsDaily) NAR's existing-home sales forecast for 2025 gets a haircut (HousingWire.com) HUD data shows a decline in new U.S. building permits for February as turnaround stalls (Archinect) - full text Builders Broke More Ground Than Expected in February (MortgageNewsDaily) - full text 4 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023585 New Construction Is Changing American Cities (New York Times) - full text fMA) Editorial: Finish the lob on starter-home zoning districts (Boston Business Journal, MA) - full text (PA) Want More Housing? Fix the Land Bank (Philadelphia Citizen. PA) - full text (PA) Small boroughs look to be part of the housing solution in Lancaster County despite limited space (Lancaster Online, PA) - full text [PA) What Lancaster County municipalities can do to grow local housing stock (Lancaster Online, PA) - full text (TX) Texas might lift occupancy limits on homes. Could that exacerbate 'stealth dorm' issues? (Star-Telegram. TX) - full text fNM1 Bill is first step to address housing crisis (Albuquerque Journal, NM) - full text (AZ1 Arizona lawmakers say 'no' to 'Yes in God's Backyard' bill (AZCentral.com, AZ) - full text [UT) Here's what Utah lawmakers did -- and didn't -- pass to address the housing crisis this year (Salt Lake Tribune, UT) - full text Homeownership The five keys to unlock homeownership for emerging buyers (FOXBusiness.com) - full text This is how long you'll need to work to afford a monthly mortgage (New York Post, NY) - full text With home-insurance costs soaring. should you risk it and cancel your policy? (MarketWatch) - full text (ME) Maine mobile home owners are pushing back against private investors (Portland Press Herald, ME) - full text (VAT RRHA homeowner event running all weekend (NBC12 Online, Richmond, VA) - full text fFL1 City of Tampa set to launch homeowner disaster assistance program after storms (ABC Action News, Tampa Bay, FL) - full text (FL' How No Property Taxes in Florida Could Impact Your Wallet as a Homeowner in the State (MSN News) - full text fFL' Banning property taxes in Florida gains traction among lawmakers (HousingWire.com) - full text [MI) Detroit homeowners gain $700M in housing wealth in '23, UM study finds (Detroit News. MI) full text (WA) New housing development aims to make homeownership a dream for middle income Post Falls residents (KXLY, Spokane, WA) - full text (WA) More kinds of housing would help Seattle residents age in place (Seattle Times, WA) - full text fCA) California Condos Placed on 'Mortgage Blacklist' (Newsweek) - full text 5 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023586 [CA] Delinquencies Tied to Los Angeles Wildfires Rising (Inside Mortgage Finance) Disaster Recovery [FL] Tampa homeowners are now eligible for $3.2 million in hurricane relief (WUSF. Tampa. FL) full text [FL] City to open applications for hurricane assistance (Tampa Bay Times. FL) - full text [FL] City of Tampa announces millions for hurricane relief - Here's how to apply (News Channel 8. Tampa, FL) - full text [CA] L.A. approves first permits for rebuilding homes after Palisades Fire (Los Angeles Times) - full text [CA] US senators push for more funding for California fire recovery (Reuters) - full text [CA] After the Eaton Fire, Altadena residents fight to keep out luxury developers (NBC News) - full text [HI] Big Island buyout program ending 7 years after eruption (Honolulu Star-Advertiser, HI) - full text [HI] Why Maui Still Hasn't Recovered (City Journal, NY) - full text [HI] Editorial: Maui on mend, but aid needed (Honolulu Star-Advertiser. HI) - full text Homelessness Who gets housing. and who is 'disposable'? (Washington Post) - full text How cities and the federal government can deal with homeless encampments (Federal News Network. DC) - full text [RI] Did the Pawtucket City Council just kill plans for a homeless shelter at Memorial Hospital? (Providence Journal, RI) - full text [CT] Thousands of kids experience homelessness in CT. What a regional foundation is doing to help. (Hartford Courant, CT) - full text [NY] NYC Council leaders call for moratorium on new homeless shelters to boost affordable housing (New York Daily News, NY) - full text [NY] Transportation Secretary Slams NYC Subway, Pressures MTA (Bloomberg) - full text [VA] Plea for plot of land to save those aging out of foster care from homelessness (WAVY-TV NBC 10 Portsmouth, VA) - full text [VA] Pulaski looks to community partnerships to combat homelessness through "Program Recovery" (29News, VA) - full text [VA] Williamsburg nonprofit that helps homeless people hit with federal funding cuts (Hampton Roads Daily Press, VA) - full text [WV] Homeless encampment destroyed in Parkersburg leaving some with no resources (WTAP-TV NBC 15 Parkersburg, VVV) - full text 6 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023587 EFL] Orange County planning board backs controversial East Orlando homeless shelter (Orlando Sentinel, FL) - full text [FL) Homeless mom finds shelter. hope in Miami-Dade (CBS Miami. FL) - full text [FL] Hope in Action: Tackling Homelessness Through Housing, Support, and Community (WSFLTV, FL) - full text fTN1 Local group fights Nashville's homeless crisis (WZTV-TV Fox 17 Nashville, TN) - full text [MO) Specialized Staff Serving Influx of Homeless Library Patrons (Flatland KC, MO) - full text [MI] Mobile health center being launched in Grand Rapids to help the homeless (WSJM-FM 94.9, MI) - full text [IL) Connections advocates zoning reform (Evanston Now, IL) - full text [IL) Changing zoning and adding housing encouraged by expert at Connections fundraiser (Evanston RoundTable. IL) - full text [MN] Dakota County had plans for its own homeless shelter. More than a year later, what happened? (Minneapolis Star Tribune, MN) - full text [TX1 Proposed law allows state intervention against crime. homelessness in downtown Dallas (Dallas Morning News, TX) - full text [IA] 'Foot in the revolving door' - Iowa bill aims to reduce hospitalizations and homelessness for people with mental illness (KCRG-TV ABC 9 Cedar Rapids, IA) - full text IA1 Iowa bill aims to reduce hospitalizations and homelessness for people with mental illness (KTIV-TV NBC 4 Sioux City, IA) - full text IND] Lack of homeless shelter creates crisis (Minot Daily News, ND) - full text fCO1 Colorado Springs Fire Department knocks down homeless fire Friday evening (Colorado Springs Gazette, CO) - full text fVVY1Casper's Invisible Couple - Homeless, Pregnant And Living In Abandoned Car (Cowboy State Daily, WY) - full text [WA] Opinion j Washington must continue programs that address homelessness (Wenatchee World, WA) - full text [WA] Bills limiting how much cities can regulate homelessness could return (Seattle Times. WA) full text JWAI Editorial: Coordinated efforts to combat homelessness show positive progress (Tacoma News Tribune. WA) - full text 1-CA1 be out on the streets' - Oakland to close two major homeless shelters (San Francisco Chronicle) - full text [CA[ 14 arrested in North County for violating homeless encampment bail (KUSI-TV Fox 5 San Diego, CA) - full text 7 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023588 [CA] Fourteen people arrested at illegal homeless encampment in Vista (KGTV-TV ABC 10 San Diego, CA) - full text (CA] Three Months After Homeless Man Is Killed in City Cleanup. Vallejo Pauses Encampment Sweeps (KQED, CA) - full text ICA] Michael Smolens: Homelessness is going to get worse (San Diego Union Tribune, CA) - full text ICA] This is how Daniel Lurie wants to grow S.F.'s homeless shelter system dramatically (San Francisco Chronicle, CA) - full text (CA] UCSF homelessness study complicates common narrative of crisis' causes (San Francisco Examiner, CA) - full text ICAlSan Francisco mayor fights crime, homelessness amid turnaround hopes (Washington Post) full text [CA] San Jose mayor and county clash over homelessness crackdown (San Jose Spotlight. CA) full text [CA] Stop finding ways to kill the Venice Dell homeless housing project (Los Angeles Times, CA) full text [AK] LaFrance administration announces $5M in housing assistance for Anchorage's homeless (Alaska Public Media. AK) - full text Fair Housing As the DOJ takes shape, housing must be front and center (HousingWire.com) - full text [MA] Anti-discrimination housing orgs sue to 'quite literally keep the lights on' (CommonWealth Beacon News, MA) - full text [NJ) N.J. apartment complex discriminated against low-income residents, state alleges (New Jersey Online, NJ) - full text (PA] Sharon focusing on education in 2025-2029 fair housing plan (WKBN 27 First News, OH) - full text jVA] Virginia Landlord Ordered to Pay Record $750K in Racial Discrimination Eviction Case (Washington Informer. DC) - full text IVAI Racial Discrimination Costs Virginia Campground Landlord $750K (93.1 WZAK, OH) - full text [VA] Penhook landlord ordered to pay 5750.000 for racial discrimination (Roanoke Times. VA) - full text Federal Housing Administration and Multifamily Housing Trump administration lifts FHA appraisal bias protections (Inman) - full text What FHA's dropping of appraisal rule means for lenders (National Mortgage News) - full text FHA late payments drive increase in delinquent inventory (National Mortgage News) - full text 8 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023589 FHA loans dominate delinquencies in ICE's `first look' report (HousinqWire.com) - full text Public and Indian Housing [NY] Rent voucher "lifeline" is virtual dead end (Real Deal, NY) - full text INV) Syracuse Housing Authority says it's aiding in relocations due to 1-81 project (Watertown Spectrum News, NY) - full text INY1 NYCHA's Mitchel Houses celebrates 667 days without gun violence (News 12 Bronx, NY) IVA) NACA partners with RRHA to help public housing residents achieve homeownership (WRIC TV, VA) - full text JVA] 'Ultimate goal' of Achieve the Dream event is to help people become home owners (WTVRTV, VA) - full text JSC1 Bailey: 'Strictly confidential' report shows the hard math of new housing (Charleston Post and Courier, SC) - full text IKY1LMPD: Possible human remains found at Dosker Manor (Louisville Courier-Journal, KY) IKY1 25 residents, 4 firefighters hospitalized after New Albany fire (Wave 3, KY) - full text IKY) Several residents of New Albany apartment building hospitalized after fire breaks out (WDRB, Louisville, KY) JKY1 Several taken to hospital after New Albany fire (Wave 3, Louisville, KY) JAL) 'Unfit for human habitation': Entire Alabama apartment complex condemned, residents given 45 days to leave (WRBL, Columbus, AL) - full text JOH] Next Step Up provides emergency housing in Medina County (Cleveland.com, OH) - full text JILL National Public Housing Museum announces Grand Opening Plans in Chicago (Chicago Crusader, IL) - full text JCO1 Housing Matters - APCHA clarifies the narrative with myth-busting (Aspen Daily News, CO) full text INV) A heartbreaking eviction: Tribal elder and granddaughter forced out after tragic loss (KOLO TV Reno, NV) - full text fAZl 'It's barely tenable now' - Tucson House residents concerned for their living conditions (KGUN 9, AZ) - full text ICA] Funds in Emergency Housing Voucher Program running low (KESQ, CA) [AK) Kodiak Island Housing Authority secures grant funds, self-help housing project moves forward (KMXT-FM, Kodiak, AK) - full text Community Planning and Development IPA) Community-Led Efforts to Combat Gentrification in Philadelphia's University City (Planetizen) full text 9 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023590 [PA] Philly Land Bank brokers deal with Sheriffs Office to resume land purchases (Philadelphia Inquirer, PA) - full text [PA) Opinion: Federal aid cuts will put Lehigh Valley residents at risk of hunger. homelessness (Morning Call. PA) - full text [GA] Sandy Springs uses Nixon-era funding program for sidewalks (AppenMedia.com. GA) - full text (IN] Elkhart County Council mulls over lead paint funding (Goshen News, IN) - full text Ginnie Mae Ginnie Mae MBS issuance drops for third straight month (National Mortgage News) - full text Ginnie Loans Push Servicing Volume Up in 2024 (Inside Mortgage Finance) Affordable Housing How recent Trump policies could make housing more inaccessible (WBUR, Boston, MA) - full text [MA] If you've ever wondered if you can afford the rent for affordable housing projects in the Berkshires. this guide is for you (Berkshire Eagle, MA) - full text [NY) $3.7 million going to Dryden for affordable housing project (WYXL 97.3 Lite Rock, Ithaca. NY) - full text [NY] Pass Albany's Faith-Based Affordable Housing Act (New York Daily News. NY) - full text [NJ] Hoboken Approved 25-Story Affordable Housing Building: What's Next? (Hoboken Patch. NJ) full text [PA] Officials cut ribbon on new affordable housing complex in Allentown (WFMZ-TV Online. PA) full text [GA] Affordable Housing in Bulloch County: A Growing Concern for Local Residents (Grice Connect. GA) - full text 1OH1 $400 million affordable housing project coming to 3 locations in Columbus (WBNS-10TV, Columbus, OH) - full text [OH] New report: 2 full-time minimum wage jobs not enough for fair housing in Columbus (NBC4 Columbus, OH) - full text [IL] Edward Keegan: An example of sophisticated affordable housing in Logan Square (Chicago Tribune, IL) - full text [MN] Bloomington's ordinance requiring affordable housing in multi-unit developments has brought mixed results (Minneapolis Star Tribune, MN) - full text [TX] Preserving Houston's 'Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing' (Planetizen) - full text [UT] SLC puts another $11.5M into affordable housing. Here's where the money is going. (Salt Lake Tribune, UT) - full text 10 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023591 JAZ] 368 affordable housing units now in Glendale (Glendale Star, AZ) - full text [OR] These major affordable housing projects are coming to Eugene. Here is how to learn more (Register-Guard. OR) - full text IOR] Salem City Council eyes purchase of vacant land for affordable housing (Statesman Journal, OR) - full text fOR] Editorial: In a hole on housing. Oregon just keeps digging (Oregonian. OR) - full text [CA] Officials Consider $9.4 Million Loan For Affordable Housing In Point Reyes Station (SFGate, CA) - full text Headlines The Washington Post The New York Times The Wall Street Journal ABC News CBS News CNN Fox News NBC News Washington Schedule President Vice President Senate House of Representatives Editorial Note: This Brjef represents summarized content - cljck on the hyperlink to access full-text articles for these news summaries. Disclaimer: The information and views expressed in this News Briefing do not necessarily represent the views of HUD or the United States and do not constitute an endorsement by the Department. HUD News and Opinion HUD secretary talks homelessness strategy with Dallas officials, nonprofit leaders (HousingWire) - full text 11 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023592 HousingWire [3/21/2025 2:35 PM, Chris Clow, 354K] The public-private partnership that exists between city officials and nonprofit leaders in Dallas is an encouraging sign on how to deal with the homelessness crisis, and it could be worthy of replication on a national level. This is according to Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner, who journeyed to the city this week to discuss the issue. Turner, a native of the Dallas suburb of Richardson, met behind closed doors this week with municipal officials and local nonprofits. The meeting was hosted by faith-based homelessness nonprofit and ministry OurCalling. Turner later discussed the meeting in an interview with The Dallas Morning News. In the interview, Turner said he was pleased with the partnership between city officials and nonprofits. "I was very encouraged by the collaboration in which they work together," he said, adding that the approach might be worth applying to other major cities nationwide. The partnership also appears to be working, based on HUD's own data. Late last year, the department released a point-in-time report aiming to tally everyone in the U.S. experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2024. It found that the national figure rose 18% year over year. In Dallas, however, homelessness declined. After reaching a peak in 2021, the new report showed that overall homelessness in the city fell by 19% and unsheltered homelessness fell by 24%, according to data submitted by Housing Forward. "Housing Forward leaders credit the decline to an overhaul of the local homelessness response system, increased funding from HUD over the years and greater collaboration among the All Neighbors Coalition, a network of about 150 local organizations working to end homelessness," the report said. Organizations that attended the meeting with Turner included OurCalling, Austin Street, Catholic Charities, The Bridge Homeless Recovery Center, Family Gateway, Cornerstone Baptist Church, Union Gospel Mission and the Stewpot. OurCalling pastor and CEO Wayne Walker used the opportunity to tell Turner about the level of cooperation between the involved organizations. Walker said this has driven measurable improvement in the city's homelessness level. Walker also explained that Turner -- himself a minister for Prestonwood Baptist Church in nearby Plano -- previously served as an adviser to OurCalling. Last fall, Turner delivered an opening prayer at a groundbreaking ceremony for a planned tiny home development 25 miles southeast of Dallas. But in the interview, Turner also said that certain policy changes need to be considered to adequately address homelessness, including local zoning rules. - I've been encouraging our team and also the local leaders that I've been meeting with to take inventory of your regulatory environment and ease that so that we can come in, reduce those barriers, and build affordable housing," he told the outlet. In a Senate Banking Committee hearing on March 12, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson (R) told the committee that one of the key ways to address homelessness would be to incentivize homebuilders to participate more readily. "[T]he most effective way to bring down housing prices is to encourage the private sector to increase home building throughout the United States, but particularly in cities like Dallas, where we see 12 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023593 unprecedented demand for our existing housing stock because of our economic growth and success," Johnson said in his opening testimony. `We Want to be Faithful Stewards': HUD Secretary Scott Turner's Vision for Caring for the Homeless (CBN News) CBN News [3/20/2025 11:57 AM, Staff] VIDEO. CBN Chief White House Correspondent Kelly Wright sits down with Scott Turner, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to discuss homelessness in America and how the Trump administration is looking to address the crisis. HUD, Department of Interior Announce Federal Land Affordable Housing Project (Washington Informer, DC) - full text Washington Informer [3/21/2025 11:08 AM, Ashleigh Fields, 40K, DC] President Donald Trump's appointees are looking to use federal land to increase the nation's affordable housing sector by using undefined space to develop new properties across the country according to a Monday announcement. Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner said they are partnering on the project through the Joint Task Force to Reduce Housing Costs and Open Access to Underutilized Federal Lands Suitable for Residential Development. Nationally, there is a shortage of more than 7 million affordable homes for the nation's 10.8 million plus extremely low-income families according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. "HUD will work with DOI to assess the housing needs in areas where federal lands may be available yet underutilized, and implement tailored housing programs with guidance from states and localities," Turner said in the announcement video. "This partnership will identify underutilized federal lands suitable for residential development and streamline the land transfer process." Burgum chimed in sharing further benefits. "It'll also promote policies to increase the availability of affordable housing while balancing important environmental and land use considerations," Burgum said. They added that overlooked rural and tribal communities will be a focus of this joint agreement highlighting the fact that the Department of Interior would help reduce regulatory framework that outlines guidance for land transfers or leases to public housing authorities, nonprofits and local governments. Turner has already committed to terminating the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule in February, repealing an expansion of the Fair Housing Act approved under the Obama administration to "overcome historic patterns of segregation." The rule's termination will no longer require local zoning decisions to be determined after the completion of a 92-question grading tool that helps ensure federal housing funds are being used to further fair housing. "An abundance of evidence from past eras of AFFH implementation shows that the absence of a rigorous, standardized fair housing planning framework will lead to broad variation in performance among grantees, with many grantees failing to identify or respond to even significant, commonly found problems or to document the regional fair housing impacts of their policies and activities," National Community Reinvestment 13 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023594 Center wrote of the rule. "The pre-2015 AFFH framework (the widely discretionary Analysis of Impediments process) notoriously allowed for widespread neglect of fair housing planning, with numerous grantees doing little or no work to document issues, failing to produce documents on any timely cycle, and facing almost no accountability or oversight for substantive failures to AFFH or for materially inconsistent actions--and therefore rarely taking remedial action to disrupt segregation or to advance housing choice." Despite conflicts with this provision, HUD and the Department of the Interior's new measure is on par with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser's 2019 goal of adding 36,000 new housing units and 12,000 affordable units to the District by 2025. According to Bowser's website tracking progress, 10,515 affordable units have already been secured meeting 88% of her target. Turner's federal agenda for affordable housing coincides with Bowser's Rebalancing Expectations for Neighbors, Tenants, and Landlords Act (RENTAL Act), created to protect the District's existing affordable housing. The RENTAL Act, which has been highly protested, narrows the scope of the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), which grants tenants the rights to make the first offer on their building if a landlord decides to sell it and receive an offer of sales notice. Still, Bowser is seeking to preserve nearly 8,000 units of housing, of which over 7,700 are affordable through 69 projects to provide bridge, gap, and support funding to affordable multi-family projects. The D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development has partnered with the mayor on these efforts. "Our collective citywide commitment to affordable housing has made D.C. a national model for success. But that hard-won progress is at risk," said Bowser. Bowser's actions come as federal programs supporting the upkeep of existing affordable units have been terminated under Secretary Turner. HUD terminated its $1 billion Green and Resilient Retrofit Program in March which has already promised to award funds to support upgrades at 25,000 sites across the country leaving a hole in budgets predestined to aid with repair of heating and cooling systems, floodproofing and insulation as outlined. It was the first HUD program to focus on greenhouse gas emission reduction, energy efficiency in addition to green and healthy housing once approved by Congress in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Bowser has highlighted the city's efforts as a plea to preserve affordable housing from disenfranchised residents in the District while urging citizens to act in favor of her new bill. "We now must act with similar urgency to protect the affordable housing that is home to nearly 100,000 Washingtonians and ensure our ability to build more housing," Bowser continued. "We do that by rebalancing our housing ecosystem and leveraging the right tools, the right investments, and the right policies to meet this moment." Building homes on federal land could lower costs - if cities are held in check (The Hill) - full text The Hill [3/21/2025 11:30 AM, Charles Gardner, 12829K] The Departments of the Interior and Housing and Urban Development are exploring making some federal land available for homebuilding to alleviate a stubborn housing shortage estimated at over 20 million homes. Their success will depend not only on how quickly and broadly the plan is implemented, but on making sure any newly opened land is not bogged down by the local land use regulations that make housing so scarce and expensive in the first place. The current home shortage is primarily due to excessively 14 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023595 restrictive local land-use rules that favor relatively expensive homes on large lots. But particularly in western states, land for homebuilding is limited by federal holdings near fast-growing metropolitan areas like Las Vegas, Phoenix and many others. Western land was opened to large-scale settlement through 1862's Homestead Act, which resulted in the sale of more than 420,000 square miles -- around 11 percent of the country -- in blocks of up to 160 acres, typically to small farmers. As quality agricultural land grew scarce, claims plummeted and nearly dried up by the 1930s. In 1946, the Bureau of Land Management was formed, reflecting a shift from sales toward maintaining land that had not attracted buyers. In 1976, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act repealed the Homestead Act, signaling an embrace of federal ownership and management, growing environmental concern and other changing currents in public opinion. But in the following years, something else changed: The rapid growth of sunbelt cities made valuable land once thought worthless. But selling federal land had become complex and politically fraught under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, and western cities began to chafe against confinement. By the 1990s, the situation had become too pressing to ignore. The Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act authorized the Bureau of Land Management to transfer certain land to address a housing shortage in Las Vegas. Its success has been mixed, with around 40 percent of the designated land still unsold. Land that has been sold has been subject to municipal zoning, which typically imposes restrictions such as minimum lot sizes, frontage requirements, setbacks and other mandates that hinder builders from constructing low-cost houses. Today, western states such as Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, California and Oregon have some of the highest home price-to-income ratios in the nation. Hemmed in by federal land and burdened by their own expensive regulations, cities that should be centers of opportunity for a new generation are instead starter-home deserts. New houses are prohibitively expensive for too many buyers. The new initiative promises to revisit the Federal Land Policy and Management Act's assumptions in a comprehensive way that encompasses all affected municipalities. Done right, it could cut through burdensome procedural barriers to selling federal land, relieve cost pressures on western urban markets, allow new cities to grow in appropriate locations and remain attentive to environmental and conservation concerns. But the number of resulting homes that most Americans can comfortably afford will be closely tied to local land use regulations. In Reno, Nevada, I found that new homes on lots smaller than 5,000 square feet appraised at an average of $343,000, while those on 5,000-to-7,000-foot lots were appraised at $461,000. Yet less than 10 percent of the single-family lots in Reno -- and zero percent of the area of one major development district -- allows homes on less than 5,000 square feet of land. Frontage requirements also played a role in Reno. Each additional 10 mandated feet corresponded with an extra $60,000 in home costs. So, unless the Bureau of Land Management and HUD push back against local policies like these by attaching robust, enforceable conditions to transfers or negotiating ironclad development standards that ensure that starter homes are legal to build, expect to see some nice, spacious -- and expensive -- homes built. Local politics almost inevitably lead to zoning that would blunt the affordability impact of land sales. 15 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023596 Beyond cost, there are environmental benefits to allowing smaller homes, including both single-family homes on small lots and multifamily housing. Higher-density housing makes more efficient use of urban land, reducing the rate of outward sprawl. Small lots in arid western climates also mean fewer large, irrigated yards sapping water supplies. And while the benefits for American families could be immense, the amount of land required relative to total federal acreage is modest. The homesteading farmer sought 160 acres or more, but today's starter homes can sit on one-tenth of an acre or less. Mountains of evidence show the exclusionary, cost-raising effect of overzealous local zoning. Federal authorities have an opportunity to do more than open land to Americans seeking a home to call their own. They can show our cities and counties what happens when inclusive policies allow for starter homes in addition to houses only the wealthy can afford. Trump's Admin Has One Idea That Could Totally Change How Gov't Uses Federal Land (Daily Caller) - full text Daily Caller [3/23/2025 10:58 AM, Andi Shae Napier, 1082K] Overseeing millions of acres of mostly undeveloped land, the federal government, under the direction of President Donald Trump, is seeking to use its vast resources to address the availability and affordability of homes around the country. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Scott Turner are the architects behind the new Task Force on Federal Land for Housing, which will seek to identify federally owned land "suitable for residential use," according to an op-ed penned by the cabinet members. The task force will build on two pieces of previously proposed legislation that would give states greater control over how their land is managed, according to a policy expert who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation. "The truth of the matter is the federal government holds a lot of relatively valuable parcels that most people don't even know about that are close to metro areas that they've got by default or neglect or don't even necessarily know that they own," Dan Kish, a senior fellow at the Institute for Energy Research (IRE) told the DCNF. "They may have a chain-link fence around them or something like that with a sign on them and those would be the ones that they'd be looking for that would be close to existing housing stock or transportation." Kish, who spent years working on the House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees the Interior Department, drew on his past experience to provide some insight on the logistics of the task force's goals. "It's just impossible to build anything because of the shortage of land, and yet you've got no shortage of land, what you have is a shortage of ownership in private hands and a regulatory regime that keeps people from being able to build anything," Kish said. Turner and Burgum are attempting to fulfill Trump's day-one executive order aimed at "defeating the cost-of-living crisis," beginning with evaluations of where housing needs are most dire. Median home prices began to increase rapidly in 2009, before spiking considerably in 2020 and 2021, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis data shows. As of May 2024, families paid $13,300 more per year for the same house than they did in January 2021, according to the Heritage Foundation. During former President Joe Biden's term, housing prices increased by approximately 114.5%, which the conservative think tank attributed largely to the administration's "runaway spending." 16 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023597 Areas facing a severe lack of housing will be prioritized by the Trump administration, followed by close collaboration with state and local leaders "who know their communities best," the secretaries wrote in their op-ed. The federal government oversees roughly 650 million acres, according to the Government Accountability Office, primarily in the Western region of the U.S., with states like Nevada and Utah being over 80% and 60% federally owned, respectively. "Interior will identify locations that can support homes while carefully considering environmental impact and land-use restrictions," Turner and Burgum wrote. "Working together, our agencies can take inventory of underused federal properties, transfer or lease them to states or localities to address housing needs, and support the infrastructure required to make development viable--all while ensuring affordability remains at the core of the mission." Turner and Burgum made clear that their plan is not "a free-for-all to build on federal lands," and Kish reinforced the point that this task force will not advocate for building homes in national parks, but rather will take inventory of underused resources in local communities. "There's gonna be people who scream bloody murder and say they're selling off the national parks, but that's hyperbole," Kish said. "In essence what we're talking about here is taking a look at our resource base and seeing whether it doesn't make some sense to free it up." Kish also said that while some states might initially have a shaky response to the task force, he sees other states "chomping at the bit" to gain access to federal land, especially Utah, where Republican Sen. Mike Lee has advocated for the ability to build housing on federal land for years. "Utah has been fighting for more control over its land for a long time," Kish said. "The ability to have more control over federal lands and more say-so over what happens on federal lands within its reach would lead [states] to a different conclusion. I think ultimately states would see it in the benefit to have a stake in ownership or partial ownership or more of a say in how their lands are managed." The task force's housing plans stem from the groundwork of Lee's Helping Open Underutilized Space to Ensure Shelter (HOUSES) Act which was introduced in the Senate in 2023. The act is cosponsored by Republican Sens. Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso of Wyoming and Dan Sullivan of Alaska -- who each represent states with large concentrations of federally owned land that could be used to provide housing. "The DOI and HUD initiative is very similar to Senator Lee's HOUSES Act, which would enable states and localities to purchase unused federal land near existing communities -- not national parks or other protected areas - for the purpose of building single-family homes to alleviate the housing crisis," a spokesperson for Lee told the DCNF. "Senator Lee is looking forward to working with the Trump administration to tackle this important issue together." Republican South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott has also worked alongside Turner on housing policy through the Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream (ROAD) to Housing Act introduced in the fall of 2024. The bill aims to reform all sectors of the housing market, help increase the supply of affordable housing, and improve quality of life for families by providing economic opportunity in communities across the nation-- goals shared by Turner and the Joint Task Force on Federal Land for Housing. "Homeownership is key to the American Dream, which is why I've continued to work on solutions to put more Americans on the path towards homeownership," Scott said in a statement shared with the DCNF. "The Joint Task Force on Federal Land for Housing will be critical in our 17 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023598 efforts to boost the supply of affordable housing, and I look forward to working with both Secretary Turner and Secretary Burgum to enact policies that advance our shared goal of cutting red tape and ensuring federal housing programs work for the American people." "It is our desire that we can build as many homes as possible -- quality living spaces of all kinds for the American people," Turner told the DCNF in January. A representative for Turner went on to say, "He is the person we need to reform failed federal housing policies, cut red tape, and find innovative solutions to expand access to quality, affordable housing." When reached for comment by the DCNF, a spokesperson for HUD stated they were unable to provide further details on the task force at this time. The Department of Interior did not respond to the DCNF's request for comment. Selling federal lands for housing worth exploring (Sun Gazette, PA) - full text Sun Gazette [3/23/2025 8:00 PM, Editorial Board, 67K, PA] We are optimistic about an announcement by the U.S. departments of the Interior and Housing and Urban Development. According to a report in The Hill, a Washington, D.C.based newspaper and website, the two departments are launching a review of federal lands to determine which parcels of federally owned land could be sold and developed into housing. While the project, if successful, would have little impact on our region or on Pennsylvania, the cost of housing is a national problem and the federal government's extensive ownership of land in western states may offer a key to correcting it. For X examples, more than 80% of all the land in Nevada is owned by the federal government. More than 60% of Idaho. more than 38% of Arizona and more than 36% of Colorado is owned by the federal government. The one aspect in which selling this land -- even at a low enough price to induce the construction of more housing -- could benefit Americans in Pennsylvania and northeastern states is the potential use of revenues to reduce our alarming deficit. According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, the U.S. is projected to have a $1.9 trillion deficit this year, adding to a national debt that already surpasses $36 trillion. With more than 500 million acres in possession of the federal government, we believe this initiative could easily be pursued without compromising conservation or our national parks. We hope Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner are able to iron out the details in a way that benefits Americans who need affordable housing -- which includes many Americans -- and Americans who need the rate at which our country's staggering debt is increasing to slow -- which, we believe, includes all Americans. Federal Land Can Be Used to Build Affordable Housing (NewsMax.com) - full text NewsMax.com [3/23/2025 12:46 PM, Eric Mack, 4998K] President Donald Trump's Department of Interior and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) are working up plans to repurpose misused or vacant federal lands for housing projects to make homes affordable again in America. "America needs more affordable housing, and the federal government can make it happen by making federal land available to build affordable housing stock," Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and HUD Secretary Scott Turner wrote in a joint op-ed for The Wall Street Journal this week. "The Interior Department oversees more than 500 million acres of federal land, much of 18 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023599 it suitable for residential use. The Department of Housing and Urban Development brings expertise in housing policy and community development. Together we are creating the Joint Task Force on Federal Land for Housing to increase housing supply and decrease costs for millions of Americans." The plan seeks to "take inventory of underused federal properties, transfer or lease them to states or localities to address housing needs, and support the infrastructure required to make development viable -- all while ensuring affordability remains at the core of the mission," they added. "This is about more than building houses: We want to build hope," the op-ed concluded. "Overlooked rural and tribal communities will be a focus of this joint agreement. We are going to invest in America's many forgotten communities. As we enter the Golden Age promised by President Trump, this partnership will change how we use public resources. A brighter future, with more affordable housing, is on its way." As with any Trump initiative seeking to make America great again, there will be Democrat obstruction fueled by leftist hysteria and "hyperbole," according to Institute for Energy Research senior fellow Dan Kish. "There's gonna be people who scream bloody murder and say they're selling off the national parks, but that's hyperbole," Kish told the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF). "In essence what we're talking about here is taking a look at our resource base and seeing whether it doesn't make some sense to free it up." It will probably have to start with red states "champing at the bit," since activists in Democrat-run states are powerful in their obstruction, according to Kish. "Utah has been fighting for more control over its land for a long time," Kish told DCNF. "The ability to have more control over federal lands and more say-so over what happens on federal lands within its reach would lead [states] to a different conclusion. I think ultimately states would see it in the benefit to have a stake in ownership or partial ownership or more of a say in how their lands are managed." The "regulatory regime" in Democrat-run states will have to be overcome, he admitted. "It's just impossible to build anything because of the shortage of land, and yet you've got no shortage of land, what you have is a shortage of ownership in private hands and a regulatory regime that keeps people from being able to build anything," Kish told DCNF. Burgum and Turner acknowledged there will be "bad-faith critics" obstructing the agenda here. "Streamlining the regulatory process is a cornerstone of this partnership," they wrote. "Historically, building on federal land is a nightmare of red tape -- lengthy environmental reviews, complex transfer protocols, and disjointed agency priorities. This partnership will cut through the bureaucracy. Interior will reduce the red tape behind land transfers or leases to public housing authorities, nonprofits and local governments. HUD will ensure these projects align with affordability goals and development needs. This isn't a free-for-all to build on federal lands, although we recognize that bad-faith critics will likely call it that. It's a strategic effort to use our resources responsibly while preserving our most beautiful lands." Housing Shake-Up: HUD And FHFA Slash Staff, Close Offices (National Mortgage Professional) - full text National Mortgage Professional [3/21/2025 11:57 AM, Staff] The Trump administration has initiated sweeping staff cuts and office closures at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), marking a significant downsizing of the federal government's 19 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023600 housing infrastructure. At FHFA, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two divisions were shut down this week, resulting in a reduction of nearly 10% of the workforce. New FHFA Director Bill Pulte also recently fired Freddie Mac CEO Diana Reid, removed most members of the boards at both GSEs, and appointed himself as chair of both. Entire teams, including those from the Research and Statistics Division and the Equal Employment Opportunity office, were placed on administrative leave and escorted from the building. The agency also dissolved the Division of Public Interest Examination, an office established in 2024 to oversee affordable housing, consumer protection, and diversity initiatives. Although some roles are protected by statute, many staff are expected to lose their jobs. The Office of Minority and Women Inclusion was folded into another department, but its employees were also placed on leave. Meanwhile, HUD has begun closing its Office of Field Policy and Management, which includes teams overseeing fair housing, labor standards, and lead hazard control. Approximately 150 employees are facing reductions in force. Additional layoffs are expected in the coming weeks, potentially eliminating HUD's local staffing in up to 34 states, which could hinder its ability to underwrite mortgages and manage key housing programs. The cuts follow President Trump's directive to Cabinet members to reduce agency staffing. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, is tasked with overseeing and enforcing these reductions. If agency heads do not meet the expectations, DOGE is positioned to carry out the cuts directly. While HUD leadership has emphasized efforts to retain top talent and institutional knowledge, many within the agency remain uncertain about the future. Congressional Democrats have voiced strong opposition to the downsizing, warning of potential setbacks to housing development, disaster recovery, and community support initiatives. They argue the cuts threaten the core functions of HUD and FHFA and could delay or halt vital services across the country. As both agencies move forward with reductions, the full impact on housing policy and federal support systems remains to be seen. The restructuring efforts reflect a broader push by the Trump administration to consolidate power and reduce federal capacity across multiple agencies. [NY] Alleged exclusion of disabled people behind federal denial to redevelop LI public housing complex (Newsday, NY) - full text Newsday [3/21/2025 7:31 PM, Joshua Solomon, 1150K, NY] VIDEO. The Town of Hempstead Housing Authority excluded disabled people for at least a decade from public housing it rents to low-income seniors, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development determined. The alleged exclusion -- which the housing authority disputes - is behind the state this week denying the housing authority millions of dollars in tax credits to raze and rebuild its "beyond repair" Dogwood Terrace public housing complex in Franklin Square, a Newsday investigation found. While the authority views the majority of its public housing as senior-only facilities, HUD said the official designation should be for low-income seniors and people with disabilities. HUD also found the residents of some housing complexes the authority runs are "disproportionately white," government records show. "The housing authority denies these meritless allegations," Town of Hempstead Housing Authority Executive Director Ed Cumming said in an emailed statement Wednesday when asked about HUD's decision and its relationship to the tax credit denial. 20 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023601 HUD's decision leaves 68 residents uncertain about their housing future. Engineers commissioned by the housing authority in 2021 described Dogwood Terrace as "dangerously structurally unsound." The engineers had suggested either vacating the building or making temporary repairs. The town needed separate approvals from the federal government to demolish and rebuild Dogwood Terrace and from the state for tax credits to finance the planned public-private redevelopment. The HUD disapproval -- which came last August but has not been previously reported -- is the reason the state this week declined awarding the project tax credits, according to the state agency of Homes and Community Renewal. "If the Town of Hempstead Housing Authority is unable to dispose of the property and finance a redevelopment, the property, for safety reasons, will have to be vacated and abandoned and housing for 104 residents will be lost," the housing authority's 2023 federal application to demolish and rebuild the property said, according to documents Newsday obtained in a public records request. Housing authority leadership had told residents they intended to go forward with the redevelopment this year, after delays from COVID-19, a zoning dispute and a previous financing denial. In January, the authority approved a five-year capital improvement budget for Dogwood Terrace with no money budgeted after this year. Some tenants packed clothes into boxes, preparing for a move from a facility with, according to engineers hired by the housing authority, cracks in the walls, a sinking foundation and suspected mold. Cumming did not provide Newsday with specifics on the plan for Dogwood Terrace residents now that the tax credits were denied. HUD approval would have allowed a public-private redevelopment of the 104unit building to move forward, with relocation funded by the authority. "How long can we suffer in these conditions?" John Heaphy, an 81-year-old retired grocery store union steward and Dogwood Terrace resident advisory council representative, told Newsday this week. Prior to the tax credit denial, Cumming in a statement had dismissed the HUD decision as partisan. "Under the Biden Administration, HUD officials engaged in a purely political agenda in an effort to systematically dismantle the affordable senior housing program under the local housing authority," said Cumming, a leader of the Garden City GOP. He said the housing authority has been "transparent and open" to the town's senior population and is "committed to building senior communities of which everyone can be proud." The housing authority "deterred and denied housing to otherwise eligible applicants" as it promoted "elderly only policies" at the exclusion of those who are disabled, Jesse Ramos, a program analyst for HUD's office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, said in an August email to colleagues. The redeveloped facility would "take away future housing opportunities for persons with disabilities," Ramos said in the email, which Newsday obtained last month in its public records request. The housing authority had been "recalcitrant in negotiations to resolve" the "many violations" HUD had found in its compliance review, which began two years prior, Ramos wrote. Cumming said "no allegations of individual discrimination have ever been lodged against the authority" and that it will "vigorously defend any false accusations against it." The 21 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023602 authority, however, has faced at least five fair housing complaints in the last decade, according to its 2023 state tax credit application. All five complaints were closed either without merit or were withdrawn, the housing authority's application said. Dogwood Terrace had no people with disabilities under 62 years old, according to the housing authority's 2023 redevelopment application to HUD. Newsday previously reported the development was among a collection of Long Island public housing complexes primarily servicing seniors that failed a recent HUD inspection. Phaedra Mapp, a HUD official who works in its special applications center, told Newsday the town housing authority has not had an active application for the redevelopment since the disapproval in August. Cumming countered that a consultant had filed a new application, but neither he nor the developer provided proof. [NY] Why are illegal migrants still allowed to live in public housing? (New York Post, NY) - full text New York Post [3/22/2025 9:30 AM, Howard Husock, 54903K, NY] The Trump administration has stanched the flow of illegal immigrants by reversing Biden-era asylum policy and dispatching ICE agents to sanctuary cities. But the White House has yet to roll back one notable Biden rule that drew little attention: permitting undocumented migrants and other noncitizens to live for an unlimited period in public housing. Across the US, there are long -- extremely long -- waiting lists for public housing apartments and the housing vouchers that pay for rent in privately owned apartments. In New York City alone, there are 227,000 on the wait list for public housing apartments, and 200,000 waiting for vacancies in the city's 112,000 housing voucher (a .k. a Section 8) apartments. The city is hardly an exception: in Baltimore, there are 64,000 on the combined waiting lists; in Boston, 42,000; in Milwaukee, 47,000. This is why many on those lists might be surprised to learn that, under rules set by the Biden administration, they are competing for homes not only with their fellow low-income citizens -- but with noncitizens and even undocumented migrants. As the rules stand, only one resident in a household must have legal status for a family to qualify for low-rent housing. In other words, a 3-bedroom public housing unit or subsidized apartment housing three couples could be home to just one green card holder and five undocumented migrants -- and all would be legally qualified to live there. No housing authority, including New York City's, by far the nation's largest, is violating federal law in permitting illegal aliens to live in its developments, even as thousands of citizens languish on waiting lists. That might seem inconsistent with 1980 legislation limiting housing aid to American citizens. Over time, however, exceptions were added, first for "non-citizens with eligible immigration status." During, the Biden administration, that exception was broadened -- authorizing aid to "mixed families" composed of both legal and illegal immigrants, in order to avoid "division of the family.". The level of assistance for mixed families is, technically, supposed to be a lower, "prorated" amount for a unit's overall rent. But that just means paying a larger portion of rents that are very low: The average gross rent in New York City public housing is just $542 -- and that includes utilities. Citywide, that figure, per the Census Bureau, is $1779. There's another kicker: "All household members must report all income to ensure 22 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023603 accurate rent calculation." In other words, housing authorities must rely on illegal immigrants to report their legal earnings, even if that means their rent will go up. That's neither logical -- nor likely. "Everyone deserves a place to live," NYCHA tenant leader Daniel Barber told me this week, "but with the waiting list so long it isn't fair for migrants to go to the top of the list just because they have a family member who's here legally.". That's the situation that, in 2019, the Trump administration sought to address, by revising Department of Housing and Urban Development regulations and forcing all public housing residents to verify their citizenship. An executive order entitled Reducing Poverty in America by Promoting Opportunity and Economic Mobility from HUD was meant to "adopt policies to ensure that only eligible persons receive benefits and enforce all relevant laws providing that aliens who are not otherwise qualified and eligible may not receive benefits.". If they moved in, they could stay only "for such time that it takes to verify eligible status." What's more, the Trump rule required that the head of a household have legal status -- not just a single member. The rule had not been finalized by the time Trump left office and was reversed by the Biden administration in 2021. Now the undocumented may remain for an indefinite period. Housing authorities are not required to report the number of non-citizens among the 9 million residents of public and subsidized housing. It's hard to contemplate, moreover, simply evicting those who are not citizens -- and who were party to legal leases signed with public agencies. ICE agents have enough to do without raiding the projects. But at a time when affordable housing is in such short supply for anyone of low income, it makes sense to change the policy for potential new tenants -- both to be fair to those on waiting lists and to limit a financial incentive for illegal immigration. It was the economist Milton Friedman, himself an immigration advocate, who observed that it's hard to reconcile the safety net of the welfare state with open borders. It's an insight that has never applied more than to public housing. [MS] Mississippi public housing struggles as federal funding falls short (Mississippi Today, MS) - full text Mississippi Today [3/21/2025 5:24 PM, Samuel Hughes, Aidan Tarrant, Pragesh Adhikari, 94K, MS] From cinderblock, single-story duplexes and quadplexes to rows of brick townhomes, public housing projects aren't difficult to spot in Mississippi -- particularly those that buckle under the weight of their age. Getting these properties cleaned up comes with much federal red tape and frustration for many local leaders. As these past housing solutions go offline, underfunded authorities hope to address community needs by doing more with less. One abandoned public housing project in Poplarville, Glenwild, was built in 1967 with asbestos and lead paint and now sits vacant. The city has little power to address its condition. "We would love to be able to just come in, demolish it and do something, but it's not that easy," said the Rev. Jimmy Richardson, a director for South Mississippi Housing Development. "There's so much red tape ... let alone the dollar amount it would take." Federal law requires a replacement plan before redevelopment. Glenwild's cost estimate is around $10 million, and even if a project is planned, the South Mississippi 23 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023604 Housing Authority must prove it has the financial backing to proceed. Public housing authorities nationwide have struggled with budget shortfalls for decades. Justin "Jimmy" Brooks, president of the South Mississippi Housing Authority, said funding has been insufficient since the 1980s. "When I was a director at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in in the 2010 time period, we estimated there was about a $40 billion shortfall in what we needed to take care of our priorities nationwide, and that was in 2010 - it's probably more than tripled since then," Brooks said. To offset this shortfall, HUD introduced the Rental Assistance Demonstration program, shifting public housing to a private funding model with capped rents. "A lot of large housing authorities - us, included --just dove right in. We took all of our public housing out of the public housing program -- put it all this private program. It's been an absolute challenge ever since, because we don't generate enough revenue to take care of the properties, and now we've eliminated our ability to get federal grant funding," Brooks said. Now, the South Mississippi Housing Authority must generate its own revenue, much of it from capped rents. In some cases, rent prices are set at half the market rate. "For example, a two-bedroom rent here, the market rent is $1,000 -- we might be getting $540 a month. We're literally being asked to do the same thing as the private market, with substantially less funding," Brooks said. "We're stuck with it until Congress takes action, which is to be determined." Brooks said the biggest challenge for Mississippi public housing has been rising insurance costs, which have been eating away at the authority's operational budget. "When I came here (in June 2021), it cost about $1.2 million to insure all of our properties. Now, the cost to insure our real estate is over $4 million," Brooks said. "We're scared to death to see what our May 1 renewal is going to look like this year, but whatever it is, the properties can't afford it today, and we could barely afford what the insurance was last year." The South Mississippi Housing Authority, the largest in the state, serves about 26,000 people. It manages 917 active units and about 100 deteriorating ones across Mississippi's lower 14 counties. As costs rise, more units may go offline. "We've got lagging income, we've got expenses that are just on a rocket ship ride. We've got insurance that is completely unaffordable to anyone in luxury apartments down to government-subsidized housing, and if you can get the materials that you need to maintain your properties, you're going to pay probably 50% higher than what you could realistically budget for. And we've got all of those factors rolling into what is ultimately going to be the biggest crisis that I've seen in affordable housing," Brooks said. As a result, many of these public housing projects sit untouched, falling into further dilapidation. "Which creates friction with cities, with counties, with code enforcement, with the community who's saying, `Hey, you really need to do something about these properties,' Brooks said. "And then you have public housing authorities like us that are saying, 'Well, we're already investing $2 million of losses back into to the properties to keep them at the status quo.'" In Poplarville alone, the South Mississippi Housing Authority loses more than $100,000 annually to keep public housing units online for low-income families. In 2025, as the 24 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023605 South Mississippi Housing Authority faces these pressures, more units will go offline, Brooks said. For smaller properties like Glenwild, projected revenue from capped rents does not cover the costs of redevelopment. The South Mississippi Housing Authority has a plan to demolish the 12 units and partner with a nonprofit to build affordable singlefamily housing, a plan not yet approved by HUD. Despite these challenges, housing authorities across Mississippi are still working to provide new public housing solutions. The South Mississippi Housing Authority is about to begin construction on a 40-unit project in north Gulfport called North Park Estates Phase 2, which involves demolishing old, dilapidated units for a rebuild. "We've had supply issues. We've had construction pricing issues. You know, the 40 units, we estimated it would cost about ten million to build it. We're up to about $14 million in estimated cost right now," Brooks said. Brooks said large projects are more costeffective for public housing developers because they produce more revenue, but getting money on the front end is challenging. He said much funding for affordable housing at the city and county level has dried up in the past two decades. The authority's other active project, Coastal Pointe, includes more than 12 funding sources to form a $16 million plan viable to HUD. The project will demolish older units on a property called Canal Point and move residents into 60 units of new, three-story apartment buildings. Sheleatha McCullum, 44, was born and raised in Gulfport public housing. Currently a nursing assistant, she said her six years at Canal Point has allowed her to achieve some financial stability is looking forward to the new project. "(Public housing) has helped me tremendously in trying to get to where I'm trying to get to," McCullum said. "I don't plan on moving, but if I did, this would be a start -- for anybody." Tamillia Black, a Moss Point native, moved into Canal Point three years ago. She is thankful for what she finds to be a peaceful community. "I was homeless. I had nothing. It's a blessing to have a roof over my head," Black said. "I was on a wait list; I think I waited five years to get out here. I was home to home, living off others. It was tough for me at some points, really tough." Black said public housing is necessary, and that new development at Coastal Pointe is necessary to answer the aging structures in the community. "With public housing, you face a dual problem, because public housing in Section 8 usually has rent limits as to what the federal government will let an owner of public housing charge, and it doesn't accommodate any increase in insurance every year," said Mike Chaney, Mississippi Commissioner of Insurance. After Hurricane Katrina, the state Legislature formed the Comprehensive Hurricane Damage Mitigation Program, which provides grant funding to make properties, particularly those of lower-income individuals, less vulnerable to storm damage in the six coastal counties: Pearl River, Stone, George, Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties. Mississippi state law requires insurance companies to give discounts for homes mitigated to the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety FORTIFIED standard, which includes reinforced roofs and windows. "If you mitigate a home or public housing or storm damage, you reduce the insurance rates anywhere from 30 to 4O%, and that's been our proactive choice," Chaney said. 25 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023606 The program was unfunded until last year, when it received $5 million to provide $10,000 to each selected recipient to fortify buildings and to measure public interest in such a program. House Bill 959, currently in the hands of the Senate, would extend the program. While Chaney hopes to see more funding appropriated to the program, he has not seen much interest in the state legislature. Chaney also said the federal government is unlikely to help curb the impact of insurance rates on public housing anytime soon. "I don't see the government putting any money out at all to try to raise any of the rent subsidies that they give out for the cost of living, or the cost of insurance," Chaney said. U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, chair for the upper house's Transportation, Housing and Urban Development subcommittee, did not respond to our request for comment on developments at the federal level. As Mississippi housing authorities balance these increasing financial strains, Brooks said policy responses will have to be made at the state and federal levels to keep the state's public housing at the status quo. "This isn't a Mississippi problem. It's certainly not a Poplarville problem. It is a nationwide challenge that I would say is starting to get to crisis level," Brooks said. "There are millions of units of public housing that are that are in this situation." [MO] Missouri affordable housing programs are vulnerable to federal funding cuts (KOMU, Columbia, MO) - full text KOMU [3/23/2025 5:45 PM, John Murphy, 181K, MO] VIDEO. Eighty percent. That's how much of the annual budget the Columbia Housing Authority receives from the federal government, according to the organization's CEO. Amid a shortage of housing availability and heavy federal reliance, will affordable housing programs in mid-Missouri survive the new administration in the White House? People like Sidney Morris certainly hope so. "A table has four legs, and so if one leg is missing, which is the stable housing part of it, then it just makes everything else become unstable," he said. Morris has been on a waitlist for affordable housing in Columbia for over six months. He has a job, but he also has a prior eviction, making finding housing more difficult. Also in the way is a lack of housing overall. Columbia Housing Authority CEO Randy Cole said Morris joins over 800 people on a waitlist for housing. And, that list doesn't even paint the full picture of the need for housing. "That's a little deceiving because we've closed all of our waitlists because of our high voucher utilization rate across all of our voucher programs, as well as our occupancy levels have been really high," Cole said. The CHA received over $12 million through grants from the city of Columbia and Boone County from the American Rescue Plan Act, which was federally-distributed COVID-19 relief funds. The housing authority is using the funds to build more than 150 units, but most of these are rebuilds of existing structures, with occupants already in them. "They were built in the mid-'60s ... a lot of the units we have there, each year, we deal with things like collapsing sewer lines, foundations that are failing, the electrical service isn't to a level that would power a dryer," Cole said. The people who live in the existing units will be able to move back into the rebuilt ones. The net gain of completely new units is 43 -- hardly enough to put a dent in a waitlist of 26 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023607 over 800. With the CHA heavily reliant on federal funds through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Cole said he is satisfied with the continuing resolution Congress passed this month to keep the government funded through September, despite contention among Democrats, who were shut out of the negotiation process, over whether they should support it. While the CHA might receive the funding it needs for now, some of the resources it relies on could be in jeopardy. As Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency continue to gut the federal workforce, experts told NBC News it's only a matter of time until Musk directs these efforts toward HUD, a department where workforce cuts are already underway. "We have seen some cuts in staffing in one of our grants," Cole said. "We did have one staff member that was cut, as well as a couple of additional staff in that department." Cole said the CHA is particularly concerned about rising insurance costs for its properties. HUD has financial resources dedicated toward addressing insurance but could stand to lose them if the staff devoted to maintaining these programs is let go. "We're certainly tightening our belts and have been over the past few months just to prepare," Cole said. If the CHA and other affordable housing providers in Missouri continue to lose federal resources, they may seek them from the state. However, they will be unlikely to find many there. The Missouri Housing Trust Fund was established in 1994. It is financed through a $3 charge on real estate documents filed in the state. The fund is then distributed to nonprofits who apply for funding across the state. Today, the fund is stretched thin. "In 2024, there was a little over $4 million in the housing trust fund, even though there was over $10 million in requests," said Misha Smith, the affordable housing policy manager for Empower Missouri. "Two-thirds of those requests were denied." As the need for affordable housing has changed, Smith said the fund hasn't. "It has been the same fee since 1994, and prices have changed a bit since 1994," they said. Smith said Empower Missouri is working to propose legislation to increase the flat-rate fee to $12. However, Smith said even this wouldn't solve some of the issues with the mechanics of the fund. "No matter if someone is buying a home worth $5 million or $200,000, they pay that recording fee, and $3 goes," Smith said. "The fee is also connected, of course, to real estate activity. So, if home buying is down ... the fee goes down." Organizations in mid-Missouri are actively working to fill the affordable housing gap left by the federal government. Ashley Switzer is the community outreach director for Show Me Central Habitat for Humanity. It is organizing volunteers to build a new neighborhood of 142 homes in north Columbia. These homes come with a zero percent-interest rate mortgage and are free of labor costs for low-income families. Still, Habitat for Humanity is adjusting to meet the times. "To make sure our homeowners can still afford a monthly payment that's reasonable, we've gone from a 20-year mortgage to a 30-year mortgage," Switzer said. "We have really been focusing a lot on our community. Columbia is so amazing coming together to make sure that they're supporting events and building projects with us so that we can still continue building even when funding and our nation is in flux." Love Columbia is addressing the housing need by addressing poverty as a whole. "What we've tried to do is lean more into helping people increase their income and manage the 27 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023608 income they currently have," said Conrad Hake, the program director of Love Columbia. "We've been working on a project called "Career Next Steps" that's a website contextualized to Columbia where we're trying to help people identify ways to move into a career path." Still, people in Columbia remain waiting for a home to call their own. Perry (Pete) Redmon was homeless in Columbia for two years before moving into Fresh Start, a sober recovery center. He sustained a severe head injury and lives off Social Security. He doesn't want a new house for himself but for the other people he knows who are struggling like he did. "If I had my single-family dwelling with more than one bedroom, I could have saved myself a hundred bucks and put them in a room and fed them," Redmon said. "Let them use the shower." Redmon said he was evicted from his previous housing in Jefferson City for letting too many homeless people into his residence to try to help them. "They ain't had to lay out in a treeline when it's raining and there's frost on the ground and, you know, there's nowhere to go...the suffering is real," he said. "The suffering is real." [OH] Big dollars at stake - Butler County leaders have heated discussion about plan for spending on housing for homeless (Journal-News, Hamilton, OH) - full text Journal-News [3/21/2025 6:00 AM, Denise G. Callahan, 104K, OH] How to help those experiencing homelessness has been a long-standing issue in Butler County, and the majority of the county commission is trying to thwart efforts by a grassroots committee led by fellow Commissioner Cindy Carpenter to wrest financial control from the county. Commissioners Don Dixon and T.C. Rogers sent a letter to officials at the federal and state departments of Housing and Urban Development this week "expressing vigorous objection" to Carpenter's Housing and Homeless Collaborative Board's request to become an independent Continuum of Care entity, managing federal dollars for the homeless. The commissioners had a heated discussion last week about this topic. "If this group is created and they're all social service providers and they're going to determine where these millions of dollars are going to go, who is going to be responsible for that money if something happens and goes awry?" Dixon asked Carpenter. "You're taking taxpayer's dollars and putting them in providers hands to make the decisions and they're not accountable to the voters, they can't be voted out.". Carpenter replied, "There are so many safeguards in place that's really, really, really unlikely to happen.". Before signing the letter on Tuesday, Rogers objected to what he said appears to be a hazy plan at this point. "As we understood it, there's been meetings for more than a year, there is no specific plan or structure, how many employees it takes," he said. "It appears it's send the money first and then we'll figure it out. That's just not the way I do things." Butler County gets fewer dollars The county receives money from HUD for the Permanent Supportive Housing program that provides rental assistance and treatment for the homeless who also suffer from mental illness. The YWCA and Serve City also receive some funding. Carpenter's 28 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023609 grassroots group wants to take over because they believe they can get more money to help the homeless. She said for some reason, in 1995, the county was lumped in with the 80 rural counties in what's called the "Balance of State" category for Continuum of Care funding. The larger urban counties are set up as independent entities, which is what Carpenter's group wants to become. "All the other urban counties get millions of more dollars that Butler County, we get $1.4 million currently, Hamilton County gets $25 million Montgomery County gets $14 million and so on so we are by far underfunded from the other counties," she said during the board's discussion, adding at last count in January there were more people living on the streets than in shelters. "So for the homeless service providers it feels like a crisis to them. That's the reason they are organizing is to be able to at least govern their own future like has been offered to the other counties.". Mindy Muller, president and CEO of Community Development Professionals, who has been administering the federal program for the county for 15 years, told the JournalNews at the official homeless "point-in-time" count in January there were 254 people on the streets and 231 sheltered for a total of 485. Last year the homeless count was 347 and the year before 266. As for Carpenter's claim the county could get millions more, Muller told the Journal-News HUD determines funding based on a number of factors including how much money should go to a geographic region and a Preliminary Pro Rata Need (PPRN) formula that takes into consideration population, poverty, housing overcrowding and age of housing stock. She said the county's PPRN in 2023 was $474,533 but they received $1.45 million, and "that means that had Butler County been its own CoC in 2023, the maximum federal funding awards would have decreased by $975,386.". Rogers has noted Butler is the 7th largest due to it's population, "however the other six in front of us are dominated by a large city, we are not. That's the biggest difference.". The awards for the 2024 application cycle for the three Butler County Permanent Supportive Housing programs are went to Serve City shelter for $218,868; the YWCA for $294,053 and the commissioners awarded $1.5 million, for a total of $2 million. The PSH program is a voucher system and the commissioners applied for an additional 100 in 2022 but the state only approved 50, so now there are a total of 113. Muller said 120 people are being housed using the commissioners' vouchers. Carpenter's group sent a letter notifying the Balance of State Continuum of Care on Feb. 28 they intend to apply to HUD "for recognition as an independent, urban county Continuum of Care.". "The Butler County Housing and Homeless Collaborative Board is committed to developing effective, data-driven solutions for Butler County's homeless crisis," Deb Wells, the group's secretary, wrote. "By ensuring strong governance, strategic funding allocation, and collaborative partnerships, our Board will work toward a future where homelessness is rare, brief, and nonrecurring. Our initiative aligns with the other urban county Continuum of Care organizations in Ohio.". Carpenter's group has been meeting for years but only recently started organizing itself as an official 501(c)(3) so it would be eligible to serve as an independent Continuum of Care and handle HUD homeless funding. Wells told the Journal-News "we're close.". 29 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023610 "The group has begun the process of establishing a board as directed by HUD," Wells said. "We are in the process of formalizing membership, writing the governance charter and drafting policies and procedures.". As to the objection the other commissioners sent she said, "it's going to be up to HUD to determine whether or not they're going to formally recognize the board as the entity for this area. I don't know how much weight they will put to that, I don't know if it will be part of their consideration, I don't know what their process is.". Carpenter wasn't at the meeting when the objection letter was approved and could not be reached for comment. The Ohio Department of Development and the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO) manage the Balance of State Continuum of Care for HUD. Marcus Roth, communications/development director for COHHIO, said they have "limited knowledge" of the process for an entity to separate from the 80-county group but have a general idea what must be involved. "From our communications with HUD officials, it is our understanding that in order to form a new CoC a community must demonstrate widespread community education and a vote that shows consensus for separation among a broad array of partners that include direct service providers, people with lived experience of homelessness, civic leaders, and others who are engaged in the effort to address homelessness in the community," Roth told the Journal-News. Efforts to combat issue continue The commissioners hosted two Housing Insecurity and Advocacy summits last year with representatives from across the county. In her letter to HUD on behalf of Dixon and Rogers Boyko mentioned the summits. She wrote they are "convinced sustainable impact on addressing the homeless circumstances requires input, consent and investment from all.". Dixon has always maintained "buy-in" from all of the local communities is essential, hence the countywide meetings. He blamed Carpenter for lobbying for additional vouchers -- which she said was a "painful" process -- without seeking community support. "If you talk to the safety service providers that have to deal with these they'll tell you it's been real painful for them, they were not geared up to handle anymore, they're trying to manage the situations that they have and through your efforts you've put more services on them without their consent or buy-in," he said. "Yes you did that and yes it was very painful for them, probably a lot more than you, and really painful for the taxpayers because they're the ones that have to pay for it.". Carpenter said the mayors of Middletown and New Miami and a Hamilton city council member among others are actively involved in the grassroots effort. The commissioners have agreed to hire a homeless coordinator to direct the countywide homeless effort and Boyko said she is working on the job description and will have it ready for approval shortly. Another summit will also be scheduled soon. When asked what she thinks of the grassroots effort, Muller said she wants to do what's best for the county and "I can't find a way that this is a better idea than what we currently have," especially since COHHIO does the "lion's share" of administering the federal program and it doesn't cost the county a dime. 30 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023611 [OH] Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity commits $600K to Lorain housing improvement program (Lorain Morning Journal, OH) - full text Lorain Morning Journal [3/21/2025 5:00 PM, Heather Chapin, 67K, OH] Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity has announced a series of collaborative projects with the city of Lorain and the Lorain Metropolitan Housing Authority. Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity stated in a news release it is committed to investing $600,000 over the next few years in Critical Home Repair in Lorain for housing and repair projects in Lorain as it continues its mission of ensuring local families have a safe, affordable place to live. The initiatives are part of the Housing Authority's Choice Neighborhood program, aimed at revitalizing the Southside community. "The city of Lorain and LMHA have proven to be incredible partners in service, and as we make needed repairs to homes for existing residents, I also cannot wait to see new homes going up for families who need them," said John Litten, president and CEO of the Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity. Greater Cleveland Habitat aims to build at least two houses in Lorain and complete a minimum of 30 critical home repair projects in 2025, with 21 households planned for future efforts, the release stated. The two homes are slated to be built on Lorain's southside on East 29th and East 34th streets, with plans to explore an additional five neighboring, or nearby lots. Design work is in progress for the first two houses with plans for modular homes, according to the release. Additionally, a partnership with the city is being explored for housing on five contiguous lots on the west side, combining modular and stick-built homes. Based on the material to build the houses, it will make them more cost and energy-efficient, as well as faster to build, which will allow more homes to be built in a shorter period of time, the release stated. "The partnership between the city of Lorain and Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity is transforming the community one home at a time," said Matt Kusznir, director of the city's Building, Housing and Planning Department. "The rapid expansion of the Critical Home Repair Program and the introduction of modular homes will ensure more residents can maintain and achieve homeownership. "Together, we are increasing home rehabilitation projects and pioneering innovative housing solutions that build stronger neighborhoods to build a more sustainable future for Lorain." According to the city of Lorain Comprehensive Housing Assessment, there is a significant need for affordable housing in the area, with over 30 percent of households in Lorain being cost-burdened, with residents spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing, the release stated. Additionally, there is a substantial demand for critical home repairs and new affordable housing units to address the aging housing stock and improve living conditions. Greater Cleveland Habitat has met with Lorain Mayor Jack Bradley to align efforts within the Choice Neighborhood program. "I'm happy that our Building, Housing and Planning Department was able to establish this relationship with Habitat for Humanity," Bradley said. "It's my hope that the program provides housing to our residents who, because of financial issues, can't obtain traditional financial for housing and through the work of our Building Housing and Planning Department and Habitat, we can secure housing for citizens who are less fortunate." As a member of the steering committee, Greater Cleveland Habitat is actively 31 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023612 involved in planning and decision-making, stated the release. Efforts are underway to secure funding for upcoming projects, demonstrating strong investor interest in the neighborhood. The Choice Neighborhood program in Lorain "is thriving, with nine repairs completed, nine active repairs, and 21 households in the works," the release stated. A pilot program for foundation repairs on 10 houses also in development and supported by $250,000 from State American Rescue Plan Act funds for general repairs, $150,000 from State State American Rescue Plan Act funds for foundation repairs, $100,000 from Habitat funds and $100,000 from the city of Lorain. Since expanding into Lorain in 2022, Greater Cleveland Habitat has reopened the Amherst ReStore and integrated into the community through partnerships with El Centro De Servicios Soc, sponsoring United Way of Greater Lorain County events, membership in the Lorain County Chamber of Commerce and participation in local business expos, the release stated. This strategic collaboration between Greater Cleveland Habitat and the city of Lorain's LMHA is an extension of the missions of both of these programs: making sure residents have a safe and affordable place to live, according to the release. [WY] Trump Administration Calls For More Affordable Homes On Public Land (Cowboy State Daily, WY) - full text Cowboy State Daily [3/22/2025 6:51 PM, David Madison, 803K, WY] Reducing housing development costs by building on free or low-cost public land isn't a new idea. But it gained significant momentum this week when the federal Department of Interior formally combined forces with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to create a new task force. Its mandate, according to the agency, is "to increase housing supply and decrease costs for millions of Americans." This federal initiative is in line with projects underway in Teton County, Wyoming, Summit County, Colorado, and Madison County, Montana. But these current efforts to bring more affordable housing to market by building on public land so far, remain separate from what's happening with the new DOI-HUD task force. Progress In Jackson "We are on the front lines of this issue, working closely in partnership with the BridgerTeton National Forest," Anne Cresswell, executive director of the Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust, told Cowboy State Daily on Friday. "We've been working on it for over 10 years and we're excited to be making significant progress." The Housing Trust is on track to become the first developer in the nation to be awarded a special use permit to develop affordable housing on an administrative parcel of Forest Service land. "Land is not conveyed," said Cresswell. "We will have a special use permit much like a ski area or a fishing lodge would have a special use permit. There is no cost associated with the special use permit." The permit will apply to a 7.5-acre parcel adjacent to the town of Jackson, located by the Nelson Drive Trailhead accessing Bridger-Teton National Forest. The Special Use Permit, explained Cresswell, ensures federal land stays in federal hands all the while enabling an opportunity to address not only the essential housing needs facing the Forest Service, but the housing crisis facing the Jackson community at large. Cresswell 32 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023613 added that the Community Housing Trust and forest officials are looking at developing 13 multi-family buildings approved in 2012 -- a combination of duplexes, triplexes - so that 1/3 of the units go to house Forest Service employees, and 2/3 go to the community at large. In the White River National Forest of Summit County, Colorado, a workforce housing project planned on U.S. Forest Service land is currently on hold as the project parameters continue to be negotiated, according to a February story on summitdaily.com. The news site reported, "Construction of the 162-unit workforce housing project just outside the town of Dillon had previously been expected to start this year. But while county and Forest Service officials say they remain committed to the project, they have not provided a timeline for when it might move forward." Which Kind of Public Land? The Forest Service falls under the Department of Agriculture, and its affordable housing efforts on public land were not mentioned or included in the recent announcement about the DOI-HUD taskforce. DOI oversees more than 500 million acres of federal land, "much of it suitable for residential use," according to the recent press release. "This is about more than building houses. We want to build hope," continued the release. "Overlooked rural and tribal communities will be a focus of this joint agreement. We are going to invest in America's many forgotten communities." In Madison County, Montana, where land is about 50% owned by state and federal agencies, the local housing coordinator is looking at public land owned by municipalities and school districts. Jim Jarvis, who is employed through a partnership with Madison County and Northern Rocky Mountain Economic Development District, said he's been working to "identify those weird little, chunks of publicly owned land that's left over from some project from 30 years ago that never quite happened. So that land just kind of sat there." "It's that weird little 2-acre or 20-acre chunk," said Jarvis, pointing to progress with developing affordable housing in Twin Bridges, Montana, on property owned by the Twin Bridges School District. "It's where their old bus barn used to be," Jarvis told Cowboy State Daily Friday. "It's a vacant piece of land they've identified that would be a good location for a couple of duplexes. And so I'm working with them in my capacity as the housing coordinator to try to figure out if there is some funding available that would help them." The upside of working with a local municipality or school district to secure public land for affordable housing is the new homes will be built near existing infrastructure and local employers. Looking ahead, Jarvis said, "Whether it's BLM or other that's available here in Madison County, I have to believe there probably are parcels of federal land that would probably meet some if not all of those criteria." Not A Fit Everywhere Not everyone working to develop more affordable housing sees federal public land as a viable solution to the widespread shortage of affordable homes. "When you look at a map of Wyoming showing federal lands you can see that much of the federal land is in 33 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023614 remote areas," wrote Melissa Noah, executive director of the Wyoming Housing Network, in an email to Cowboy State Daily. "Somewhere around 58% of Wyoming is federal land." "There may be small areas where this will help, but the ongoing challenges for Wyoming housing would still affect the ability to develop there," added Noah. "These include access to important infrastructure like water and power, and a workforce with construction skills." Noah characterized the recent news of the DOI-HUD task force as "a step forward in creating access to housing," but access to public land isn't by itself a solution. "I hope that a more comprehensive program that encompasses these additional challenges and how current HUD programs help address those needs is being considered," said Noah, adding, "As someone born and raised in Wyoming, it drives home our state's dependence on federal funding or federal benevolence (like access to federal lands) to help address housing needs across the housing spectrum. "I believe Wyoming would benefit from a state housing investment program that empowers us to solve Wyoming issues with Wyoming control." The Big Sky Example Like Jackson, Big Sky, Montana, is a booming resort community that's struggling to provide affordable housing for its workforce and year-round residents. The Big Sky Community Housing Trust (BSCHT) is partnering with Lone Mountain Land Company to add 389 deed-restricted homes for rent and purchase, which will be reserved exclusively for Big Sky's workforce and their families. To help pay for the project, the Housing Trust is asking voters to support the Cold Smoke Housing Bond at the ballot box on May 6. "If voters approve of the Cold Smoke Housing Bond, BSCHT will purchase the nearly 100-acre parcel of land, plus infrastructure, and will permanently own it on behalf of the community using the Community Land Trust (CLT)," according to the BSCHT website. "By electing to bond, the community can borrow against our local resort tax's future collections, without increasing taxes, to address critical needs like housing." As for partnering with federal agencies to lower the cost of developing residential units by building them on cost-free or low-cost public land, David O'Connor. executive director of BSCHT, said that hasn't been part of the mix so far. "There was a program that potentially made certain U.S. Forest Service lands available for affordable housing," O'Connor told Cowboy State Daily Friday in an email. "However, the land had to be designated within USFS as `Administrative Parcels,' and there are no such holdings around Big Sky." Generally, added O'Connor, BSCHT doesn't favor converting federal or state land holdings, "which are reserved for recreation or conservation purposes." [WA] Marcia L. Fudge and Steve Stivers - Washington's housing crisis demands real solutions, not rent caps (Spokesman-Review, WA) - full text Spokesman-Review.com [3/22/2025 4:00 AM, Marcia L. Fudge and Steve Stivers, 847K, WA] Washington faces an ongoing and critical shortage of housing, with at least 251,894 34 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023615 units missing -- and the gap is only widening. In response, the Washington Legislature is considering extreme measures, including House Bill 1217, which would implement statewide rent caps. As legislators weigh this issue, they must ask themselves: Do rent caps truly improve access to stable housing, or do they make the problem worse? Across the country, policies like HB 1217 have been tested repeatedly, often with unintended negative consequences that actually make housing less affordable. As housing policy experts, we've seen it time and time again. We are here to say: with Washington already facing a severe housing shortage, rent caps will ultimately harm renters. Areas with increasingly high rental occupancy rates like Seattle, Spokane and Tacoma are struggling to keep pace with housing production demand. A study from Up for Growth, a national nonprofit focused on data-driven housing policy, found that Washington's housing production decreased by more than 7% between 2012 and 2015, one of the worst rates in the nation. This means that there were even fewer homes available for those who needed them. Instead of addressing the root problem of housing production, measures like HB 1217 will make Washington's housing problem even worse by keeping prices artificially low, discouraging new housing development and the housing investments Washington desperately needs. This isn't speculation -- it's backed by real-world evidence. Oregon enacted statewide rent caps in 2019, stringently limiting annual rent increases. The result? Housing production plummeted while rents continued to climb. In Portland, new housing permits dropped by 62% in the first year after the law was passed. Property owners, uncertain about future returns, either converted rentals into condos or pulled their investment altogether, shrinking the supply of available housing and driving prices even higher. HB 1217 could set the same cycle in motion in Washington. When property owners can't keep up with rising maintenance, insurance, and tax costs due to rent caps, they scale back investments in rental properties. Rent-controlled apartments can result in residents staying longer than they would otherwise, bypassing the traditional transitions to larger or smaller spaces as their families grow or shrink. At the same time, developers take their projects -- and the jobs they generate -- elsewhere to states with more favorable housing policies. In the end, rent caps reduce the number of rental units, intensify competition and drive costs even higher for renters struggling to find housing. We're not here to stand in the way -- we're here to advocate instead for real solutions. There are proven strategies that exist to expand access to affordable housing, and we've seen them succeed elsewhere. Washington needs a better solution than restrictive rent caps. A balanced approach would offer targeted support to renters who need it most and incentivize new housing construction to boost availability. This can be accomplished by reforming restrictive zoning laws to allow for greater housing density in high-demand areas and streamlining the permitting process to cut unnecessary delays that drive up construction costs. Expanding rental assistance programs, such as housing choice vouchers, will help low-income families secure housing without disrupting the rental market. Additionally, incentivizing private investment in affordable housing -- rather than imposing artificial price caps -- will encourage builders and landlords to keep units affordable. By fostering a sustainable, market-driven approach, Washington can create a housing system that works for everyone. HB 1217 is not the solution Washington needs. 35 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023616 Lawmakers must reject this bill and focus on policies that will actually make housing more available and affordable for Washington families. [OR] Northwest lawmakers fight closure of Portland, Seattle Department of Housing and Urban Development offices (KGW.com, Portland, OR) - full text KGW.com [3/22/2025 4:09 PM, Sabinna Pierre, 1371K, OR] A group of Pacific Northwest lawmakers is challenging the Trump administration's reported plans to close Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) offices in Portland and Seattle. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., and eight other Democratic lawmakers sent a letter Friday to HUD Secretary expressing "deep concern" about the potential closures, which they say would leave constituents across Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska without local federal housing support. "We know how devastating it can be when services are moved out of state and implore you to keep the Seattle regional office and Portland field office open," the lawmakers wrote. "The Pacific Northwest is already experiencing a significant housing shortage. The closure of these regional and field offices would significantly hinder the ability of state agencies, public housing authorities, community-based organizations, and private developers and landlords to develop new housing and address this housing crisis." If the closures proceed, the nearest HUD office would be in San Francisco -- more than 650 miles from Portland and 850 miles from Seattle. The letter was signed by Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, along with Reps. Val Hoyle, Andrew Salinas and Maxine Dexter, and Washington Sen. Patty Murray, as well as Reps. Adam Smith and Suzan DelBene -- all Democrats. The lawmakers noted that federal law requires HUD to maintain an office in every state and to analyze and report publicly on the impacts of any field office closures. According to the letter, regional HUD staff provide critical services including processing mortgage insurance applications, assisting with affordable housing developments, resolving fair housing claims and helping tenants navigate federal housing assistance programs. "Field offices are the most direct touchpoint to navigate the complexities of federal housing assistance programs by providing eviction prevention assistance and other housing quality services to individuals and families with few or no other options," the lawmakers wrote. "The closure of these offices would result in undue risk for our constituents." The letter requested a response from HUD by April 3, 2025. [CA] Funds still coming for Corning Veterans Hall remodel (San Luis Obispo.com, CA) - full text San Luis Obispo.com [3/21/2025 6:36 AM, George Johnston, 226K, CA] With everything going on in Washington recently, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development recently ensured that Tehama County will still receive federal money for the Corning Veterans Hall remodel. Administrative Services Director Tom Provine contacted HUD to confirm the funds were still coming. Provine shared that his concern was that the county was not hearing from the agency, but eventually, the department got back to them. "I want to extend my thanks to Congressman LaMalfa and his staff, who were instrumental in getting us these funds, and I think were instrumental in putting some pressure in to make sure we could get those reassurances that we needed," Provine said. 36 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023617 This remodel is estimated to be around $6.4 million. Around $2 million from the county's American Rescue Plan Act COVID Relief Funds and $4.4 million from the federal Community Project fund will go towards the project. Project specifications show that the remodel will include new mechanical, plumbing, and electrical systems, roofing, insulation, finishes, and kitchen equipment. Exterior improvements include new covered entries, paving, site utilities, landscaping, irrigation, and a photovoltaic array. In 2024, the supervisors discussed design properties for the project. Based on a previous evaluation by Nichols, Melburg, and Rosetto, they authorized county staff to proceed with securing design services for the remodel. The project is in bid now. The Corning Veterans Hall was built in the early 1930s. The building is over 90 years old. Provine shared an update on the Tehama County Jail Expansion Project. The roof deck is on, and the scaffolding is off the building. Provine said they are now moving to a time when tours of the building are possible. Provine has spoken with Sheriff Dave Kain, who wants to walk the Board of Supervisors through the site. "It's a good time where we have walls up, and you can see what's going on, but not too much in there to crowd things out," he said. This expansion aims to feature dorms to house 64 inmates and an upgraded kitchen, laundry, medical, and programming space to serve the existing jail. In addition to these upgrades, the new and old facilities will be surrounded by fencing and have a covered walkway between them. The facility will be located at 645 Madison St. This project began in 2013 after the county completed research on the jail's needs. Construction on the expansion began in 2023. [CA] Trump Cuts Hit IRS and HUD. Is SF's Affordable Housing Next? (The Frisc, CA) - full text The Frisc [3/21/2025 11:57 AM, Adam Brinklow, CA] San Francisco has pledged to make room for some 82,000 new homes by the end of 2031, and more than half must be affordable. Meeting that housing goal is unlikely, and will grow even more so if federal subsidies vanish -- or if the federal agencies that supply key subsidies are cut to shreds. The Trump administration's DOGE chainsaw, wielded by Elon Musk, has closed in on the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Internal Revenue Service in recent weeks, with staff and programs on the chopping block. These are the two agencies most in control of federal pursestrings for new housing. The money or tax breaks they offer help build new homes, maintain existing units, and help unhoused people find homes and pay the rent. In this two-part story, we'll examine what DOGE threats could mean for San Franciscans who rely on subsidized housing. In this first part, we look at the federal government's funding mechanisms for building new homes or rehabbing old ones. The heart of this funding is a tax tool that few San Franciscans, or Americans for that matter, have heard of: the low-income housing tax credit. But people who build low-income housing know it well. The SF Planning Department calls the LIHTC the largest affordable housing subsidy in the country. Run by the IRS, the program issues credits to state governments, which in turn award them to developers and investors. They receive tax breaks for generating homes for low-income renters. The California agency that allocates the credits to cities, including SF, handles several billion dollars worth annually. "The LIHTC has always been a bipartisan thing," says Ray Pearl, executive director of the California 37 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023618 Housing Consortium, an affordable housing advocacy group. Pearl calls the credit a "true public-private partnership." Republican lawmakers like the LIHTC because it's a tax break for businesses, and Democrats appreciate that it generates low-income housing. As the SF Fed explains, it was designed to reward success; the developer only gets the tax break upon delivery of the housing. It's about as lovey-dovey as both sides of the aisle are likely to get over the tax code. But that might be changing. The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, recently wrote that the LIHTC was "rampant for fraud" and needed a DOGE audit. (Their source was a 2023 report which did not allege fraud but noted that federal oversight of the program "has been minimal.") The Cato Institute, another influential policy shop, agitated against the LIHTC during Trump's first term. In the past, Trump has negatively characterized low-income housing. As DOGE has started cutting into the IRS, housing activists in some states are encouraging people to call lawmakers to support the LIHTC funding during budget negotiations. For all that, there's no specific indication that the LIHTC is in danger. San Francisco's Scott Wiener, chair of the California Senate budget committee, has been sounding constant alarms about the Trump administration. But he told The Frisc last month he's "pretty sure" LIHTC will not end up on the chopping block. (He did acknowledge, however, that "right now we really don't know what they might try to go after." Wiener and his staff have not responded to requests for more comment.) Pearl of the California Housing Consortium also believes the tax credit will outlast the storm because of "the support we have in Congress" from both parties. Not everyone is so sanguine. John Avalos, former SF supervisor and director of the Council of Community Housing Organizations, is girding for a worst-case scenario. "I worry that the city and most non-MAGA public officials around the country are both fatalistic and in denial about what MAGA has in store for us," says Avalos. "If Social Security is impounded, and Medicaid is on the chopping block, then everything is on the chopping block, including the Low Income Housing Tax Credit." The city economist's office declined to comment for this story. Several local affordable housing developers and the Planning Department deferred comment to the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD), which runs San Francisco's affordable housing programs. "There's very little clarity on what we can expect at this point," MOHCD spokesperson Anne Stanley says via email. In 2021, San Francisco accounting firm Novogradac compiled an index of 192 housing projects built in the city with LIHTC financing since 1988, resulting in over 19,000 new or rehabbed homes, nearly all of them priced for low-income renters. These projects collected over $291 million in credits. High-profile projects in the works like the Hunters Point Shipyard and Candlestick Point are relying on these funds as well. Sometimes credits can fund renovation instead of new construction, like the $13 million fix-up of the Ocean Beach Apartments more than 20 years ago. A 2024 survey by Fannie Mae found that in expensive coastal markets, LIHTC buildings offered rents as cheap as half the citywide median. SF was not included in that survey, but in Oakland LIHTC buildings featured rents 52 percent of market prices. At one point a few years ago, so many affordable developers were after these tax credits that they became quite scarce. Starting in 2020, California has boosted the credit with $500 million of its own annually, 38 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023619 alleviating shortage risks for now. The tax credit program is both massive and indirect. But the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) also issues grants to directly finance new housing or renovations and maintenance -- crucial in a city with some of the oldest housing stock in the country. San Francisco has received an average of $18 million a year for the past ten years. The largest HUD program, Community Development Block Grants, has paid nearly $131 million to San Francisco since 2014, according to MOHCD. Housing rehab and construction is one target, but it has a broader remit to help people with incomes up to 80 percent of the county median, which in SF is nearly $84,000 for one person. The HUD HOME program has paid out more than $46 million to San Francisco since 2014 to directly fund construction and acquisition of housing. These programs cover only a fraction of SF's development costs, which can hit $1 million a unit, even for affordable homes. Credits, as well as state grants, development fees, housing bonds, and City Hall's general fund among the many revenue streams that help build housing. But MOHCD spokesperson Stanley notes that a few million dollars here or there can make or break a project, especially in lean times like these when private developers are reluctant to break ground. In other words, each of these sources is like a block in a latestage Jenga game. Pull one out, and your tower might survive. Then again, it might not. Tax credits are not flashy policy measures, but they're an example of the low-profile framework of subsidies underlying America's industries and infrastructure. Taken for granted for decades, it's easy to forget these load-bearing programs are there until someone starts digging at their base. Coming next week in part two: While there's some optimism that housing tax credits might survive, there's little confidence the DOGE purge will spare HUD subsidies that keep low-income San Franciscans housed, and those add up to many more dollars than what the department spends on construction. National Housing News Trump's New Chief Embarks on Shake-Up at Mortgage Giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (Wall Street Journal) - full text Wall Street Journal [3/23/2025 1:08 PM, Gina Heel)] In his first full week as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, home-builder heir and former private-equity executive William Pulte ousted more than a dozen board members at mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Pulte made himself the chairman of the boards and installed a set of new directors (one of them was Christopher Stanley, an Elon Musk ally who resigned from the post a day later). He removed senior executives at the companies and the FHFA, which regulates Fannie and Freddie. Among those let go was Freddie CEO Diana Reid. "There are some really great people inside of these businesses, and the good news for them is there is a lot of upward mobility, to earn and grow MORE!" Pulte said on X on March 16, a day before the board changes. The FHFA declined to comment further. At the FHFA, at least dozens have been placed on administrative leave, according to the National Treasury Employees Union. Some employees were told to go to an old cafeteria space, where they were placed on indefinite leave, according to a person 39 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023620 familiar with the matter. The FHFA had more than 700 employees in 2024. Far bigger changes have been discussed as well. Trump officials have said they would pursue efforts to privatize Fannie and Freddie, a monumental undertaking that the first Trump administration wasn't able to pull off. A proposal floated to the administration last week by a Trump ally laid out how the government could transfer Treasury's ownership of the mortgage giants to the sovereign-wealth fund that President Trump has vowed to create, according to a person familiar with the matter. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also last week suggested on a podcast that the administration could use Fannie and Freddie for a sovereign-wealth fund, though he didn't elaborate on specifics. Countries generally fund sovereign-wealth funds with surplus revenue, but the U.S. runs a large budget deficit each year. Privatizing Fannie and Freddie, which came under government control after the 2008 financial crisis, could generate a windfall for the government. One proposal circulated in recent months estimated that the privatized entities would be valued above $330 billion, with the government's stake at more than $250 billion. Under that plan, Fannie and Freddie would raise an additional $20 billion to $30 billion from new investors, akin to an initial public offering. A raising of that size would put it on par with the largest IPOs of all time. The mortgage giants bundle and sell mortgages, with a government guarantee to protect investors from losses when homeowners default. That allows lenders to originate more mortgages. The administration has in recent months considered issuing an executive order on housing that could include directing departments to study privatization of Fannie and Freddie, according to a person familiar with the matter. Trump allies and other Republicans view privatization as a way to reduce the country's deficit and return money to taxpayers. If not done carefully, some worry that privatization could drive investors to demand higher premiums in the mortgage-backed securities market. That would trickle through to borrowers in the form of higher mortgage rates. Pulte and Bessent have said that any privatization efforts would need to take into consideration the effect on mortgage rates. In the meantime, bankers, regulators and other industry players have privately worried about whether the latest management and staffing turmoil at Fannie and Freddie could cause even small disruptions in the multitrillion-dollar mortgage market. Pulte has already sought to reduce head count in an FHFA department that oversaw fairhousing rules for the Federal Home Loan Bank system, a source of liquidity for banks. Another department that worked on housing-finance research was also targeted. One top bank regulator said that even relatively minor mechanical issues, such as with mortgage pricing or other data, could spook investors in the mortgage-backed securities market. That could keep mortgage rates elevated or push them higher at a fragile moment in the U.S. housing market. In regard to the changes at Fannie, Freddie and the FHFA, a White House spokesman said in a statement that industry leaders "have responded to President Trump's America First economic agenda of tariffs, deregulation, and the unleashing of American energy with trillions in investment commitments that will create thousands of new jobs." For now, Moody's chief economist Mark Zandi said that he doesn't see immediate threats from the board and management changes at Fannie and Freddie because the 40 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023621 U.S. economy remains stable. But he said that any economic downturn and rise in defaults would "put a lot of pressure on a pretty unseasoned board and management team." Trump Administration Eyes Move to Privatize Fannie, Freddie, WSJ Says (Bloomberg) - full text Bloomberg [3/23/2025 1:27 PM, Lauren Dezenski, 16228K] The Trump administration is considering an executive order on housing that may push for the privatization of home loan giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said privatization efforts would need to consider mortgage rate impacts, WSJ noted. The potential directive could task federal departments with exploring this initiative. The White House said in a statement to the Journal that industry leaders have responded to President Trump's America First economic agenda of tariffs, deregulation, and the unleashing of American energy with trillions in investment commitments that will create thousands of new jobs." Speculation has grown about the fate of the so-called government-sponsored enterprises in recent days. Bessent last week said the government's stakes in Fannie and Freddie could eventually become part of the proposed US sovereign wealth fund. Top Freddie Mac, FHFA executives dismissed in latest shakeup (Inman) - full text Inman [3/21/2025 10:01 AM, Richelle Hammiel, 98K] Top executives from Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Finance Agency were dismissed from their roles Thursday, just days after FHFA Director Bille Pulte appointed himself as chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's boards, Semafor reported. Among those dismissed were Freddie Mac CEO Diana Reid and Head of Human Resources Dionne Wallace Oakley. Additionally, FHFA COO Gina Cross and HR Director Monica Matthews were placed on administrative leave, Politico reported. Following Reid's dismissal, Freddie Mac's President Michael Hutchens has been named CEO. Hutchens previously served as interim CEO after the retirement of Michael Devito last March. Scott Olson, executive director of the Community Home Lenders of America, says that despite the news, the changes won't have a major impact on the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs). "FHFA is already conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with virtually unlimited power over their operations, so these firings don't really change much," Olson told HousingWire. "Instead, CHLA is focused, going forward, on the key policies of Fannie and Freddie, like the ones identified in our letter to FHFA earlier this week -- maintaining the GSEs' footprint and a broad base of seller-servicer lenders." In the wake of Pulte's appointment as chairman, he placed dozens of GSE employees on leave and removed 14 board members. Notably, Christopher Stanley, a staffer from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was appointed to Fannie Mae's board, but resigned on March 18. 41 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023622 Additionally, Aaron Kofsky, former aide to Vice President J.D. Vance during his Senate tenure. has reportedly joined FHFA to help restructure the agency and it workforce. Pulte is now mandating a return to work order at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after claiming fewer than 40 of Fannie Mae's 2,500-plus employees regularly worked in the office. Before Reid was dismissed, she co-signed a mandate with Pulte mandating that Freddie Mac employees return to office five days a week beginning in May. Recent changes over the week also include the FHFA's closure of two of its departments -- the Research and Statistics Division and the Division of Public Interest Examination (DPIE) -- which eliminates approximately 10 percent of its workforce. Editor's note: This story has been updated to note that DOGE staffer Christopher Stanley resigned from Fannie Mae's board on March 18. FHFA Removes Reid as Freddie's CEO (Inside Mortgage Finance) Inside Mortgage Finance [3/21/2025 11:59 AM, Dennis Hollier, 5K] Freddie Mac announced the sudden "removal" of the company's CEO Diana Reid in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday. She has also been removed from the Freddie board of directors. Freddie President Michael Hutchins will step in as interim CEO to replace Reid. This is a familiar role for the long-time Freddie executive. He also served as interim CEO prior to Reid's hire. Reid's firing comes just days after new Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte dismissed the majority of the board members of both Freddie and Fannie Mae and installed himself as board chair of both government-sponsored enterprises. This was despite clear language in the statute that established FHFA making it illegal for the FHFA director to also hold a senior office at any of the regulated entities. Prior to her being ousted as CEO, Reid and Pulte cosigned an order ending remote work for nearly all Freddie employees. This, combined with the fact that the FHFA director initially left Reid on the Freddie board, suggests that her dismissal wasn't planned. Bessent Considers Including GSEs in a U.S. Sovereign Wealth Fund (Inside Mortgage Finance) Inside Mortgage Finance [3/21/2025 11:57 AM, Dennis Hollier, 5K] Speaking on a conservative podcast this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could be included in the sovereign wealth fund currently being contemplated by the Trump administration. Sovereign wealth funds are state-owned investment funds that generate revenues by investing idle treasury funds. Many of the largest SWFs -- think Norway, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia -- are funded through government-owned oil and gas reserves. But others, such as the China SWF, have extensive ownership interests in major corporations and sweep much of their profits into state coffers. If the government-sponsored enterprises were to become part of the federal government's new SWF, all their profits would likely flow into that coffer rather than to their shareholders. What happens to mortgage rates if conservatorship ends for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae? (Fast Company) - full text Fast Company [3/23/2025 7:00 AM, Lance Lambert, 5017K] Last month, new Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the Federal National 42 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023623 Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) could get released from government conservatorship if doing so doesn't push up mortgage rates. "Right now the priority is tax policy--once we get through that, then we will think about that [ending conservatorship]. The priority for a Fannie and Freddie release, the most important metric that I'm looking at is any study or hint that mortgage rates would go up. Anything that is done around a safe and sound release [of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] is going to hinge on the effect of long-term mortgage rates," Bessent said. While some in the Trump administration have alluded to an interest in ending the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Trump and Bessent also earlier expressed interest in bringing down long-term rates and yields. Bessent suggests that their goal of lowering mortgage rates could take precedence over releasing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from conservatorship. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which support the mortgage industry by buying mortgages from lenders and selling mortgage-backed securities to investors, were placed into conservatorship by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in September 2008. That was after they suffered massive losses during the housing crash, which threatened the stability of the U.S. financial system. The U.S. Treasury provided a bailout to keep them afloat, and they have remained under government control ever since, despite returning to profitability. While the U.S. Treasury owns the majority of their profits through senior preferred stock agreements, the common and preferred shares that existed before conservatorship were never fully wiped out. Immediately following Trump's November election win, the stock prices of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae both soared and the market started to price in higher odds of conservatorship coming to an end. To better understand what the end of conservatorship for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae could mean for the housing market and mortgage rates, ResiClub reached out to Moody's chief economist Mark Zandi--who has published several reports (including in 2017 and 2025) on how the end of conservatorship could impact financial markets. Zandi provided ResiClub with his odds for five scenarios and how each could impact mortgage rates, including whether the government offers an "implicit" or "explicit" guarantee of Fannie and Freddie. An "explicit guarantee" means the government formally guarantees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's obligations, ensuring that investors will be repaid no matter what. This reduces risk for investors, leading to lower mortgage rates. An "implicit guarantee" means the government does not commit to backing the GSEs, but markets assume it would intervene to prevent failure. (This was the case before the 2008 financial crisis when investors believed the government would rescue the GSEs if needed.) Since there's no formal guarantee, this scenario can lead to higher borrowing costs because investors demand extra compensation for the uncertainty. 1. Conservatorship status quo remains in place: 65% probability "The status quo with the [Government-Sponsored Enterprises] remaining in conservatorship is the most likely scenario," Zandi tells ResiClub. "This is the most likely scenario as it is consistent with the status quo and current mortgage rates. The housing finance system has worked very 43 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023624 well since the GSEs were put into conservatorship in 2008. And the GSEs have been effectively privatized through their credit risk transfers to the private sector. Those advocating for taking the GSEs out of conservatorship need to explain what the benefit of privatization is." 2. Release of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae with an "implicit government guarantee": 20% probability "Release of the GSEs as systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs) with an implicit government guarantee like that which prevailed prior to the GSEs' conservatorship," says Zandi. "This is going back to the future, and while the GSEs will be better capitalized and with a much smaller and less risky balance sheet than when they failed, global investors will be highly wary of this approach, pushing mortgage rates up 20-40 basis points compared to the status quo for the typical borrower through the business cycle. Given the nightmares this will conjure up, it is a less likely scenario." 3. Full release of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae without an "implicit" or "explicit" government guarantee: 10% probability "This would add an estimated 60-90 basis points to 30-year fixed mortgage rates compared to the current status quo for the typical borrower through the business cycle," Zandi projects. "Without a government guarantee, the Federal Reserve would not be able to buy the GSEs' [mortgage-backed securities], and there is the risk that the rating agencies would downgrade the GSEs' debt and securities. The GSEs' share of the mortgage market would significantly decline, and it would increase for private lenders and the [Federal Housing Administration], resulting in greater taxpayer exposure, as taxpayers bear all the risk in FHA loans." 4. Release of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae with an "explicit" government guarantee: 5% probability "Release of the GSEs with an explicit government guarantee would result in a small decline in mortgage rates (as much as 25 basis points) compared to the current status quo. But this is not likely as it would require legislation that would be difficult and [nearly] impossible to pass," says Zandi. 5. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae fully chartered as government corporations: 0% probability "[If the] GSEs are chartered as government corporations (much like Fannie pre-1968) with an explicit government guarantee, [this] would effectively codify the current status quo to get the full faith and credit guarantee of the federal government. This would result in the lowest mortgage rates, but also requires legislation and is not at all likely in a Trump administration," says Zandi. While the Trump administration is interested in releasing Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae from conservatorship, it is also sensitive to any increase in mortgage rates. Given this concern and the evidence presented by Moody's, it is fair to assume that the administration will proceed with caution over the next year. If conservatorship does end, it is likely to happen later in the Trump administration, once concerns around mortgage rates have been addressed. How recent U.S. policy changes will impact the housing market (Investing.com) full text Investinci.com [3/22/2025 6:30 AM, Pratyush Thakur, 26589K] Recent U.S. policy changes are expected to influence the housing market in multiple ways, with a mixed impact on affordability, supply, and demand dynamics. While interest 44 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023625 rates have stabilized after a period of volatility, the broader economic landscape remains challenging for potential homebuyers. The marginal decline in rates offers some relief, but affordability remains constrained, particularly for first-time buyers, Wells Fargo noted. Despite efforts to stimulate new construction, housing supply remains constrained. Regulatory hurdles and rising material costs continue to limit new developments, exacerbating the supply-demand imbalance. Wells Fargo notes that even with recent policy incentives aimed at boosting construction, supply growth is unlikely to match demand in the near term. Although certain tax incentives and federal assistance programs have been expanded, these measures are not expected to significantly alleviate affordability challenges. "Reduced tax rates, deregulation and other potentially growth-enhancing policies could boost housing demand over the long run," Wells Fargo's Charlie Dougherty wrote. Mortgage rates, which spiked in 2024, have shown signs of easing, but remain elevated compared to pre-pandemic levels. Wells Fargo points out that while rate stabilization helps, potential buyers are still adjusting to a higher-rate environment, impacting overall demand. "Material relief in terms of housing affordability does not appear to be on the horizon amid elevated mortgage rates, rising home prices and increased home insurance premiums," the analyst at Wells Fargo said. Investor activity in the housing market remains elevated, contributing to price pressures in key markets. Policies aimed at curbing speculative investment may have a moderating effect but are unlikely to reverse the trend in the short term. The real estate world is fighting over secret listings and the future of how homes are sold (Yahoo! Finance) - full text Yahoo! Finance [3/22/2025 9:30 AM, Claire Boston, 48775K] Barely a year after the National Association of Realtors settled a lawsuit and rewrote the rules for how agents get paid, the powerful trade group is examining the fate of another policy that could change how homes are bought and sold across the country. The policy, known as Clear Cooperation, requires agents to list homes on shared databases known as multiple listing services (MLS) within one business day of beginning to market the properties. The rule is designed to cut down on what are known as "off-market" or "pocket" listings, where a home for sale is marketed semi-privately to small pools of potential buyers without being advertised widely on the MLS. Since it took effect in 2020, the policy has sparked fierce debate within the real estate world and at times pitted its top players against each other. Proponents argue that the rule helps ensure that the industry follows fair housing laws and helps sellers secure top prices for their homes by putting them in front of the broadest pool of potential buyers. Opponents, meanwhile, say sellers should get to dictate how their homes are marketed and argue that the MLS listing requirement violates antitrust laws. The NAR is currently reviewing whether the rule should be repealed, remain in place, or be changed. At a time when the number of homes for sale remains below historical norms and brokerages have consolidated, the decision has implications for how hundreds of thousands of homes are marketed and sold each year. "We take for granted that you can go to any portal ... and have a complete and total data 45 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023626 set that's accurate in real time," said Leo Pareja, the CEO of eXp Realty. "That only comes from the cooperative structure we have set up where everyone shares everything." Pareja thinks his firm, the country's largest by agent count, would benefit if the policy is repealed. But he'd like to see it stay in place because he believes more transparency is better and cheaper for consumers. Where most real estate companies fall on the issue tends to align with whether or not they benefit from the rule. Executives at Zillow and Redfin, which aggregate home listings from the MLS, are for it. Compass, a luxury-focused brokerage that touts its access to "Private Exclusives," is against it. Anywhere Real Estate, the parent company of franchises including Century 21, Coldwell Baker, and Sotheby's International Realty, has said it would like to see the rule remain but with changes. Builder Confidence Hits 7 Month Low in March (MortgageNewsDaily) MortgageNewsDaily [3/21/2025 3:03 PM, Matthew Graham, 523K] The National Association of Homebuilders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (aka "builder confidence") hasn't been in a purgatory of sorts, ever since the big interest rate spike in the 2nd half of 2022. Builders aren't nearly as downbeat as they were during the Great Financial Crisis years, but nowhere remotely as confident as the during the postpandemic highs. The index has now spent more than 2 years muddling sideways in an increasingly narrow range. The latest reading, reported this week, was worse than economists were expecting, largely due to a bigger decrease in buyer traffic. Even so, the headline confidence level remains in the same consolidation pattern (marked by the arrows in the following chart). Other details from this month's survey noted by the NAHB: Builders say tariffs should increase the cost of the typical home by $9200. Policy uncertainty is contributing to indecision, both on the part of buyers and developers. 29% of builders cut prices in March, up from 26% in February. The prospect of regulatory relief has helped offset the negative implications from new fiscal policies to some extent. Refi Demand Remains Elevated, But Off Recent Highs (MortgageNewsDaily) - full text MortgageNewsDaily [3/21/2025 3:49 PM, Matthew Graham, 523K] The Mortgage Bankers Association conducts a weekly survey on the level of mortgage applications, both for purchases and refinances. Both data series continue to be a tale of two decidedly different eras for the mortgage market. If we focus on the present era, for a moment, refi demand continued to enjoy a relative boom thanks to rates that remain much lower than they had been several weeks ago. The most recent levels were logically a bit lower as the average lender's rates were a bit higher this time around. If you were overcome with indignation at seeing someone refer to refi demand with the word "boom" in 2025, don't worry. We know about the context. The present era is a 46 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023627 barren wasteland compared to bygone eras when a boom meant roughly 5 times as many refis as today. The "2 era" phenomenon is less extreme when it comes to purchases, which tend to respond to rates only very gradually. This has made for a much steadier level of purchase demand over the past few years. In addition, the boomier era only saw twice as many purchase apps. Other highlights from the data: Refis accounted for 42% of apps, down from 45.6% last week. MBA's survey showed a conventional 30yr fixed rate increase from 6.72 from 6.67 the previous week. ARM rates were 5.84% but only account for 6.7% of applications. Rocket vs Zillow: The battle for `super app' supremacy (HousingWire.com) - full text HousingWire.com [3/21/2025 4:29 PM, Brooklee Han, 354K] One of the biggest housing stories so far this year is Rocket's pending acquisition of Redfin. That acquisition also kicked off a new battle between Rocket and Zillow over who will get to the consumer first -- and serve them best -- through a housing 'super app.'. In a presentation for investors, Rocket outlined how its acquisition of Redfin will help the company create a more seamless and affordable way for consumers to transact real estate, showing how it will take consumers from the home search phase all the way through title and closing. If you're wondering why this rings some bells, it's because it's more or less identical to Zillow's "Housing Super App Strategy." As industry analyst Mike Delprete put it in a recent blog post, both firms are now "in search of the holy grail of real estate: a one-stop shop that combines home search, buy & sell, financing, and title insurance." Zillow began honing its Housing Super App strategy in early 2022 after announcing its departure from iBuying during its O3 earnings call in November 2021. It began as a murky and vague concept, but Zillow's goal to create an end-to-end home-buying platform that works with consumers from home search through close has become clearer over the years as the real estate industry giant has put more puzzle pieces into place. While many others have aimed for the same goal, so far, Zillow is the closest to creating this full digital integration. But Rocket's acquisition of Redfin could change the game. "Despite sharing the same vision, I think both companies are approaching this vision from opposite ends of the spectrum, leveraging where their existing moats are," Ryan Tomasello, a managing director at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, said. "Rocket obviously has the moat in mortgage and Zillow has the moat in search and agent referrals, so it is not surprising to see Rocket make a move to expand its presence on the other end of the spectrum in home search and with that agent network." John Campbell, an analyst at Stephens, shares a similar view. "Rocket's capabilities in mortgage are more advanced than basically anybody, so Zillow has to continue to up its game in mortgage -- offer more financing options, loan types, speed up the time to close, and possibly offer consumers rebates in certain areas. But Zillow has that recognizable consumer brand." When it comes to engaging with consumers at the start of their homebuying journey, which is measured by listing portals in user traffic, there is no doubt that Zillow is king. 47 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023628 In 2023, Zillow had an average monthly unique visitor count of 214 million, compared to the traffic of Rocket's home search platform, Rocket Homes, of 1.5million unique monthly visitors and the 49 million average monthly users recorded at Redfin. The same trend can be seen in 2024, with Zillow's average monthly traffic coming in at 221 million visitors, while a combined Rocket and Redfin adds up to 58 million unique monthly visitors. "We believe that much of Zillow's success was driven by its ability to better monetize its existing top of the funnel/website traffic, which is something Redfin is in part bringing to Rocket," Campbell said. But when it comes to mortgage, Rocket has the clear advantage. As of Q1 2025, Zillow has just 330 loan officers, while Rocket and Redfin have told investors that they have a combined 15,000 loan officers and agents to serve contracts. While Zillow may be behind when it comes to the scale of its mortgage company, it has been rapidly growing. Year-over-year, Zillow's mortgage revenue growth jumped 51% in 2024 to $145 million. "The driver of Zillow's recent improvements has really been mortgage," Campbell said. "The revenue on a mortgage is actually far higher than what they generate when a Flex agent closes a sale. In some of the early integrated markets, the data shows that Zillow is really figuring this out -- they've unlocked this cupboard for themselves. We believe that Zillow could be well on its way to becoming a top-20 originator." But Zillow isn't the only one with work to do on the mortgage side of its business. Although it excels with refinance transactions, Rocket has struggled to generate the same volume of purchase loan transactions. Analysts, however, feel this acquisition will help with this. "This has been a strategic initiative for them for years now and this is going to expedite the process," Campbell said. "On that front, this is a really smart deal because Redfin has a great mouse trap as far as higher traffic through its portal." Analysts aren't the only ones eyeing the potential this acquisition creates for Rocket. In an investor presentation about the acquisition, Rocket noted that the acquisition could result in $200 billion-plus in addressable purchase originations per year or roughly onein-six purchase mortgage originations - 16% of the purchase origination market. In addition to its purchase origination volume struggles, Jay Voorhees, the co-founder of JVM Lending, notes that Rocket does not offer all of the mortgage loan products on the market, which may mean that unless this changes it will be unable to meet the purchase origination needs of all Redfin agents and consumers. "These products include many types of down payment assistance products, bridge loans, no ratio loans, no DSCR loans, no CRA (low-income area) loans, and no 3% down on PMI loans," Voorhees wrote. While analysts have no doubt that the companies are busy working on their respective "weaknesses," there are ways in which they are evenly matched. 48 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023629 "On the one hand, Zillow has roughly like a mid-single digit share of home sales and Rocket combined with Redfin, has a similar share of purchase originations, so they are essentially starting from very similar points, despite those points being in mortgage versus actual agent referrals," Tomasello said. As the firms work to shore up their relative deficits, given how evenly matched they are on volume, some believe Rocket's scale and balance sheet may give it the edge over Zillow. As of mid-March 2025, Zillow had a market capitalization of $16.73 billion, a little more than half of Rocket's market capitalization of $28.33 billion. Additionally, Rocket and Redfin's combined 2024 marketing budgets dwarfed Zillow's, coming in at $913 million compared to $175 million. "I think the obvious benefit that Rocket has over Zillow is its scale and balance sheet -- it is twice the size of Zillow in terms of market cap and earnings power," Tomasello said. Additionally, Rocket's track record of successfully executing its goals gives Larry Ulsh, a national account executive at American Heritage Lending, a lot of confidence that this endeavor will be no different. "It has the budget and scale to do this, so I'd put my money on them to build out something great," Ulsh said. "Zillow seems to just be gluing disparate pieces together, but they do have a really recognizable and well-known brand and that is something that is very valuable and hard for other players to overcome. If Zillow and Rocket had teamed up, it would have been killer." Tomasello also feels that the combination of Rocket and Redfin creates a "very formidable competitor" for Zillow, but he doesn't believe it is a winner-take-all scenario. "This is a very large market and more importantly a very fragmented market," Tomasello said. "There is clearly room for multiple players to win here, so I don't think this RocketRedfin development completely derails the opportunity for Zillow or anyone by any means." It is in sharing a similar belief that the market is big enough to accommodate multiple players, that Luca Dahlhausen, the CEO of Realfinity, believes more companies will be looking for ways to integrate mortgage services into their companies. "I think we are going to see more companies and more agents decide to start offering mortgage services," Dahlhausen said. "If we see Rocket and Zillow having success with this, I think we will see even more players start thinking that they need to offer some sort of embedded mortgage or finance option because otherwise they may lose those buyers to another firm who is already doing those things." While Ulsh agrees with Dahlhausen's hypothesis, he says that he has yet to see anyone really take the plunge into exploring this alongside Rocket and Zillow. "My biggest question in all of this is: where are the other large lenders? Why isn't anyone else trying to do something like this?" Ulsh said. "I feel like they are all sitting around and waiting to see what happens with Rocket before they do something, but by then it will be too late." Although he is doubtful many other players are contemplating an acquisition as large as Rocket's, he isn't ruling out the possibility of seeing more mortgage and real estate joint ventures pop up. "I think this will probably encourage some mortgage bankers to go 49 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023630 back to doing more joint ventures, especially now with the CFPB being pruned back," he said. Tariff fears are raising construction costs by up to 20%, says Related Group CEO (NBC News) - full text NBC News [3/21/2025 11:58 AM, Robert Frank, 44742K] Building contractors are already hiking prices as much as 20% to offset potential tariffs, a move that could also raise prices of new condos and homes, according to the CEO of developer Related Group. President Donald Trump has imposed 25% tariffs on certain goods from Canada and Mexico, including steel and aluminum, and is expected to follow through on broader tariffs starting on April 2. Even before those wider levies take effect, uncertainty over tariffs and inflation is causing many contractors to hike real estate project costs. Related Group CEO Jon Paul Perez said contractors bidding on seven projects that Related has in the works are raising prices. "We're seeing [subcontractors] throw an additional cushion into their numbers anticipating tariffs," Perez told CNBC during a live Inside Wealth conversation. "It could be as much as 20%, depending on what material they're getting from another country." Perez said the price hikes are driven by the anticipation of higher costs, rather than current levels, and noted it's unclear how the higher costs will be divided between contractor and developer. "When you go through their numbers in detail and you start negotiating, you quickly find out they're just sort of padding to protect themselves," he said. As a result, tariff fears could add further upward pricing pressure on a housing market that's already crippled by high prices and elevated mortgage rates. According to a survey from the National Association of Home Builders, rising prices for construction materials could add $9,200 to the cost of a typical home. Related Group is one of the largest and most prominent developers in the U.S., spanning affordable housing to luxury condo buildings, mainly in South Florida. The company currently has more than 90 projects in some stage of development, including rentals, affordable housing units, mixed-use developments and luxury condos. Related's founder and chairman, Jorge Perez, said that in addition to tariff concerns, the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration could also drive up prices for developments, since the construction industry relies heavily on workers from overseas. "There will absolutely be a cost effect in our industry, in particular the construction industry." he said. "Losing these people will have an inflationary effect." For now, Related said the high end of the real estate market remains strong, especially in Florida. The company sold two condo penthouses at its exclusive new development on Fisher Island near South Beach, Miami, for a total of $150 million. Related is also building a luxury oceanfront condo tower in Bal Harbour, Miami, called Rivage Residences Bal Harbour, that is offering a mega-mansion in the sky -- combining two penthouses that could total more than 20,000 square feet and fetch over $150 million. "The high-end buyer is a very particular buyer," said Jorge Perez. "Those people are buying over $10 million condominiums and typically they're very, very wealthy. So they're less affected, we're not seeing a decline in that market." Chairman Perez said the "middle market," or those buying condos in the $1 million to $3 million range, are taking more of a wait-and-see approach given the uncertainties around tariffs and immigration. 50 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023631 Many condo buyers in Miami and South Florida are from Canada and Latin America, and are therefore more sensitive to potential changes in immigration policy. "South Americans are coming and saying, 'What's going to happen with immigration policies?' or, 'Am I going to lose my visa?- he said. "We had a project where we just lost seven or eight Canadian and Mexican buyers that were ready to sign contracts, but when all these things came from tariffs, they didn't want to buy. But I think that will calm down." Federal jobs were seen as a gateway to the middle class for Black America, then came DOGE (USA Today) - full text USA Today [3/24/2025 5:04 AM, Terry Collins, Phillip M. Bailey, 75998K] Denise Smith began working for the federal government a half century ago, during President Richard Nixon's administration. She was still in high school when she accepted a post as a Navy intern in Annapolis, Maryland. Over the following three and a half decades, she held various human resources leadership roles in the Navy before joining the Energy Department. Smith also helped dozens of aspiring Black professionals find government jobs, including her husband, Jesse, an Army veteran. Over a 26-yearcareer in the Navy, he rose from a meat cutter in the commissary to an ammunition assistant and he eventually retired as a machinist. "We were able to buy a house, raise five kids, send three of them to college and live a very comfortable life," said Denise Smith, 73, and now retired, noting that she worked under seven different presidential administrations. "The federal civil service gave us opportunities to live out our American Dream." Government jobs have long been viewed as an entry point for Black Americans into the middle class and job security when opportunities were scarce elsewhere. As the nation's largest single employer, with about 3 million workers at the end of 2024, the federal government has a history of being more welcoming to Black workers than the private sector has, civil rights leaders say. So President Donald Trump's massive layoffs across the U.S. government have hit Black Americans particularly hard. "I absolutely think that the attacks on federal workers will have an acute and disproportionate impact on Black federal workers and that's because the federal government is highly diverse," said Jennifer Holmes, deputy director of litigation at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Trump and Elon Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency, say the government is bloated and wasteful, and must be purged of tens of thousands of workers. Black Americans, who account for about 12% of the population, make up about 13% of workers in the nongovernment workforce, but they make up roughly 19% of the federal government employees, labor statistics show. The rise of the Black federal workforce helped build a Black middle class in America after generations of segregation, prejudice and worse, said Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, told USA TODAY. "It began with the Postal Service and the military, and their roles have expanded," Morial said. "In the last 40 to 50 years, we have made great progress and advanced through the ranks of these civil service positions with pride and distinction, and the nation has benefitted from it." As a result, sturdy middle-class Black communities sprouted up in major metropolises, Morial said, including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Washington with its surrounding suburbs in neighboring Maryland and Virginia. Because of the federal workforce, Washington is consistently among the highest median incomes for Black 51 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023632 households for any city nationally, Morial added. A study by the University of California at Berkeley's Labor Center, for instance, found Black workers in the public sector earned roughly 25% more than their private sector counterparts. Janice Lee, 65, who recently retired from the U.S. Department of Transportation after 18 years, said she gained a more stable foothold through her public service, which included a stint working on Capitol Hill and in the Education Department. "My father gained his federal employment beginning as a busboy," she said. "Now I see our country crumbling." Lee said that although the president's supporters want to believe federal workers are lazy, federal workers provide critical and professional functions for the country. "What (Trump) needs to know is most Black people were promoted on merit," she said. "So the way I see it, this is a way to defund Black people as a whole because I will tell you upward middle-class living was provided through the opportunities that we received through promotions in the federal government." Historically, the federal government had more progressive hiring and retention practices than private enterprises even amid the rising tide of racial segregation in the late 19th Century, as a massive influx of Black workers flocked into Washington, D.C., after emancipation. But historians note much of that began to change after the 1912 presidential election, when Woodrow Wilson imposed strict segregation rules in federal workplaces that relegated Black workers to more menial jobs. Civil rights activists say they cannot overlook today's parallels given several of Trump's actions since returning to power, such as ending diversity and equity programs and rescinding a landmark 1965 executive order prohibiting discriminatory employment practices for government contractors. The president recently signed an executive order dismantling several federal agencies focused on libraries, museums and ending homelessness. Tucked away in the list of government entities the decree deemed "unnecessary" was the Minority Business Development Agency, which promoted growth of minority-owned businesses. Holmes, the NAACP legal defense fund attorney, said that as civil rights groups consider various legal challenges against Trump's mass layoffs, there are other troubling areas, such as possibly privatizing the U.S. Postal Service, which could have a disproportionate impact on Black federal workers. "Black people helped build this country into a great powerhouse through their civil service, through their military service and their hard work, talent and expertise across all agencies," she said. "So to push them and others out of government will be just a devastating loss." No clear data is available on how Trump's cuts have impacted Black workers specifically as of yet, but during an online meeting with NAACP Legal Defense Fund members and others earlier this year, the group said many of the departments targeted by the administration have the highest percentage of Black employees. As of January 2O23, the civil rights organization said in a presentation provided to USA TODAY, about 36% of the Housing and Urban Development and Education departments, 33% of the Small Business Administration, and 29% of the Social Security Administration and Treasury Department were Black. USA TODAY reached out to a dozen Black federal employees, but nearly all declined to talk on the record, fearing for their jobs. Quay Crowner no longer has one to lose. After 52 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023633 more than 30 years, last week was her last as a federal employee, after mass layoffs swept through the Education Department. Crowner, the eldest daughter of Denise and Jesse Smith, spent almost 11 years in supervisory positions within the department: human resources director, chief administration officer, and most recently, outreach and engagement director in the Federal Student Aid office, which handles student loans and financial aid disbursement. Crowner said her mission throughout has been to help students and their parents find money to attend college or trade school. She said her division provides an estimated $120 billion in federal grants, loans, and work-study funding to more than 15 million students from all backgrounds, whether they live in Philadelphia or Paducah, Kentucky. She's taken to social media to tell them the dream of attending college is possible and why filling out a FAFSA form is so important. "Contrary to popular belief, we operate more like a financial organization than an educational one," said Crowner, 55, a married mother with a daughter in college. "No student should be denied the opportunity to get an education. It's our job to make sure they do." However, Crowner's professional life has been tumultuous these past two months. With threats of the Trump administration dismantling her department, Crowner was put on administrative leave. "I'm not choosing to leave or retire. My departure has been chosen for me," she said. Crowner said the family lineage of federal government workers will likely stop with her. Her own daughter plans to attend law school. "She has a different vision of public service." Still, Crowner said, she's not done helping her country or her community. "I'm far from finished; I have more work to do," she said. "And it will include public service, somewhere." [PA] Rats don't run this city - Why Philly fields fewer rat complaints than New York City and D.C. (Philadelphia Inquirer, PA) - full text Philadelphia Inquirer [3/23/2025 5:00 AM, Jake Blumgart and Erin Mcartney, 2629K, PA] When Ilya Schwartzburg and his wife moved to Philadelphia from New York City, they were looking forward to lower housing costs, closer proximity to friends, and a shift from renting to homeownership. But they expected that one of the more unpleasant aspects of urban life would remain constant. "I thought I would have to deal with rats as a homeowner, and I was steeling myself for that reality," Schwartzburg said. "I always learned to be leery of basements in the city." Since moving into Bella Vista 31/2 years ago, the couple have been pleasantly surprised by the rarity of rat sightings -- and there haven't been any in their basement. "In New York I commuted to Midtown, and I would see them every day -- if not twice a day," Schwartzburg said. "Sometimes waiting for the subway I would just zone out watching the rats. But I've never seen a rat run across my way on the sidewalk in Philadelphia. What is going on?". Schwartzburg isn't the only one surprised by Philadelphia's seemingly low rat population. Despite well-known problems with litter and illegal dumping -- and historic lack of widespread street sweeping -- many experts and most of the dozen residents interviewed for this story agreed that the city does not seem to struggle with the vermin to the same extent as its urban counterparts on the 1-95 corridor. 53 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023634 Philadelphia logged fewer rat complaints per capita in 2O24 than Baltimore; Boston; Washington, D.C.; and New York, according to data from the cities or from the annual RentHop rat report. Politicians here don't make rat control a policy focus, as New York Mayor Eric Adams did, and rats aren't a part of local discourse in the way they are in Washington, D.C., or Baltimore. Micah Goldsberry, a Philly-area exterminator with nearly two decades experience, said he is still amazed by the relative rarity of rats. "When people ask me what we deal with as far as rodents and when I tell them house mice are the winner, they're shocked," said Goldsberry, an operations manager for Ehrlich Pest Control, a Rentokil Terminix company, who works in Philadelphia, Bucks, and Montgomery Counties. "If we get 10 calls a day, one of them might be for rats." Philadelphia's rat control program was nationally renowned in the 1970s and 1980s and is still held in high regard today despite decades of budget cuts. Other theories for Filthadelphia's relative lack of the pests include fewer alleyways where trash accumulates, the prevalence of feral cat populations, and more containerized garbage than loose bags left on the sidewalk in some neighborhoods. But no one, including the city's Health Department, really knows why rats are less prevalent -- or at least less visible and problematic -- in the Philly region than in other major metropolitan areas. "That's something we've tried to ponder for many, many years," said Goldsberry, the exterminator. "There is really no rhyme or reason." From rat bounties to poison pellets: Philly's war on rats. Philadelphia has many of the conditions that usually breed a vibrant rat population, as is easily visible in South Philadelphia's Capitolo Playground. Located on Ninth Street next to Geno's and Pat's Steaks and a row of other restaurants, the park is a culinary destination for humans and rats alike. On a recent March day, someone left a pile of bacon and another of cooked pasta on the park's sidewalk overnight. "More people, more trash, more food," said Lawrence Credle, abatement crew chief with the city's vector control unit. "Those are the things that would perpetuate the situation." Credle and his team visited Capitolo Playground because they got a call reporting holes in the park's soil that indicate rat warrens below. The men carefully poured edible rat poison pellets into the holes and then sealed them up again. If the rodents consume the toxic treat, they're doomed. (Rats, Credle noted, cannot vomit.) But if people keep dumping food in the park at night, vector control's efforts may be in vain. Rigatoni tastes better than rodenticide. Credle attributes Philadelphia's relative lack of rats to the efforts of his team, who are nonetheless kept busy by calls that send them to parks, dumpsters, and alleys across the city. "Because this department is working really hard," said Credle, when asked why Philadelphia doesn't appear as rat-infested as its urban neighbors. "We do good with our complaints, our problem sites. We try to stay on top of everything." Philadelphia government used to rely on citizen support to control rats. In the early 20th century, the city largely outsourced its efforts by offering a bounty of 2 cents for every dead vermin brought to a receiving center on Race Street. 54 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023635 Following a profusion of federal funds for rat control during Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, the work became professionalized, and Philadelphia's efforts were nationally recognized. In a 1987 Inquirer article, the head of vector control claimed the city's population had been reduced for good by the crusade of the 1970s. Reported rat sightings and bites plummeted between 1967 and 1987, even as federal funds were cut under President Ronald Reagan. Since then, data and rat control workers have grown scarcer: Rat bite complaints are no longer measured, and the city's vector control unit is down to 17 employees from 75. But still, the vermin don't scuttle into view as often. "We don't have as much staff as we used to," said Credle, who has been with the department for 15 years. "We love what we do. We're helping the community out. We have a passion [for the work] in our department, so I think that definitely adds to why the [rat] population is not there." The precise number of rats in Philadelphia is impossible to measure, as most data is based on complaints received by vector control or by private exterminators. Some academic experts have pointed to inconsistencies in the city's data collection as a possible reason the problem doesn't look as bad. From what data is available, Philadelphia measures up well. Last year, Philly recorded less than 4,000 complaints, about 25 complaints per 10,000 residents. That's less than New York's 28 complaints per 10,000 residents, Baltimore's 82, and D.C.'s 200. Vector control says there's no pattern to the rat control calls they receive. The vermin don't discriminate, and the team has been deployed all over the city. There are common themes though. Vacant lots attract illegal dumping and provide ample space for rats to burrow and nest undisturbed. Areas where street cleaning and trash collection are inconsistent have more issues. New construction can disrupt nests, flushing the vermin into view. Areas like Capitolo Playground, ringed by restaurants, attract diners who may leave behind leftovers. Small urban parks in general are popular attractions for rats. Burrows dug below bushes provide robust shelter, and litter offers a steady supply of food. That's why Center City sees plenty of rats, even in tony areas like Rittenhouse. "I remember walking with a friend of mine, and we just saw a swarm of them running across the path from one shrub to another," says Alex Beaton Oum, who used to live in Rittenhouse. "At night, when I had to walk home, I would always go around the perimeter of Rittenhouse Square to avoid the rats." The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 spawned ideal conditions for rat population growth. People spent more time at home and generated more garbage and food waste, while sanitation services struggled to keep up. "You definitely got an influx of rats" during COVID, Credle said. "More people eating at home, more kids at home. In the summertime, it's the same thing." Another global challenge may be making rat populations grow. A recent study linked a surge in urban rat populations to climate change. 55 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023636 Recent years have borne that out in our region. In Eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware. and parts of Maryland, Viking Pest Control saw a 287% increase in rodent activity from 2023 to 2024, said service director Craig Sansig. "The last couple years we've had relatively mild winters, and that is one of the things that helped to drive the rodent population," he said. Sansig and his colleagues are predicting that the trend might reverse soon thanks to colder temperatures this winter when Philly saw its chilliest season in a decade. But that respite will be only temporary in a warming world. As a result, experts say that more proactive measures may be needed in future. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker's campaign to increase sanitation services could help, with twice weekly trash pickup spreading, a promised increase in street sweeping, and a crackdown on illegal dumpers. More resources for vector control could be required as well. The team's sterling reputation and the city's historic success at repressing rats could be put to the test if warming weather boosts populations. "The cities really committed to dealing with the increasing rat numbers are going to be cities that are investing more money and more personnel resources," said Jonathan Richardson, of the University of Richmond in Virginia, who led the study on climate change's influence on rat reproduction. "The hardworking teams of rodent control are a very, very small component of city health departments," Richardson said. "I compare it to Sisyphus. They're pushing a boulder uphill, and climate warming is working against them." For now, given how relatively rare rat sightings seem to be, Philadelphia's vector control is unlikely to grow. Out of sight, out of mind. [DC] Are expensive building materials hurting the DC housing market? (HousingWire.com) - full text HousingWire.com [3/21/2025 4:34 PM, Kennedy Edgerton, 354K] The U.S. housing market largely depends on imported materials to build new homes and grow inventory. Today, these materials are becoming more costly due to recent government policy changes, such as the Trump administration's tariffs on countries like China, Mexico and Canada. The Washington, D.C., housing market is no stranger to high costs. But rising prices for building materials, including softwood lumber, adds another layer of complexity to D.C.'s turbulent affordability situation. With costs rising, developers are struggling to stay above water financially. What's the result? Higher home prices, a limited supply of new homes and more migraine-inducing stress for renters. Meanwhile, affordability remains at the forefront of policy talks on Capitol Hill. But the question remains: How exactly are expensive materials impacting the D.C. housing market? This week's D.C. housing market report uses Altos data to answer that question. 56 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023637 The cost of building comes down to labor expenses and material costs. The price of building materials like lumber is mostly standardized across the U.S. Local demand and supply changes can cause small-scale price variations, but significant increases are felt nationwide. Dustin Jalbert, senior economist of wood products for Fastmarkets, offered insights into how much the U.S. relies on Canadian softwood material. "Canadian lumber accounts for something like a quarter of domestic softwood lumber consumption here in the U.S. We need that supply to clear the construction market," Jalbert said in an interview with HousingWire. The U.S.'s reliance on Canadian lumber can create problems if any disruption arises within the supply chain. With that in mind, consider recent government policy changes. Jalbert said that tariffs can cause issues and the U.S. might not have an alternative option. "Any disruption in Canadian lumber supply - such as through tariffs-- can lead to significant price increases and supply shortages. Despite the U.S. having domestic alternatives like Southern yellow pine, these materials are not perfect substitutes," Jalbert said. "As a result, losing access to Canadian lumber could exacerbate the challenges facing the construction market, further driving up costs and complicating the efforts to meet the demand for new housing," he added. Tight housing markets with high demand give builders and developers the leeway to pass higher costs to consumers with relative ease. Jalbert also explained that declining demand in markets like Austin make it difficult for builders to raise prices without risking their sales volume. "Contractors in a place like Austin won't have a lot of leverage to pass on those building material costs," he said. "The ability to transfer costs to consumers is influenced by local market conditions, including inventory levels and buyer competition." As for the tie-in to the D.C. market, Jalbert characterized it as one that's "still pretty tight, and demand is high. Contractors may have an easier time passing on some of those costs to the homebuyer. With Jalbert's insights in mind, let's dive into this week's Altos data and determine if demand is truly high in the D.C. housing market. Altos' weekly pending contract data helps to visualize demand in the D.C. housing market. Let's check out the last four weeks of pending home sales data. Pending home sales are up again, which is a sign that demand is steady in the D.C. housing market. But how are new listings looking? And what percentage of these listings are new construction? Let's review that in the next section. Altos reviews real estate listings data to determine seller activity in the D.0 housing market. New listings are the homes that were listed for sale in a given week and added to the active inventory. New listings ramped up during the week ending March 14. About 674 single-family homes and 619 condominiums are on the market in D.C. That's an increase of about 12% from the prior week. New listings volume ramps up during the spring and sellers appear to be active. 57 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023638 New construction is also common in the D.C. area. As of March 21, there were 449 new construction listings in the region, according to IDX data for the D.C. housing market. The IDX data is updated irregularly, but in October 2024, there were 412 new construction homes on the market. If Trump's tariffs hold steady, this number may drop and prices will ramp up as a result. Here's the historical data for new listings: This week's data on inventory in the D.C. housing market offers a window into ongoing market trends. Inventory for single-family homes in the D.C. housing market jumped to 4,024, which is up 6.36% from the week before. Last week's data shows a similar increase, so the upward trend appears to be consistent. Where is the DC market headed? Price reductions were the same as the week before, according to Altos. The percentage of homes with price reductions is 26%, which is historically low compared to what was seen at the same point last year. Price reductions are an important demand indicator, and they are typically the earliest indicator of turmoil in the D.C. housing market. Jalbert said that 25% tariffs will impact Canadian and Mexican goods, although they are unlikely to last long term. Despite that, reciprocal tariffs that are set to go into effect April 2 could remain, impacting industries like construction that already suffers from a labor shortages. "If you're talking about stagflation, there could be a one-two punch of higher building material costs. And if we see a sustained effort to ramp up deportations of undocumented workers -- who make up a significant share of the construction workforce -- that's really going to limit our ability to build homes," he said. [AL] A Birmingham community center gives local youth a safe space - `No place like this' (AL.com, AL) - full text AL.com [3/23/2025 6:00 AM, Alaina Bookman, 5527K, AL] Antski Williams said he lost much of his childhood to violence, pain and poverty. Now he is dedicating his life to giving Birmingham youth a safe space to learn, grow and thrive. At the Crescent Cultural Community Center, a nonprofit located in Birmingham's West End, Williams, executive director, can often be found talking to the young people who visit about making good decisions. He is a father figure and role model to many local youth, using his own experiences to steer them in the right direction. The Crescent Cultural Community Center, and those who work for it, have become a bright spot in a community that has experienced devastating gun violence. "I was really a heathen and I really was cultured here by all the ancestors, and the energy and the community that's here," Williams said. "We want our goodness to jump on other people. The positive energy that the people release here, stays here and you can feel it when you come. Our goal is to improve the quality of the community by enriching and empowering individuals. When people walk in, they tell us instantly, 'There's no place like this.- . Williams grew up in the Ensley neighborhood. He moved around Birmingham a lot as a child and teen, from Germany, to the Cooper Green housing authority community, to the 58 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023639 Inglenook neighborhood, to West End, to Hoover. By eighth grade, he had joined a gang. Williams said trauma shaped his childhood. "I allowed pain and poverty to shape my decisions," Williams told the Birmingham Times. "I was banging with anybody who would bang before gangs even really came to Birmingham. I went to juvenile [detention] every year [from ages 12 to 17] for stealing cars, robbery, and attempted murder because I was letting poverty shape my choices...I was just the classic, bad 'project kid.'". As a young adult, he served seven years at several Alabama Department of Corrections facilities, where he learned of the death of his first daughter, 2-year-old, A'neJah. Williams said he helps young people now because he needed that kind of mentorship when he was younger. "I was one of them. It was straight because I was justice impacted myself. I was ashamed of myself, low self-esteem. I was one of those kids that needed a mentor, needed a big brother. I joined gangs. I was in the projects. I earned my way to prison. So when I got out...it was all about going back to the street where I came from," Williams told AL.com. "That's how I got into what I'm doing now. I can relate." Birmingham saw a tragic, record-breaking year of homicides in 2024. Children, teens and adults who are impacted by poverty and community violence may need additional resources and safe spaces to heal and thrive. That's where the Crescent comes in. The Crescent Cultural Community Center impact: 'We care'. African nation flags greet all who enter the Crescent, a space for fellowship among community members of all backgrounds. The center is colorful and inviting with spaces to learn in every nook and cranny. Alongside running the Crescent, Williams is also a program manager for RESTORE, a Jefferson County Family Resource Center juvenile re-entry program. Twice a week, young men who are involved in the juvenile justice system participate in RESTORE workshops at the Crescent where they discuss goal setting, accountability, healthy relationships, conflict resolution and how to express their emotions with mentors like Williams. Young men also frequent the Crescent as part of a high school and college fraternity program. Every week, they diligently file into the building, uniform with white shirts and black pants, to learn a new step routine and discuss the importance of brotherhood. The center works with 19 community partners to host block parties, West African drum and dance classes, yoga and community service initiatives. Community members can also receive resources and assistance through the center's workforce development program, maternity and funeral services. Local youth learn to grow vegetables in the center's greenhouse, fix cars and bikes in the garage, participate in a music enrichment program in the studio and hone their barber skills in the salon. The center's mission, Williams said, is to empower the community through education, social enrichment, resources and raising awareness. "Imagine if we weren't here...with this being a high crime area for drugs, for violence. 59 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023640 But we are here doing what we are doing. This is a credible, safe space, and we have a reputation for uplifting the community," Williams said. "We're promoting brotherhood and unity, and that's what the Crescent embodies." Walter Umrani, director of the Crescent, used his retirement savings to buy the community center. Now, he helps community members take care of their warrants. "We expect people to have a better, more productive life from the services we provide for them and the great mentorship that we have," Umrani said. Bennie Hurst leads the center's music enrichment program. He said the key to the center's success comes from listening to community members. "What we did is we actually reached out to the people and gained insight. In order to know how to serve, you gotta ask, `What do you need?" Hurst said. "You have to ask the people what they need, and then we can be accountable for the work that they receive." From March 2024 to February 2025 the center impacted the lives of more than 10,000 community members through programming, services and financial assistance. 3,599 young people were served through community engagement. 1,920 young people participated in the youth civic afterschool program. 2,265 people participated in community social events hosted by the Crescent. 1,440 people received grief support and repast assistance. 208 people participated in community wellness workshops. So far this year, more than 1,000 people have visited the center. While the center is able to help people throughout the community, it still faces limitations. The building needs central air conditioning and heating, commercial bathrooms, new flooring, additional funding for programming and salary for staff members. "We need to be able to do more than pray for you, more than just offer you a safe space to sit down until we close the door. We need to have some funding," Williams said. "We look around in the city and see nobody has these numbers of this type of impact or this type of engagement in the community," Williams said. "That's how we win. We care enough to ask and we care enough to listen." [OH] Landlords aren't running charities, and they shouldn't have to - Justice B. Hill (Cleveland.com, OH) - full text Cleveland.com [3/21/2025 5:30 AM, Justice B. Hill, 4698K, OH] I side with tenants under most circumstances. Let's keep it real, a metropolis like Cleveland has an army of slumlords who'll squeeze as many pennies out of a property as they can without putting dollars back into it. In old homes like those on the East Side, properties need upkeep and repairs, which will cost landlords a lot of money. As much as they might want to pass on these costs to a tenant, they can't always do it. So, landlords have to hope their tenant understands. The two sides have a relationship, a simple relationship: A tenant gets a clean, cozy place to live; a landlord gets money each month. Their relationship falls apart when one side doesn't keep up its end. That's what I've learned from listening to a friend, who owns a handful of rental properties in the city and near-ring suburbs. He's got a crew of workers who he relies on to keep his property in good repair. Yet, even that's not enough for some tenants, who can't seem to fit rents into their budget. Aside from perhaps food, I can think of nothing more important 60 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023641 to a family's well-being than a secure place to stay. Still, rents baffle some people. My friend told me he started an eviction process on a tenant who, because she qualified for housing aid under Section 8, paid him $18 monthly for her share. Uncle Sam picked up the rest. During the two-plus years she stayed in his property, she'd pay one month, miss one month and then play catch up. She did catch up, but then she fell into arrears afresh. With late fees attached, she owed my friend $800, which he realized he'd never get. Instead of the money, he wanted his rental unit back, which is why he went to court looking to evict her. Nobody can call eviction a pleasant process. To see a person's belongings on the lawn is enough to make you weep. You wonder what happened in this person's life to make eviction a landlord's last option. My friend hesitates to use eviction, and his tenant didn't want him to. Eviction for someone on Section VIII is devastating to their lives. They can lose the privilege of being in the federal program, a safety net for the truly needy. But my friend doesn't run a charity. He's got a rental business, which he hopes to pass to his 11year-old son and 16-year-old daughter. His tenant couldn't know this. What she did know is she didn't want to move, and she absolutely didn't want an eviction. She asked her minister to intercede. He did. He talked to my friend about what could be done to keep the woman and her children in the home. My friend's answer was straightforward: Catch up on the rent. Now, $18 a month isn't a big ask, but you question whether somebody has mixed up her priorities if she can't at least pay that small sum. Few things in life are free, other than the grace of God. My friend isn't a Christian, which saddens me. He's a landlord; he's a landlord with a big heart, though. His heart is only so big, and he's not naive. He won't do for a tenant what the tenant won't do for him. [CA] An OG crypto founder on the triumph of Bitcoin--and rejection by San Francisco liberals (Fortune) - full text Fortune [3/23/2025 11:41 AM, Jeff John Roberts, 22039K] Jesse Powell has a lot on his plate. He is helping the crypto industry flex its newfound influence in Washington, DC, and Kraken, the crypto exchange he founded in 2011, is planning to go public next year. But as he pulls up a chair at a San Francisco coffee shop, what's top of mind for Powell is not politics or business. It's real estate. He wants to talk about the gorgeous white tower known to locals as 'Susie's Building' that was built in the 1920's--and whose residents don't want Powell to live there. "It's right around the corner, I can show it to you," says Powell eagerly, waving his arm in the direction of the 12-story Pacific Heights building that offers sumptuous views of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay. Powell has made an all-cash offer for a ninth floor apartment, but some owners in the coop building are blocking the sale. They haven't publicly explained why, but it's a safe bet their reasons are based on Powell's identify: He is a longtime Bitcoin advocate who likes to share political views on social media that many in this famously liberal city find abhorrent. Powell and his fight with the co-op owners--who he is now suing--is a fitting symbol for the crypto industry as a whole right now. Despite their bulging fortunes and newfound political clout, crypto leaders are still struggling for the sort of respectability long enjoyed by bankers and other financial professionals. And even as he pushes to be 61 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023642 part of the mainstream, Powell is also a bridge to crypto's past--one of a dwindling number of figures who came up in the industry's wild frontier days. "I think Trump is the best candidate we could have come up with. He's kept his promises to crypto," says Powell, who donated $1 million to the President's election campaign, and says he is pleased by the White House's executive actions. Plenty of people may share his opinion, but you won't find many of them in this upscale San Francisco coffee shop, where other patrons are enjoying oatmeal lattes and attending to well-coiffed dogs. In this setting, right wing political views are about as welcome as a Prius at the Sturgis Biker rally_ Powell also expresses his conservative views on social media, where he has issued abrasive broadsides about the merits of DEI and women being brainwashed by liberal doctrine. In person, though, he is polite and soft-spoken--the sort of person, in fact, who could make an ideal neighbor. When it comes to his current real estate predicament, Powell's decision to sue his would-be fellow co-op members is unlikely to improve their opinion of him. But he insists he had no choice after being unfairly blackballed. Powell notes that, despite supplying four reference letters along with his all-cash offer, the co-op members rebuffed him outright, refusing to even speak with him. He believes the only explanation can be his political views and his work in crypto. It's a reasonable conclusion, especially given that the owner of the building's penthouse is a big time Democratic fund-raiser who has hosted the likes of Kamala Harris, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. For Powell, he is a victim of discrimination plain and simple. Powell's lawsuit against the co-op cites violations of the federal Fair Housing Act and California's Civil Rights Act--two laws whose passage came about due to pressure from, well, liberals. I ask if he sees any irony in this. Powell does not. "I completely agree with the existence of the laws since with housing you have a problem with a natural monopoly of the land," says Powell, noting that San Francisco, like other cities, once engaged in racist housing practices like red-lining and block-busting. Powell is claiming discrimination based on his profession and his beliefs, not his race, but--if his allegations are true, he may have a point his would-be neighbors' position is based on "we don't want your kind around here." A lawyer for the co-op board who represents the building's residents did not respond to a request for comment. If Powell prevails, his arrival in the co-op would likely add an element of class, as well as political, diversity. The Kraken founder is not from old money, but grew up in the hardscrabble Central Valley town of Stockton where his family at times had to rely on welfare and food stamps--though today he is incredibly rich and owns a place in the posh Brentwood section of Los Angeles. And while his lawsuit against the co-op is very much personal, it also reflects the ascendence of new political forces that are challenging longtime progressive dominance in the Bay Area. If San Francisco is changing, so too is the crypto world. At a time when the President is talking up a strategic Bitcoin reserve, and crypto executives are roaming the White House and Congress, it's easy to forget how very different the industry looked in 2011 when Powell started Kraken. Back then, almost no one outside Silicon Valley had heard of Bitcoin, and most of those who had dismissed it as a fad or a scam. And unlike the polished executives and lawyers speaking who speak for crypto today, the face of the 62 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023643 industry was dominated by larger than life characters such as Roger "Bitcoin Jesus" Ver and the dashing Argentine, Wences Casares, whose firm Xapo touted a secret vault to store digital coins under a mountain in Switzerland. Today, only Powell and a handful of figures from Bitcoin's early days are still active in the industry, while the rest are enjoying low-key retirements or, in some cases, serving prison sentences. In many cases, they have been replaced in the public eye by Washington, DC insiders or executives from Wall Street firms like BlackRock, which have embraced crypto in the last few years. This change has also coincided with the crypto industry becoming part of the political establishment in the U.S. and elsewhere--a far cry from the radical mistrust of government set out by Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. I ask Powell if the intellectual energy and idealism that marked crypto's early days has diminished, and he concedes it has, but that he says that's in part because much of Nakamoto's original vision has come to pass. "The original ideal was to get Bitcoin to the world, and we've achieved a lot of that, opening access to people who have been unbanked by the formal financial system," says Powell, a philosophy major who lists Aristotle and (unsurprisingly) Ayn Rand among his favorite thinkers. He adds, though, that the quest to legitimize crypto is not over, warning that another change in U.S. government could hamstring the industry again. Powell also points to Kraken's struggles in places like the United Kingdom, where he complains of a draconian warning regime for crypto customers: "They want your welcome screen to look like a pack of cigarettes-if they could put dead babies on it, they would." It's clear that Powell is very much being part of the daily hurly-burly that goes with running the company, even though he stepped down as CEO in 2022. At the time, he framed the decision as a desire to focus on other things in life but now he admits it was to protect Kraken from growing regulatory heat. In particular, he had learned he had become subject to a criminal investigation, and wanted to avoid having to make disclosure requirements that would have complicated the firm's global licensing efforts. His return to a hands-on role at Kraken, where he is Chairman, can also be seen as taking care of unfinished business. According to a Bloomberg report, this includes having the exchange follow its longtime competitor Coinbase into the public markets, with an IPO planned for early next year. And while Kraken's battles with the U.S. government are receding--the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped its case against the exchange this month--that is not the case for Powell personally. In 2O23, as part of an investigation into a dispute between Powell and an arts non-profit he founded, the FBI raided his home and seized his devices. Though the exact circumstances of the raid remain murky, Powell is confident he will be exonerated, an outcome that will come as a personal vindication--and a chance to regain access to stashes of crypto he has stored on the devices. If that comes to pass, and he prevails in his battle with the co-op, Powell will have some spare cash to decorate the walls of his new San Francisco apartment. And crypto fans will have another story to tell about one of the industry's early icons. Broadcast (TV and Radio) 63 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023644 HUD Secretary Scott Turner joins the Joe Pags Show in Dallas [Part One] (WBAPAM Dallas, TX) WBAP-AM Dallas [3/21/2025 10:39 PM, Staff, 151,204] reports HUD Secretary Scott Turner joined the Joe Pags Show when he was in Dallas over the weekend. [Part one of interview.] HUD Secretary Scott Turner joins the Joe Pags Show in Dallas [Part Two] (WBAPAM Dallas, TX) WBAP-AM Dallas [3/21/2025 10:39 PM, Staff, 151,204] reports HUD Secretary Scott Turner joined the Joe Pags Show when he was in Dallas over the weekend. [Part one of interview.] HUD Secretary Scott Turner joins the Bret Baier Show (WSBA-AM Harrisburg, PA) WSBA-AM Harrisburg [3/23/2025 10:49 AM, Staff, 10,936] reports HUD Secretary Scott Turner joined the Newstalk WSBA Bret Baier Show. [CT] NBC Connecticut celebrates housing head Seila Mosquera-Bruno for Women's History Month (WVIT-TV NBC Hartford, CT) WVIT-TV NBC Hartford & New Haven [3/21/2025 4:49 PM, Staff, 21,071] reports NBC Connecticut is celebrating trailblazing females in honor of Women's History Month. The story of Seila Mosquera-Bruno, the first Latina commissioner to lead the Connecticut Department of Housing, is presented. [VA] Potential HUD cuts could affect millions of dollars in Hampton Roads funding (WVEC-TV ABC Norfolk, VA) WVEC-TV ABC Norfolk [3/21/2025 5:32 PM, Staff, 16,759] reports potential major cuts to HUD programs is causing concern for some local communities. Every year, millions of dollars in HUD funding has flown through Hampton Roads. Based on federal data, HUD accounts for more than $20 million of grant funding for local governments. [VA] Two families awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in landmark housing discrimination case (WSLS-TV NBC Roanoke, VA) WSLS-TV NBC Roanoke [3/21/2025 5:05 PM, Staff, 11,849] reports two families have been awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in a landmark case after a jury found that the owner of the Lazy Cove Campground in Virginia discriminated against them because of race. The Virginia attorney general's office and the Fair Housing board sued Regina Turner. Both families received $100,000 for their losses, plus $550,000 in punitive damages. [GA] Edmond Estates residents forced to leave after unsafe conditions found on property (WTVM-TV ABC Columbus, GA) WTVM-TV ABC Columbus [3/22/2025 10:28 AM, Staff, 11,070] reports residents at Edmond Estates in Phenix City are forced to leave their homes after hundreds of life-threatening issues are found on the property. Fliers were posted outside units on Friday. telling residents they have to vacate in 45 days. [FL] Affordable Lake Bradford Apartments breaks ground in Tallahassee (WTXLTV ABC Tallahassee, FL) 64 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023645 WTXL-TV ABC Tallahassee [3/22/2025 6:35 PM, Staff, 19,707] reports a new affordable housing community is coming to southwest Tallahassee. The Lake Bradford Apartments broke ground Thursday and construction has begun. It will offer 158 unit for low-income households. [KY] Dosker Manor workers find human remains on property; Housing authority cooperates with police (WAVE-TV NBC Louisville, KY) WAVE-TV NBC Louisville [3/23/2025 11:01 PM, Staff, 57,288] reports the Louisville Metro Housing Authority released a statement after human remains were found on one of their properties. They say they are fully cooperating with police. Workers at Dosker Manor discovered the remains Saturday morning. Details are still being determined. [TN] Council for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services in Chattanooga breaks ground on sober living complex (WTVC-TV ABC Chattanooga, TN) WTVC-TV ABC Chattanooga [3/21/2025 5:37 PM, Staff, 29,979] reports the Council for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services broke ground on a new sober living apartment complex on Friday. The new Chattanooga Apartments were funded by two state grants. The 16 apartments will target low-income housing and will be vouchered through the Chattanooga Housing Authority. [AL] Residents forced to leave after life-threatening issues found at Edmond Estates in Phenix City (WSFA-TV NBC Montgomery, AL) WSFA-TV NBC Montgomery [3/21/2025 5:03 PM, Staff, 17,732] reports that neighbors in East Alabama are being forced to leave their homes after Phenix City officials say they found hundreds of life-threatening issues at Edmond Estates. Residents have 45 days to find other living arrangements. The city is working with the housing authority to find at least temporary housing for the residents. [AZ] Tenants of Tucson House concerned about health issues as building is being renovated (KGUN-TV ABC Tucson, AZ) KGUN-TV ABC Tucson [3/21/2025 9:04 PM, Staff, 15,811] reports Tucson House became public housing in the 1970s, but now the city is working on renovating the building. Residents are concerned about their health and safety, wondering when the work will be done. [OR] Concerns arise over funds for affordable housing in Lane County (KMTR-TV NBC Eugene, OR) KMTR-TV NBC Eugene [3/23/2025 9:49 PM, Staff, 28,050] reports new concerns are growing over funds for affordable housing in Lane County after the Trump Administration canceled contracts tied to a $60 million federal housing initiative. Lane County officials say the move could derail or delay efforts to fight homelessness [CA] Coachella Valley renters could be impacted as pandemic-era housing program ends (KESQ-TV ABC Palm Springs, CA) KESQ-TV ABC Palm Springs [3/22/2025 11:06 AM, Staff, 10,475] reports the end of the $5 billion pandemic-era emergency housing voucher program is currently running out of money. This could impact more than 60,000 renters, including some in the Coachella 65 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023646 Valley. Riverside County's housing authority says they can no longer accept new referrals. [HI] Kuhio Park Terrace project gets new development company (KHVH-AM Fox Honolulu, HI) KHVH-AM Fox Honolulu [3/21/2025 12:35 PM, Staff, 15,407] reports Hawaii has swapped out the company overseeing the Kuhio Park Terrace redevelopment project. The Michaels Organization is to be replaced by the Highridge Costa Development Co. The Hawaii Public Housing Authority has already hired the firm to tear down nine other public housing properties statewide to build 10,000 affordable housing units in their place. [HI] Association of Hawaiians for Homestead Lands objects to funding allocation (KGMB-TV CBS Honolulu, HI) KGMB-TV CBS Honolulu [3/21/2025 11:19 AM, Staff, 12,417) reports Hawaiian Homelands has approved allocation of millions of dollars in federal funds to subsidize developers of rental housing. The Association of Hawaiians for Homestead Lands objects, saying homestead assistance should be the first priority. Housing Supply Existing-Home Sales Jump as Homebuyers Adjust to Economic Conditions (The Mortgage Point) - full text The Mortgage Point [3/21/2025 2:53 PM, Demetria C. Lester, 8K] The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports that existing-home sales increased in February. Two major U.S. regions saw a rise in monthly and year-over-year sales, while one region stayed the same and the other saw a fall. Completed transactions involving single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums, and cooperatives make up the total existing-home sales, which increased 4.2% from January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.26 million in February. Sales decreased 1.2% year-over-year (from 4.31 million in February 2024). "Home buyers are slowly entering the market," said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. "Mortgage rates have not changed much, but more inventory and choices are releasing pent-up housing demand." At the end of February, there were 1.24 million units in total housing inventory, up 5.1% from January and 17% from the same month last year (1.06 million). At the current sales pace, unsold inventory is at a 3.5-month supply, which is the same as January and higher than the 3.0 months in February 2024. "On a technical note, raw sales in February were down 5.2% from last year, which was a leap year with one extra day of business," Yun said. "However, after adjusting for this effect, combined with the winter seasonal factors, the momentum for home sales is flashing encouraging signs." All property types combined had a median existing-home price3 of $398,400 in February, up 3.8% from $383,800 a year earlier. Price rises were observed in all four U.S. regions. "Each one percentage point gain in home price translates into an approximately $350 billion increase in housing equity for American property owners," Yun said. "That means a gain of nearly $1.3 trillion in home value appreciation at a time when the current stock 66 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023647 market is undergoing a correction. Moreover, the ongoing housing shortage, coupled with historically low mortgage default rates, implies a solid foundation for home values." Highest Existing Home Sales in a Year (MortgageNewsDaily) MortqaqeNewsDaily [3/21/2025 4:04 PM, Matthew Graham, 523K] As is the case with a majority of housing and mortgage market data these days, the Existing Home Sales data from NAR is heavily dependent on context. To be sure, the headline is true. You'd have to go back to report that came out in February, 2024 to see a higher annual pace of sales. And if you were to chart these values only, the chart would probably look pretty good for the present month, but it would also belie the situation in the trenches. Home sales certainly aren't in freefall in the bigger picture, but they're generally still sideways at long term lows. Realtors credited an uptick in inventory for the uptick in sales. Additional details are available at NAR's release page here: https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/existing-home-sales-accelerated-4-2-in-february. NAR's existing-home sales forecast for 2025 gets a haircut (HousingWire.com) HousingWire.corn [3/21/2025 5:55 PM, Jeff Andrews, 354K] The National Association of Realtors (NAR) was one of the more bullish forecasters of the 2025 housing market, but the trade group has revised its outlook. In its quarterly NAR Real Estate Forecast Summit Update, economists Lawrence Yun and Nadia Evangelou said they now expect existing-home sales to rise by 6% relative to 2024 and finish at 4.3 million in 2025. New-home sales are forecast to rise 10%. HUD data shows a decline in new U.S. building permits for February as turnaround stalls (Archinect) - full text Archinect [3/21/2025 2:56 PM, Josh Niland, 282K] The amount of new building permits has been shown to have declined across the country in February, according to data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). With a total of 1,456,000 new permits, the index has decreased 6.8% from February 2024 levels. This confirms a trend in the building industry that began in 2023 and has continued through last year to produce declining figures recently in the AIA/Deltek Architecture Billings Index and Dodge Construction Network's survey of construction starts as a projected turnaround has been threatened by the imposition of steep new tariffs against Canada, Mexico, and China. The number of new housing starts was 1,501,000. This total represents an increase of 11.2% over January's tabulation of the same category but is 2.9% below February 2024 totals. Single-family housing starts in February were 11.4% above January's figures, adding a positive note to the sector that ended last year on an upswing. Completions in the single-family housing market were 7.1% higher than in January. This comes as construction prices are rising and despite a mild uptick in American project planning led recently by data centers and spending on other types of nonresidential construction. 67 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023648 Builders Broke More Ground Than Expected in February (MortgageNewsDaily) full text MortgageNewsDaily [3/21/2025 3:25 PM, Matthew Graham, 523K] The Census Bureau released its New Residential Construction report this week, frequently referred to by its principal component "housing starts" (a term for the start of the first phase of new home construction, aka "breaking ground"). In addition to housing starts, the data also logs building permits as well as completions. As we often note, building permits are more even-keeled while housing starts and completions can experience much more month-to-month volatility. February was the latest example of that as permits came in right in line with forecasts while housing starts surged higher. Single family homes accounted for the vast majority of the improvement, rising to their highest levels in a year, and close to the highest levels since early 2022. There's often quite a bit of variation across geographies in housing starts. This time around, 2 regions did most of the heavy lifting with the Northeast surging 75% from last month, bringing the annual pace for single family homes up to 84k from 48k. The South only posted a 19.6% gain, but because it's a much larger housing market, that resulted in an annual pace increase of more than 100k units. In contrast, the Midwest slid backward by 34k units, or about 25% from last month's annual pace. The West was the most uneventful region, with a modest 1.8% increase, or 5k units in terms of annual pace. New Construction Is Changing American Cities (New York Times) - full text New York Times [3/23/2025 8:00 AM, Matt Yan, 330K] The median year that homes were built has risen, largely due to population growth and the need to house a migrating population. More than 500,000 new apartment units were completed across the United States last year, according to RentCafe. All of that construction can help explain a trend: The median year that the housing stock in most cities was built is advancing, according to a report from PropertyShark. Researchers analyzed U.S. Census Bureau data in cities and towns with at least 25,000 residents, then ranked all 1,839 places based on the changes in the median build year of its homes from 2013 through 2023. In 86 percent of these cities and towns, the median build year advanced. In 2013, the typical U.S. home had been built in 1976. By 2023, it had been built in 1980 -- meaning the median build year advanced by four years, according to the report. New construction was spurred by "housing shortages, population growth and migration trends" toward larger cities and Sunbelt states. The cities with the biggest changes in median build year were Williston, N.D., and Farmers Branch, Texas (a suburb of Dallas) -- 25 years each. The report notes that the population in Williston "rose by more than half while the number of homes nearly 68 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023649 doubled," the result of an oil boom at the end of the 2000s that attracted billions of dollars in new investments. The next five locations on the list were in New York and New Jersey. In New York, the biggest changes were in towns in the Hudson Valley and Finger Lakes region: Middletown, Monsey and Ithaca. In New Jersey, they were in fast-developing New York City satellites: Hoboken, where the median year built advanced by 19 years, and Jersey City, by 18 years. [MA] Editorial: Finish the job on starter-home zoning districts (Boston Business Journal, MA) - full text Boston Business Journal [3/21/2025 5:00 AM, Staff, 4715K, MA] State officials and business leaders alike have said countless times that an "all of the above" approach is needed to create the housing we need to keep our economy booming and to help bring down the cost of living. Yet at least one of the tools in the state's housing-creation toolbox has been lying unused for more than two years, waiting for the state's Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities to issue a set of regulations. The idea -- starter-home zoning districts -- was created in a 2022 economic development bill and would allow for smaller single-family homes on lots no larger than a quarter of an acre. It's a particularly important category of housing, one that's crucial to our efforts to keep young professionals from moving out of state. Currently, empty-nesters are not moving out of single-family homes with three bedrooms, according to state data, which means less than half of the homes best suited for families with children are occupied and unavailable. Developers have told the Business Journal that starter-home zoning creates the financial incentive needed to build smaller homes -- less than 1,850 square feet -- that could sell for under $1 million each on a single plot of land rather than one large, multimillion-dollar McMansion on that same sized lot. And unlike the MBTA Communities Act, which is a mandate for more than half of the cities and towns in the state to create housing-friendly zoning districts, communities would choose whether to opt in to create a starter-home zoning district. Doing so would then make them eligible for additional funding. That's key since, as we've seen over the past year, some towns, such as Lexington, have embraced the MBTA Act, while others seem bent on doing the bare minimum, limiting the effectiveness of that particular policy tool. In short, the creation of starter-home zoning districts would be yet another way -- along with accessory dwelling units, investments in public housing and the MBTA Communities Act, to name a few -- to help reach the state's goal of creating the 222,000 new homes needed to help fix the housing crisis. State officials have said for more than two years that the regulations are coming "within months," but have so far failed to implement the plan first put into effect under the Baker administration. The state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities needs to finish the job it started so developers and municipalities alike can finally take advantage of the starter-home zoning district law and accelerate homebuilding. [PA] Want More Housing? Fix the Land Bank (Philadelphia Citizen, PA) - full text Philadelphia Citizen [3/21/2025 5:40 AM, Jon Geeting, 37K, PA] With negotiations underway for Mayor Parker's Mission 30,000 initiative to build and 69 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023650 preserve 30,000 homes in Philadelphia, one particular City program is primed to have its heyday: The Land Bank. Established by City Council in 2012, the Land Bank was intended to speed up and ease the process of selling acres of city land to developers to build much-needed moderately-priced homes, alongside community uses like gardens and public spaces. But the Land Bank has proven to be a disappointment because of Philadelphia's unwritten tradition of councilmanic prerogative -- where District Council members defer to one another reciprocally on land use questions in their districts. This means that, in practice, one district Councilmember gets to decide unilaterally whether an application to buy or develop a City property receives a response or is ignored. And rather tragically, the Land Bank's processes often further obscure this dynamic, rather than bringing more transparency and clarity to the city's decision-making. This is having real consequences for the speed at which developers can build new houses. To wit: There are dozens of potential homes sitting in limbo that were approved by the Land Bank board, but have gotten stuck in Council, or even had their approvals rescinded due to Council opposition. With efforts to create more housing ramping up this year, it is worth asking: Are City Councilmembers willing to release more land to more builders so we can get more housing already? At an appearance last year, Mayor Parker said she wanted to see "Turn the Key on steroids" in reference to the quasi-governmental Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation (PHDC)'s popular program that leverages City-owned land for pricerestricted workforce housing. Established in 2021 by an act of City Council, Turn the Key has been a big success at increasing the rate of city land disposition compared to the plodding pace of prior years, and has been a modest success from a housing supply standpoint, with a little over 100 homes built and sold since the program's inception. According to February's board minutes, 822 housing units have been approved for development so far under the program, with 400 currently under construction. Stepping up the pace of workforce housing construction on city land is a laudable goal, considering the city's bulging stockpile of properties - still over 4,000 in total -- but some political realism is in order. Without further changes to the laws and policies governing City Council and Land Bank Board approvals, acquisition of City land will remain a moving target, constraining the prospective pool of interested builders and funders. Despite improvements since 2019, the process is still a migraine for would-be program users thanks to an opaque decision-making process with excessive discretion, multiple veto points, and the absence of clear priorities. These programs made some initial headway by solving a political problem -- Councilmembers seemed to want more control over who would be eligible to buy homes built on City land, as well as who the builders would be. Turn the Key started out prioritizing City workers for its homes, which are capped at $280,000, with City funds from the Neighborhood Preservation Initiative providing additional assistance to first-time home buyers through grants and mortgage buydowns. The average income of a Turn the Key home buyer is $45,000 (around 50 percent of the Area Median Income), which is affordable for City workers like administrative support staff, sanitation workers, bus drivers and social workers. Council has also wanted to see more non-White developers dealt in on these opportunities, and there is now a small cottage industry of training and mentorship 70 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023651 programs from nonprofits and City government itself. Their graduates and trainees often pursue Land Bank properties and Turn the Key projects as a first stop in their career journeys, since the City effectively subsidizes land sales as part of these deals. Those changes have led to more members, most notably former-Council President Darrell Clarke and current Council President Kenyatta Johnson, shifting their approach from a more skeptical stance on City land housing deals, to becoming some of the more prolific champions of them. It's important to applaud this progress while also recognizing that the "Turn the Key on steroids" vision is still a long way off, and unlikely to happen under the current mix of laws and policies. "The [land] uncertainty makes it particularly difficult for the smaller, mainly Black and brown-owned firms that we try and support to do affordable housing development in the city." -- David Langlieb, Philadelphia Accelerator Fund. The biggest dysfunction driver is the state law that requires a vote of the municipal legislature to sell any City-owned property. While this makes some sense from a good government anti-corruption standpoint, the interplay with Philadelphia's political culture turns that law's good intentions on their head. Without going into the whole history of the various attempts to make the City's land disposition process more rule-based and less capricious over the years, the general thrust of these efforts has been to try and move the "will they / won't they" question to the front end of the process, rather than have applicants waste their time and money on pre-development costs, only to have the Councilmember refuse to move it forward at the end. The legislation establishing the Turn the Key program and the 51 / 49 program before it allows builders to apply for nobid City land deals if 51 percent of the units are affordable at 80 to 120 percent AMI. It established checklists of criteria that compliant projects need to have, as a way to make the review process more rule-based and less opinion-driven. Sadly, not much has changed in that regard. When the Land Bank considers housing proposals, they either put out a request for proposals for properties they want developed, or they receive unsolicited proposals from builders for Turn the Key and mixed-income projects. If an RFP, they've almost certainly gotten the support from the Councilmember first. Likewise, for an unsolicited proposal to make its way onto the Land Bank board's agenda, there needs to be an early signal the Councilmember is supportive before they'll proceed. The Land Bank board is the only one in the city where the appointment power is split half-and-half between the mayor and City Council, further limiting the mayor's influence over these issues. Under Mayor Parker's term so far, the Parker board appointees have moved in a more pro-housing direction on average than the board under Mayor Kenney. But the Board under both Mayors has used their own discretion more than intended under more objective criteria spelled out in the Turn the Key and 51 / 49 laws. The Board is supposed to ask questions related to the builder's experience and qualifications, along with basic details about the project. What's been happening instead is that some board members treat this like a zoning hearing, where every detail of the project from floor plans to price points -- even if compliant with the law -- is under scrutiny, and projects can be tabled or rejected for reasons having nothing to do with their compliance with the official policies. Even worse, some members of Council will change their minds partway into the process, sometimes in response to neighbor complaints, and there have been multiple occasions where the Land Bank Board approves a Turn the Key project, but the Councilmember refuses to introduce the ordinance at the end of the process. That's 71 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023652 what happened with some recent proposals in the 3rd and 5th Districts that were delayed or rejected. "The uncertainty makes it particularly difficult for the smaller, mainly Black and Brownowned firms that we try and support to do affordable housing development in the city," says David Langlieb, Executive Director of the Philadelphia Accelerator Fund, which was formed by city housing leaders to increase access to housing development capital for historically disadvantaged groups. "Most understandably do not want to invest their cash in a process that takes several months and may result in opposition from the district councilperson even if the application is perfect." There are currently dozens of homes sitting in limbo that were approved by the Land Bank board, but are stuck in Council. The last few weeks provided two examples of this phenomenon. In the 3rd District, a proposal for three single-family homes in Kingsessing -- two priced for workforce housing, one market-rate -- was tabled by the board after it came under scrutiny from near neighbors, the 3rd Ward leader and former state representative Ron Waters, Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, and House Speaker Joanna McClinton. Some of the concerns raised included the location of the one required community meeting, which was held unusually far away from the proposed project, and the size and affordability of the homes (Gauthier wanted the homes to cost less, while Speaker McClinton wanted the homes to be larger.) The applicant, Calvin Schofield, was approved for a loan from the Philadelphia Accelerator Fund and a senior lender, but can't get the funding until he has site control. The Land Bank board delayed the project while another community meeting is being scheduled. In the 5th District, Riverwards Group submitted a mixed-income scattered-site proposal for 43 single-family homes that had support from RCO leaders and received a unanimous vote of the Land Bank board. No community members testified against the proposal at the Land Bank board meeting. Nonetheless, Councilmember Jeffrey Young Jr. declined to introduce a resolution, and last week the Land Bank board rescinded their resolution approving the project. Mo Rushdy of Riverwards Group declined a request for comment. Another proposal for five Turn the Key homes on scattered sites in Allegheny West in the 5th District last year was rescinded after the Land Bank board approved it, but Councilmember Young wouldn't introduce a resolution. The applicant was a community developer and a member of the Black Squirrel Collective developer training program. It isn't that there are no valid reasons why someone might take issue with any particular property or housing proposal, and as often as not, the concerns are coming from an idealistic place. Zooming out though, it's easy to see how the City's process is inflicting death by a thousand cuts to the city's own housing efforts. The purpose of a system is what it does, and what our current system does is hamper and delay the public sector's ability to provide housing using entirely its own assets. It's a genuinely absurd situation, especially given the frequency with which the word "crisis" is invoked by City leaders concerned about housing quality and availability. As with many city issues involving councilmanic prerogative, solutions to this problem are elusive due to the unwritten nature of that tradition. While it may be worth exploring state legislative changes to remove the requirement for a City Council vote on land 72 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023653 disposition, and relocate that power fully within the executive branch, that same language is in the Philadelphia City Charter too. And even if both laws were amended, it's far from guaranteed that our City government -- deeply influenced by the politics of neighborhood deference on housing issues -- wouldn't still voluntarily opt for a painstaking process of community consultation with deference to District Council members' views. Still, there is room to maneuver even within today's legal confines. It's possible, for instance, that the Land Bank board may be overstepping its discretion to deny projects that are fully compliant with the checklists City Council passed when they established Turn the Key, which could be subject to a lawsuit from a motivated applicant one day. The Land Bank staff can do more to educate board members about these risks, and take steps to make the review hearings more legalistic and less like a popularity contest. By denying projects that are legally compliant, but disfavored by Council, the Land Bank board is doing Councilmembers' dirty work for them, needlessly obscuring who is actually to blame for the denials and delays. It would be better for the board to approve all compliant projects, and let hundreds of approved applications pile up on Council's doorstep while the mayoral administration and other political actors apply public pressure to pass the necessary resolutions. Ultimately, to achieve Mayor Parker's goals for the Land Bank, and for new housing production overall, there's really no substitute for electing Councilmembers who support building more housing and want to do the right thing for current and future residents' material living standards by vocally championing the successful Turn the Key program, and using their powers to speed things up, rather than slow down or block needed housing. [PA] Small boroughs look to be part of the housing solution in Lancaster County despite limited space (Lancaster Online, PA) - full text Lancaster Online [3/21/2025 11:57 AM, Jade Campos, PA] Denver Mayor Rod Redcay knows his small borough needs more housing. The problem is, there's no room to grow. "What can you do?" he said. "Boroughs have a lot more difficult time knowing what to do. Townships have more land availability. We want to also protect the farmland in our beautiful county." Still, Redcay wants to be a part of the broader solution to finding more housing in Lancaster County, so he joined other municipal officials in the fall for a workshop to talk openly about the county's housing needs. The High Foundation, Franklin & Marshall College's Center for Politics and Public Affairs, and research nonprofit Hourglass shared the results of the workshop in a report published last week. According to the report, more than half of the participants agreed housing is the top issue facing their municipality. Workshop organizers invited officials from all of Lancaster County's 60 municipalities, though only 25 municipalities were represented. Most attendees came from larger townships in the county's metro area, leaving smaller, more rural areas underrepresented. Chad Martin, executive director of nonprofit Chestnut Housing and a co-chair of Lancaster County's Coalition for Sustainable Housing, served as a presenter at the workshop and said he was concerned that more officials did not come out. "It's really clear that housing, and especially affordable housing, is a challenge for every community in Lancaster County," he said. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the number of 73 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023654 homes across Lancaster County barely keeps up with its population. In 2023, HUD reported 211,669 households countywide compared to 220,296 housing units. Denver isn't the only small borough that's eager to make a change but is bound by limited options. While she did not attend the workshop, Quarryville Borough Council President Joy Kemper said leaders recognize the need for more housing but struggle to find solutions because there's nowhere to develop. "We are a small borough, and we only have under 1,000 tax parcels," Kemper said. "We can't compete with the Manheim Townships, Columbia Boroughs, Manheim Boroughs, E-town Boroughs and Lititz Boroughs." Kemper said it's best for Quarryville officials to wait and see what businesses or properties become unused before having serious conversations about adding more housing. Martin encourages all municipal officials to pursue opportunities for redevelopment. It could take combing through zoning ordinances to lift regulations in order to make it easier for unused buildings to be given new, expanded life, he said. Another solution Martin wants to see leaders consider is allowing more mixed-use development that combines commercial properties with residential units. "If it's an appropriate place for retail commercial office or other commercial uses, it's also an appropriate place for multifamily apartment buildings," he said. "There are many commercial zones across the county where you're not allowed to build multifamily housing." Denver has taken advantage of redevelopment opportunities given there's very little land to grow out. Redcay said the borough has worked with the county's redevelopment and land bank authorities to create more housing units out of blighted properties. Borough Manager Michael Hession said officials have also updated zoning laws to allow more mixed-use development as well as accessory dwelling units, which are independent units contained on a single-family property. The borough borrowed the idea from Manheim Township, he said, and right-sized it for their community. "If someone has a successful project, whether it's a big place or small place, we're always watching to see how that can fit here," he said. In Adamstown Borough, council President Randy Good wants to cut back on zoning regulations in general to make it easier for homeowners to pursue projects, whether it's a totally new development or a patio. A zoning permit can already cost hundreds of dollars, he said, which contributes to the housing affordability crisis. Good said public education is essential to move the needle on housing in Lancaster County. Workshop participants overwhelmingly agreed residents need to have a better understanding of housing needs because public opposition can be a major roadblock to more development. Good moved to Adamstown in 1971, when he paid $40 a month for rent. That's about $320 today. Times have changed, he said, and wages aren't keeping up with the growing costs of housing. "I think a lot of people are forgetting where we started," Good said. [PA] What Lancaster County municipalities can do to grow local housing stock (Lancaster Online, PA) - full text Lancaster Online [3/21/2025 11:57 AM, Jade Campos, PA] Lancaster County municipal officials agree: Housing availability is one of the most pressing issues facing their communities. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the number of homes across Lancaster County barely keeps up with its population. In 2023, HUD reported 211,669 households countywide compared 74 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023655 to 220,296 housing units. The High Foundation, Franklin & Marshall College's Center for Politics and Public Affairs, and research nonprofit Hourglass brought local government leaders together through workshops last fall to discuss housing needs. A report based on the discussion shows leaders are ready to act. Public education and zoning reform were identified as key solutions municipal officials can act on to encourage housing growth. Currently, the demand for different types of housing in the county, including affordable housing, outstrips the available resources. East Lampeter Township has been a local leader on the issue. Since 2020, officials have cleared the way for hundreds of housing units at the Shops at Rockvale on South Willowdale Drive and Greenfield North at the corner of Greenfield and Willow roads. Zoning changes instituted by the township since 2016 also have made it easier for developers to build different types of housing in areas where they were previously restricted. Tara Hitchens, the township's assistant manager, who also spoke as a panelist at the workshop, talked to LNP I LancasterOnline about East Lampeter's efforts to grow housing. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. What was the workshop like? Was this one of the first opportunities for local municipal leaders to come together to talk about housing availability? I think it's been awhile since we've had that conversation. I think that some municipalities have been having that conversation, but it's probably not getting out to the general public. Boards change every election, or can change every election. There's probably different people on elected bodies that may need to be educated on this, and so they showed up. That was fantastic to see the representation across the county at the workshop. Not everyone is dealing with the same types of housing issues. Some municipalities may have plenty of housing variety, and they may not have it in the right mix. There may not be the right number-of-bedroom mix, or there may not be the right (price point) mix. What is that right number? That's different for every municipality. How did East Lampeter officials begin to address housing concerns? We started with a housing plan .. . that really put together what types of housing do we have? What's the bedroom consistency? Then, conversely, what is the makeup of the household type? Are we meeting the demand? If we have a four-bedroom house, do we have a family of five in there? We found that we're mismatched, which is great information. When developers come in, we can say, "Look we have this deficiency. Are you interested in developing this type of dwelling option to increase the availability of options here in East Lampeter?" The report notes public opposition can be a hindrance to growing housing. What was the public's involvement in the township's work? One thing that the board in 2016 did was they had public workshops on the zoning changes. We had four of those public workshops. Did we hit everyone in the township? I can tell you no, because people come to me and say, "I never knew my zoning changed." But did we hit a lot of people? We did, because the building was filled for those meetings. That was helpful having those workshops. Residents could come, 75 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023656 landowners could come and say, "I like this part" or "I don't like this part" and listen to the conversations. (With) the Rockvale rezoning, we did have some individuals say. "Look, I don't prefer this, but I'd rather see this happen here than on farmland." Were people concerned about what the character of that area would look like? Yes, it's going to change. It will. It's going from a one-story shopping area to a multistory, multifamily (complex). It's definitely going to change, but it's all within the urban growth area. Some officials recognize housing availability is an issue but say there's nowhere else to develop. Is redevelopment and infill development (building on unused open spaces such as parking lots) a solution to that issue? I think it's definitely a possibility, but you have to have a developer that will be able to come in and make those decisions and make it work financially. There's typically a building to come down in redevelopment, which is a cost that has to be taken into account. With the infill development on Old Philadelphia Pike that we saw a few years ago, I believe there were two houses that came down. One of the other things that our housing plan took a look at was the percentage of housing that may not be code compliant or is being left unkempt. That was an interesting piece of the puzzle, because if you can then plot those on a map and see where those are, then maybe that helps to focus your redevelopment. What would you say to other officials who may read the report and want to address the issue of housing availability in their community? There's gotta be that will at the municipal official level. We were very fortunate to have that here in East Lampeter. I think it takes municipal officials talking to municipal officials, quite honestly, and being able to convey the benefits of doing the planning upfront so that you can have those conversations when the developers come in. Municipal officials here in East Lampeter need to have the conversations with the municipal officials next door, in the southern part of the county, the northern part of the county and the western part of the county. Conversations at all levels is what's needed. [TX] Texas might lift occupancy limits on homes. Could that exacerbate `stealth dorm' issues? (Star-Telegram, TX) - full text Star-Telegram [3/21/2025 6:50 AM, Matthew Adams, 759K, TX] A bipartisan bill in the Texas Senate that would eliminate occupancy restrictions for residential dwellings could have implications for those living near TCU. Senate Bill 1567, co-sponsored by Republican Paul Bettencourt of Houston and Democrat Sarah Eckhardt of Austin, was introduced in February and sits in committee pending further action. If passed, the bill would make it illegal for any municipality to adopt or enforce zoning rules that limit the number of occupants living in a single- or multi-family home or apartment. The bill was put forth following complaints from Texas A&M students after the city of College Station cracked down on occupancy violations. According to a law in place since 1939 in College Station, no more than four unrelated people may live together in a single-family unit. A spokesperson in Bettencourt's office said that has created problems for A&M students jockeying for affordable housing. The university is the largest in Texas, with an enrollment approaching 73,000 at its College Station campus. In Fort Worth's TCU 76 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023657 residential overlay district, no more than three unrelated people can legally occupy a single dwelling unit, with the exception of units registered by owners for "nonconforming use." David Schwarte with the TX Neighborhood Coalition, who spoke in favor of a ruling last year banning short-term rentals in Fort Worth neighborhoods, said SB 1567 could create a nightmare scenario for homeowners near TCU. "If 1567 ever passed into law, it would literally strip the word `family' from single-family neighborhoods," said Schwarte. "If caps were taken away, especially in a place like the TCU area, what you'll find is private boarding houses, private dorms and frat houses right next to single-family zoned houses. That is not what homeowners were expecting when they bought their single-family homes." TCU-area residents have fought a long battle against private dorms, or stealth dorms -- single-family homes rented out to multiple students. Plans are underway to create more student housing at TCU, which could ease some of the strain on neighborhoods around the university. Schwarte, a retired attorney who lives in Arlington, has traveled twice to Austin in recent weeks to testify against SB 1567 and other bills the TX Neighborhood Coalition believes will harm residential neighborhoods. While Schwarte sympathizes to a certain extent with the A&M students who first raised the issue, he said College Station has been addressing its student housing shortage, and he feels a statewide restriction on occupancy limits is overkill. "In a case where you might need a surgical approach, this is carpet bombing," Schwarte said. "The supposed cure will be worse than the current problem." The solution, Schwarte believes, is addressing the issue of investor ownership of residential real estate in Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott has taken up this cause, pressing the state Legislature to limit how much residential property commercial leasing firms can own. According to a Texas Tribune story last year, 52% of the homes sold in Tarrant County in 2021 were to investors. This, some say, has driving up rent prices. Another bill that's problematic in Schwarte's view is House Bill 878, introduced by Cody Vasut, R-Angleton. That law would make it illegal for larger cities to require that residential lots be larger than 2,500 square feet, and it would limit other rules in place to create buffers between homes. This would apply only to municipalities with a population of 85,000 or more in counties with a population of at least 1 million. Schwarte's fear is that you'll see investors buying 5,000-square-foot plots and cramming two houses in there, or that people will break their properties up and add accessory dwelling units. If this were to happen, it would have Fort Worthians living "cheek to jowl," as Schwarte put it, like you see in places such as New York or Chicago. Couple that with SB 1567, and you can potentially add college parties and loud music to the equation, essentially killing the sanctity of the traditional single-family neighborhood, opponents fear. [NM] Bill is first step to address housing crisis (Albuquerque Journal, NM) - full text Albuquerque Journal [3/21/2025 3:31 PM, Jeneva Martinez, 266K, NM] Our housing crisis in New Mexico is driving up costs and making home ownership more unaffordable with each passing year. Something needs to be done to allow our housing stock to catch up to our demand. That is not happening right now. We can, however, 77 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023658 take steps to make housing more plentiful and reasonably priced. Our biggest challenge comes from an unpredictable and over-long permit process. Regrettably, our zoning laws make it difficult to build more housing and alleviate the crisis. A new bill in the legislation, Senate Bill 312, would go a long way toward changing the dynamics in housing. We all support proper zoning in our state, but it should be done in a fair and reasonable way, without people using the appeal system to delay all projects to death. SB312 would limit appeals to those directly impacted by the project. Everyone would still be able to voice their opinions and concerns, but if approval is granted, only those directly impacted would be able to appeal. Right now anyone, with any agenda, can appeal and tie up projects for years. The bill would also reduce unnecessary delays. Opponents of new housing use the zoning process to slow down and ultimately kill projects. If local governments want to turn down a project, that is their right. but the lengthy appeals process used to kill projects already approved just reduces the housing stock and drives up prices. SB312 is a good first step in the process to build more housing around the state, without the endless lengthy appeals process that people who aren't directly impacted by the process use to kill construction jobs and deny decent living places for New Mexicans. [AZ] Arizona lawmakers say `no' to `Yes in God's Backyard' bill (AZCentral.com, AZ) - full text AZCentral.com [3/21/2025 5:04 AM, Mary Jo Pitzl, 4457K, AZ] Arizona House Bill 2191, which would have allowed churches to build homes on their properties, failed to pass on a 28-26 vote. The focus now shifts to Senate Bill 1229, the "Starter Home Act," which aims to incentivize affordable housing by allowing smaller lot sizes and loosening local control over design standards. An effort to allow home construction on vacant tracts of church property failed Thursday in the Arizona House, a reflection of the stalemate over how to quell Arizona's housing crisis. On a divided vote, the House rejected legislation dubbed the "Yes in God's Backyard" bill. House Bill 2191 proposed letting churches build single-family homes on excess land on their premises. The church would have retained ownership of the ground, thereby keeping control of the development but cutting the cost for would-be homeowners. The bill, rejected on a 28-26 vote, was considerably watered down from its original draft, which would have allowed multi-family housing of up to three stories tall. Only five Republicans joined Democrats in voting for the bill, but due to six absences, the bill failed to get the needed 31 votes to pass. Rep. Aaron Marquez, D-Phoenix, who initially voted against the bill, asked to have the bill return for a new vote, but the House rejected that move. Why did 'Yes in God's Backyard' fail? Despite its appeal to the good intentions of churches, critics faulted the bill on numerous fronts, including its religious-oriented title. Rep. Khyl Powell, R-Gilbert, called the title "excessive" and argued the state was overreaching in trying to control local development. Local control was a key issue for many Republicans who opposed the bill. "Do not impose on the good, thoughtful and hard working people of my district by 78 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023659 changing the character of their community without talking to them," said Rep. Alexander Kolodin, R-Scottsdale. The solution to the housing shortage, he said, is access to water. That is another issue lawmakers are stalled on. Rep. Lupe Diaz, a pastor. worried the bill would put churches at risk and may loosen their ability to control developments on their own property. "Someone who believes contrary to what you believe may move in," the Benson Republican said, referring to a church's fundamental beliefs. For example, he said, a witches' coven could be a potential resident. Supporters argued the bill, even in its diminished form, was at least a step toward providing homes for people who are priced out of the market. Rep. Sarah Liguori, a Phoenix Democrat and a cosponsor of the bill, said it would provide "a little bit of ease" to the housing crunch. She acknowledged the bill would serve fewer people than the original proposal. as it moved from a plan that would allow apartments to one that would allow a maximum of 17 single-family homes on a church property. Liguori spoke of the single parent who might be forced to withdraw her children from school because she can't afford to buy in the local school district. The bill could have also been a solution for the worker who currently must make a long commute to keep his job, she said. To Rep. Janeen Connolly, a Tempe Democrat, the bill would have created a true "starter home," which owners could use to build equity and generational wealth. What are Arizona lawmakers doing on housing? With the demise of HB2191, a Senate-approved bill called the "Starter Home Act" is the major legislation still in play to incentivize affordable housing. Senate Bill 1229 would allow developers the right to build on lots of 3,000 square feet, a smaller footprint than most cities allow. It also would loosen local control over design standards and limit the ability to require creation of a homeowner association to manage community amenities. Debate over that measure is just as fraught as that for the now-failed church-focused bill. Lawmakers are working behind the scenes, with a nudge from Gov. Katie Hobbs, to come up with a compromise that could get enough votes to pass. [UT] Here's what Utah lawmakers did -- and didn't -- pass to address the housing crisis this year (Salt Lake Tribune, UT) - full text Salt Lake Tribune [3/23/2025 8:00 AM, Megan Banta, 1560K, UT] A package of bills that one state senator described as "a hodgepodge of different tweaks to policy" made it through Utah's Legislature with hours to spare. All this year's changes to housing policy, from parking rules to density allowances and short-term rental enforcement, move the state in the right direction as it seeks to address a deep lack of supply that's led to inflated housing prices, said Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, RSouth Jordan. 79 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023660 Fillmore and Rep. Stephen Whyte, R-Mapleton co-chair the Commission on Housing Affordability and sponsored most of the bills geared at making it easier to build homes in Utah. Many of those bills were proposals from the commission, which brings together developers, local government officials and others with stake in the housing space to reach a consensus on policy changes. "In totality, I think we'll make some good progress," said Fillmore, a member of Senate leadership, during a media availability in the final days of the session. "There is demand for housing at the first rung of the economic ladder, and the government is constraining supply there." Lawmakers need to keep working to "lessen government interference in that market so that demand can increase to reach supply," he said. Democrats are "just happy to see any type of movement," said Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, even though they'd like to see more. Laurie Goodman, a fellow with policy think tank Urban Institute's housing finance policy center, said it sounds like lawmakers are trying to address the "one thing after another after another" that has led to Utah having some of the highest housing costs in the country. "The reason housing costs are so high is because we don't have supply," she said. "But there's no single reason for the lack of supply." That means "every little thing helps incrementally," Goodman said. She pointed to California, where bills passed each legislative session since 2016 have led to a massive increase in accessory dwelling units -- or separate housing units that share a lot with a main residence -- from around 1,000 permitted to more than 28,000 in 2023. Those bills addressed barriers to ADU construction, from requirements on parking and lot size to Homeowner Associations prohibiting them, she said, "making a deliberate effort to break down additional obstacles as they emerge." "You just sort of have to attack things one by one by one," Goodman said. Here are the bills lawmakers passed that aim to address Utah's housing crisis, sponsored exclusively by Republicans, and legislation that was left behind, most of which were sponsored by Democrats. HB37 has several provisions related to housing, including a new ability for local governments to allow developers to build more densely in exchange for owner occupancy and affordable units. Specifically, it lets cities, towns and counties allow denser single-family neighborhoods in exchange for requirements like: Deed restrictions on 60% or more of the units requiring owner occupancy for at least five years. Making at least 25% of units affordable to households earning no more than 120% of the county's median income. Keeping 25% or more of units below 1,600 square feet. A preferential for the first 30 days a unit is initially for sale. The bill, if signed by Gov. Spencer Cox, also would let local governments approve denser multi-family developments in exchange for similar requirements. HB256 will make it easier for officials to enforce local rules about short-term rentals in their communities. If Cox signs the bill, cities, towns and counties that regulate short-term rentals to use a 80 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023661 listing on a website like Airbnb or Vrbo to prove violation of local rules as long as officials have other information proving the property is a short-term rental. Research from 2024 found short-term rentals of entire homes are eating into the existing housing supply in Utah's centers of tourism. HB360 seeks to create more homeownership by allowing the state's biggest cities to create revolving loan funds to rehabilitate and sell single-family homes through the Utah Homes Investment Program. The bill, if signed, will allow cities with at least 65,000 people to enter loan agreements with financial institutions or the Utah Housing Corporation for up to $10 million. Cities would then use those funds to buy, rehabilitate and sell homes. The sale would include a deed restriction that homes remain owner-occupied for at least five years. Based on American Community Survey estimates for 2023, it would apply to around 15 cities, with all of those but St. George located on the Wasatch Front. Ogden and Salt Lake City already have similar programs, said Steve Waldrip, who serves as the governor's senior adviser for housing strategy. The bill includes a provision that would let them expand those programs. Waldrip called the bill a "low-cost way for the state to help cities improve their communities." Fillmore, who sponsored the bill in the Senate, described it as "a consensus bill that seeks to increase the supply of new, affordable owner-occupied housing." The bill also allows schools and the Utah Department of Transportation to sell surplus land for below market value if the sale is related to housing affordability and extend or repeal ending dates for programs. At 7,611 lines, HB368 took a year of work to get to a point where it would reduce government regulations to improve processes while not jeopardizing the health and safety of residents, Whyte said. The bill -- which aims to reduce bureaucracy, streamline approval processes and let the free market produce innovative approaches -- clarifies existing land use law and codifies best practices, the representative said, but doesn't create any new policies. One example of a fix is that there were two different definitions of the term "identical plans," he said, and that created a lot of challenges over the years. Cameron Diehl, executive director of the Utah League of Cities and Towns, described it as meat and potatoes -- substantive and good for you but not very glamorous. SB181, if signed into law, will prevent some cities and counties from requiring garages with affordably priced, single-family homes. It also will define what qualifies as a parking space and make it so local governments can't require spaces to be larger than certain dimensions. It will not stop local governments from requiring on-site parking. "It really can be a way to bring the price of a first home down on a small lot," Fillmore, who sponsored the bill, said of removing the garage requirement. Construction material 81 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023662 costs have skyrocketed in recent years, with the price for some materials growing by more than 70% between 2020 and 2024, according to the National Association of Home Builders, meaning garageless homes are less expensive to build -- and buy. SB181 will only apply to owner-occupied homes that are affordably priced, setting a ceiling of 80% of the median home price in any given county and only applies to the state's 90 largest cities and Box Elder, Cache, Iron, Salt Lake, Summit, Tooele, Utah, Washington and Weber counties. Condo construction keeps declining in Utah, but lawmakers are hoping SB201 will turn that around. The bill mostly focuses on regulating homeowner associations. But if signed by Cox it also will require condo owners to give developers written notice describing a defective design or construction flaw and requesting the developers fix the problem before they could sue. The developers then would have nine months to complete repairs. If they didn't, owners could sue -- but only after the nine months have passed. Claims are common on new buildings and have a "chilling effect on a sponsor's willingness to build for owner-occupants," according to the Urban Institute. That occurs even though many people buying their first home now turn to condos and town homes. Goodman of the Urban Institute said condo construction has been falling for years -- long before affordability cropped to the forefront. That heavily reflects that it's harder to finance condos, she said, and the frequency of condo defect litigation. Giving developers time to fix any problems will help, she said, even though it isn't a silver bullet. The bill will help with the margins, Goodman said, but doesn't solve the problem or answer the question of whether a claimed defect needs fixing. Lawmakers also gave the green light to other legislation: SB262 aims to give homebuyers access to more money for a downpayment or closing costs through a shared appreciation loan, or a deferred, no-interest loan where the homeowner would repay the loan and a portion of the home's increased value upon sale or refinance. HB502 will create a program providing grants to local governments in Salt Lake County for the construction of infrastructure facilitating affordable housing projects. HCR14 to call for consolidating efforts to address housing affordability, which currently are spread across multiple state departments. The resolution cites recommendations from a Nov. 14, 2023 audit of state housing policy. SB23 to make fixes to let local governments create a First Home Investment Zone. Several other bills focused on housing either didn't make it out of committee or never got a hearing. Many were authored by Democrats, including a bill that looked to bolster the Olene Walker Housing Loan Fund with revenue from liquor sales and bills intended to help renters by requiring 60-day notice for a rent increase and making it optional for judges to triple damages in awards to landlords in eviction cases. 82 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023663 A resolution to study price fixing in rental housing and recommend the Utah attorney general join a related lawsuit also died in committee. Another pair of bills targeted investor ownership of single-family homes. Investors have been buying more singlefamily homes and often buy cheaper homes available on the market, according to a study from Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. HB149, sponsored by Republican Rep. Tyler Clancy of Provo, would have added language prohibiting institutional investors like hedge funds from buying homes, but it never received a hearing. Rep. Gay Lynn Bennion, D-Cottonwood Heights, sponsored HB151, which would have required people purchasing a home within the first month after listing to sign a legal document saying they intend to live in the house. The bill had a big caveat. Owners could claim an exigent circumstance and avoid the process, and the bill did not give a strict definition of what would qualify. Bennion said the point was to raise the importance of homeownership to buyers' and sellers' conscience. HB88 also failed to make it through a committee. Sponsored by Rep. Ray Ward, RBountiful, it would have required some cities to allow accessory dwelling units on lots with detached, single-family homes and modular units -- homes built off-site and transported to a location -- in residential zones. Megan Banta is The Salt Lake Tribune's data enterprise reporter, a philanthropically supported position. The Tribune retains control over all editorial decisions. Homeownership The five keys to unlock homeownership for emerging buyers (FOXBusiness.com) full text FOXBusiness.com [3/21/2025 6:00 AM, Taylor Penley, 10702K] VIDEO. With millennials and Gen Z facing record-high housing costs, crushing debt, and tight lending rules, the dream of homeownership has never felt more out of reach. Combine lofty mortgage rates. market uncertainty and a historic housing shortage, and the odds seem stacked against young buyers. But according to real estate expert Freddie Smith, there's still hope. The TikTok influencer recently unveiled five scenarios that could help millennials and Gen Z "unlock" the homeownership dream many have stowed away. From taking the plunge and relocating to a more affordable area, to saving up for a massive down payment, prospective buyers may have a few windows of opportunity to step into their first home. Here's how millennials and Gen Z could finally get their foot in the door. For those struggling to qualify for a mortgage, getting a co-signer -- such as a parent or close relative -- can be a game-changer. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Smith emphasized that financial stability and responsibility are key factors in making this strategy work. "If you do have the income, that's great. If you can increase your income, if you do have your life together, and you're financially responsible, and you're doing all 83 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023664 the right things, and you have a loving family member who can [co-sign], you can put that relationship together and co-sign to get you into a house," Smith explained. However, co-signing comes with risks, and would-be homeowners should carefully weigh those risks versus potential rewards. "There's some dangers in that [co-signing]. Family would have to really discuss and make sure that that's going to work," he added. According to Smith, a 30% market crash that brings the average home price down to $300,000 could create a window of opportunity for households bringing in $85,000 a year to afford a home that would otherwise be out of reach. In other words, taking a waitand-see approach might just be the best option. Smith shared the advice on TikTok, where he makes videos about real estate and the economy and helps educate people on how to get ahead. But, of course, the timing of the market is unpredictable, and, while a downturn could lead to more affordable options, there's no guarantee of when -- or if -- it could happen. High interest rates are among the biggest hurdles to affordability for many prospective homebuyers. Lower rates could relieve the monthly cost burden, making middle-income earners viable candidates to own a home. "If interest rates go down to 4%, this would bring your payment to around $2,800 a month, and then someone making $85,000 would have a shot at qualifying," Smith explained on his TikTok account last week, in reference to purchasing a home around the national average price of $420,000. But waiting for rates to drop is a gamble. Interest rates are influenced by Federal Reserve policy, inflation and broader economic conditions, making it difficult to accurately predict when the next decline could come. If you want to sidestep sky-high mortgage rates, shrink your loan and improve your approval odds, a massive down payment could be your golden ticket. "Being able to have a larger down payment will lower the amount of loan that you need, which would help you, on a lower income, qualify... So that's another option," Smith told Fox News Digital. But where does that kind of cash come from? For some, the answer lies in multigenerational living -- sticking it out at home with parents, grandparents or other close family members to funnel money into savings and divide up living expenses. Others are teaming up with trusted friends to co-own property, pooling resources to crack the code on homeownership together, so when the time comes to level up to a more traditional home, they might have the option to pay a greater lump sum up front. For those willing to ditch the idea of a traditional home -- at least for a little while -- some with lighter budgets are even opting for mobile or tiny homes to satisfy their itch to own their own space without immediately signing up for a lifetime of mortgage-related stress. "I think you're going to have to move and use alternatives, like a duplex, [a] multigenerational family in one home, maybe going in with your friends if you're really close, and you trust each other and have the same financial goals, and you could do something there," Smith pointed out. "Cosigner, bigger down payment... there's many strategies, but it's very nuanced depending on the person." Cities are notorious for sky-high living costs, so packing up and moving to a quaint spot in rural America might be in the cards for some would-be homebuyers. "The south has a 84 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023665 lot of affordability, and the Midwest," Smith mentioned. Rural spots in states like Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Alabama and many of their neighbors are good spaces to consider resettling, but making the move can come at a cost. "There's not much job opportunity there -- that's the kicker," he pointed out. "If you're living in a big city making $120,000, then you move to Ohio for a cheaper home, but now your income goes down to $50,000, now you're in the same boat, so you have to try again to balance that." Smith predicts that many zoomers and some millennials will start migrating out of major cities, putting their stock in tiny homes or simply moving to more affordable towns. "I think that's going to be the only viable option for many people. It's a little scary. We're not ready for it yet, but I really don't see an option in the next three to five years where we won't see a huge surplus of people moving to small, cool, hip towns." This is how long you'll need to work to afford a monthly mortgage (New York Post, NY) - full text New York Post [3/21/2025 11:12 AM, Pooja Dantewadia, 54903K] Homeownership is a symbol of financial stability for most Americans-but for those living in states where the cost of living is higher, it might seem like they're working solely to keep a roof over their heads. The median home price nationally is $412,000. according to the Realtor.com February 2025 Monthly Housing Trends Report. Homeowners who purchase a home at that price point will need to work approximately 10 days each month to afford the mortgage payment--and that's without factoring in any other expenses. "Home prices have significantly outpaced wage growth in recent years, widening the gap between income and housing affordability," says Hannah Jones, Realtor.com senior economic research analyst. "This disparity intensified during the [COVID-19] pandemic, when a surge in housing demand strained inventory, driving home prices sharply upward and increasing economic pressure on households." Hawaii has the highest median home list price in the nation at $796,947. Homeowners purchasing a home at this price point will need to work 17 days each month just to cover the payment of $5,222, including tax and insurance. The average hourly wage in January 2025 was $38. In California, they face a similar trend, with homeowners needing to work 15 days of the month to cover a payment of $4,773, including tax and insurance. Similarly, homeowners in Montana--where the median home list price is $613,275-- would also have to work 15 days of the month. Meanwhile, West Virginia and Ohio have the lowest median home list price, at $247,000 and $259,450, where residents will need to work about 7 and 6 days a month, respectively. In other states, including Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia, and Michigan, it requires about 7 days of work each month to cover mortgage payments. A standard full-time job means working 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, or about 20 to 22 days per month. Nearly 75% of U.S. households, approximately 100.6 million, cannot afford a medianpriced new home in 2025, priced at around $459,826, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Even modest increases in home prices or mortgage rates exacerbate this affordability crisis significantly. For example, a mere $1,000 increase in median home prices would make homeownership unaffordable for an additional 115,593 households nationally. The affordability crisis is not just about rising prices; it's also 85 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023666 about a shortage of homes. Housing construction has not kept pace with demand, according to a recent U.S. Census Bureau report. And, the housing shortage will take 7.5 years to fix at the current rate of construction, according to a new report on the housing supply gap from the Realtor.com economic research team. Although the supply gap improved moderately in 2024, the country still fell 3.8 million units short of meeting demand relative to new household formations and pent-up demand, the analysis found. In January 2025, 1.48 million new building permits were issued, but actual housing starts--when construction officially begins-fell to 1.37 million, a 9.8% decline from the previous month. Meanwhile, 1.65 million homes were completed, but the overall supply remains limited, pushing prices higher and making housing less affordable for many Americans. This supply shortage disproportionately affects lower-income and marginalized communities. A recent McKinsey report highlighted that Black Americans are among the most burdened, with nearly 60% of renters facing moderate or severe housing cost challenges. "More home supply at more price points can help bring earnings and home prices more in sync. Not all households are interested in buying a home, so ample rental and for-sale inventory are both important to providing affordable housing options," adds Jones. With home-insurance costs soaring, should you risk it and cancel your policy? (MarketWatch) - full text MarketWatch [3/21/2025 7:01 PM, Morey Stettner] Talk of inflation often revolves around eggs, candy and cereal. But those are small potatoes compared to the soaring cost of home insurance. From 2018 to 2022, 84 disasters in the U.S. caused a combined $609 billion in damages, according to a recent U.S. Treasury Department report. (It excludes floods which are not covered under standard homeowner insurance polices.) During that time, the cost of insurance rose 8.7% faster than the U.S. inflation rate. In the highest-risk areas, homeowners are paying more for less coverage - if they can even find a carrier willing to insure them. Whether it's hurricanes in Florida, wildfires in California or severe storms in the Great Plains, escalating risks continue to drive insurers out of the market. Non-renewal rates in the highest-risk areas were about 80% higher than those in less-risky areas, the report found. When they can't renew their policies -- or face steep rate hikes -- homeowners review their options. In desperate times, they weigh desperate measures including ditching their insurance entirely. Going "bare," as some experts call it, carries enormous risk. But that doesn't stop some people from rolling the dice and banking on a disasterfree future. "For the last three years, my father went without homeowner insurance in South Florida," said Charles Sachs, a certified financial planner in Coral Gables, Fla. "He's 89 and a CPA. For him, it was a calculated risk after his premium kept going up every year. The final straw was when it went from $9,000 to $12,000 a year" and he ditched it. Of course, two prerequisites freed him to make this decision: He owned his home free and clear and could afford to self-insure. "You have to own your property outright, without a mortgage or even a HELOC [home equity line of credit] in place," Sachs said. "No lender will lend against a property that is not insured." Bypassing home insurance requires careful planning. For starters, you'll be giving up the liability coverage that's included in homeowner policies. "You should at least carry liability coverage should someone be 86 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023667 injured on your property, whether a worker, family member or guest," Sachs said. "My father got an umbrella liability policy" tied to his personal auto insurance policy. Depending on the type of coverage available in your area, you may be able to buy a basic comprehensive personal liability insurance policy that does not include traditional homeowner coverage on your dwelling and contents, says Adam Rauscher, an adviser in Boca Raton, Fla. "Then you can get wraparound umbrella insurance" with your underlying personal liability policy. You also want to consider the market value of your home -- and the value of the land it sits on. Property tax bills often calculate a home's value based on the sum of the land and the structure itself. Rauscher cautions against relying on the assessed value that appears on your property tax bill. The assessments might be outdated or inaccurate. But a property tax bill can still serve as a useful data point to help you decide if you have enough liquidity to self-insure. Say you reside in a desirable area with scenic views and pricey land that represents a big chunk of your assessed value. You may find that even after a total loss, you can sell your land without taking a devastating hit. Soon after the January 2025 fire, for example, a scorched Pacific Palisades, Calif. residential plot listed for $999,000. But after prospective buyers bid up the price, it sold for just under $1.2 million. Then there's the issue of affordability: Do you have enough emergency cash to selfinsure? "While it's easy to see the savings when dropping coverage -- my dad saved [at least] $36,000 over three years -- one needs to think about whether they have the funds to rebuild," Sachs said. "There will always be surprises along the way -- from paying for temporary living expenses while you're displaced to the potentially inflated cost of labor and materials to rebuild to code upgrades and debris removal." And you'll still need to pay property tax and may incur costs to secure the property. "If that money comes out of pocket, it might derail your income in retirement," Sachs added. Consider increasing the policy's deductible instead of abandoning it. Because homeowner policies include a range of coverages, it's easy to overlook the scope of protection they offer. Standard policies don't just cover the cost of your primary dwelling; they also pay for other structures on your property (like detached garages) and your contents. Some policies include coverage for obscure but potentially expensive perils such as sump discharge or rot remediation caused by fungi. Calculating whether you have the cash reserves to foot the bill for all these losses is an inexact science. "Is it possible to self-insure? Of course if you want to take the risk," said Dick Power, a certified financial planner in Walpole, Mass. "I'd first look at increasing the deductible to something you could stomach, and see if that brings the cost of insurance more into line. It's the major losses you're trying to protect against, not relatively minor repairs." [ME] Maine mobile home owners are pushing back against private investors (Portland Press Herald, ME) - full text Portland Press Herald [3/23/2025 4:00 AM, Hannah LaClaire, 734K, ME] For four years, residents of Bowdoin's Mountain View Estates mobile home park have approached Aug. 1 with a mounting sense of dread. It's the day they find out how much they'll have to pay to rent the land their homes sit on and, for many residents already 87 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023668 struggling to make ends meet, even a small increase can become a hardship. The 53-home park has withstood four years of consecutive rent hikes since it was purchased by a New York real estate firm in 2021. The first three weren't major, just $35 a month. But last year, the $75 jump was harder to swallow. As another Aug. 1 approaches, a growing unease has permeated the park. "These people are just hurting ... we're all scared," said Jerry Highfill, 79, who has lived in the park since 2001. "They're just increasing their income at the poor people's expense. There ain't nobody living in a mobile home park that's wealthy." Mobile home parks in Maine and across the county are increasingly being purchased by out-of-state investors that then raise the monthly lot rents, sometimes by as much as twice or even three times the price, according to national data. Homeowners like Highfill are left with few options. But several bills in the Legislature are working to get ahead of the problem and help communities purchase their parks before investors can. So far, two communities have successfully purchased their parks, and another is under contract. But more than twice as many have tried and failed. For communities that aren't able to buy, lawmakers and residents are trying to institute rent control to try to protect what many see as one of the last true forms of affordable housing. When Highfill first moved in, the monthly lot rate on his $27,000 mobile home was $265. Over the next 20 years, he saw his monthly rate increase by just $80. But in the four years since Philips International took over, his monthly rent has jumped $180, an increase of 52%. Philips International did not respond to questions about the rent increases. Highfill pays $525 a month, but new residents are paying closer to $700. "In reality, the last affordable housing in Maine that a young family or retirees can get into is going to become a memory," he said. `TENANTS ARE ALMOST CAPTIVE' During the pandemic, when housing prices began to rise, capital equity firms that had long invested in strip malls or multiunit housing started eyeing mobile home parks. Since people own their homes and rent the lots, the parks made an attractive investment - as landlords, they're not on the hook if a refrigerator breaks. Around the country, investors began snapping up mobile home parks, increasing the rents and then sitting back and collecting profits. "Capital equity players started recognizing these types of investments as quite lucrative," said Pat Schwebler, co-director of the Cooperative Development Institute's New England Resident-Owned Community Program. The organization assists manufactured housing communities looking to purchase their parks and provides ongoing support after the purchase. In 2020 and 2021, institutional investors accounted for 23% of national manufactured home purchases, up from 13% between 2017 and 2019, according to a joint project between the nonprofit Private Equity Stakeholder Project and Manufactured Housing Action, an organization of homeowners. Meanwhile, "Maine became the best thing since 88 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023669 sliced bread," Schwebler said. People and investors alike flocked to the state. Prices on any type of housing skyrocketed, causing some people to seek out mobile home parks and leaving many longtime residents with few options other than to stay put. "Mobile" home is a bit of a misnomer. Moving a manufactured home is complicated and expensive. If a homeowner could even find another park to take them, it would still cost at least $10,000 to move. "For most folks, that's not very doable ... it would take a lot for them to actually pick up their unit and move," she said. "The tenants are almost captive." Investors know this, she said, making their acquisition all the more enticing. There's a startling lack of statewide data surrounding mobile homes. According to the Maine Manufactured Housing Board, there are 468 active licensed parks in Maine, but it's unknown how many lots or residents there are, what the median lot rent is, or what share of the communities are owned by out-of-state corporations, though the Bangor Daily News estimates it could be as high as 20%. In 2019, the median home sale price in Maine was $225,000. Five years later, it was more than $390,000. Mobile home-specific sales data has been harder to come by. Manufactured homes are categorized as personal property, so park sales are not tracked by the Maine Association of Realtors. But prices have increased along with other types of housing. Manufactured home prices on Zillow vary, but most well-maintained homes are priced above $100,000. A new home in Kittery's Yankee Settlement park is listed for $389,000 with a monthly lot fee of $685. One 2005 double-wide in Saco's Blue Haven Mobile Home Park is listed for $241,000. The lot rent or "HOA fee" is $750. LAWMAKERS TAKE NOTICE "People living in mobile home communities are unique in the sense that they own their home, but not the land on which it sits, so it presents a really difficult dilemma when the land sells, oftentimes to a person who is intent on using it as an investment," said Erik Jorgensen, senior director of government for MaineHousing. So the question becomes, "how do we go in and dis-incentivize investor purchases and find different ways of preserving affordability for this population?" he said. That's a question state lawmakers have been trying to tackle. In 2023, the Legislature passed a law that requires park owners to give residents at least 60 days' notice if they plan to sell, giving the community members the chance to purchase it themselves. The park owner isn't required to accept the offer, but must negotiate "in good faith." Last year, the governor and Maine State Housing Authority created the Manufactured and Mobile Home Park Preservation and Assistance Program - a $5 million fund to help residents purchase their parks. But the money is dwindling. Gov. Janet Mills has earmarked an additional $3 million in the budget, and a bill proposed by Sen. Joe Baldacci, D-Penobscot, would infuse another $3.5 million. At least four other bills this session aim to further preserve one of the last vestiges of affordable housing. Sen. Cameron Reny, D-Bristol, has proposed two bills - one would create a tax 89 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023670 exemption up to $750,000 to incentivize the sale or transfer of housing developments, housing parks or apartment complexes to resident-owned communities or cooperative affordable housing corporations. "This gives residents a leg up when they try to buy their homes, which is increasingly difficult these days," she said while presenting the bill, which on Wednesday unanimously passed the committee that oversees taxation. The second would attach a $50,000 per-lot fee to the purchase of a manufactured housing community on top of the purchase price, to be paid to MaineHousing. Residentowned co-ops or affordable housing groups would be exempt from the fee. Schwebler, at the Cooperative Development Institute, said lot rents in community-owned parks are "extraordinarily low" and are often only raised to fund major park improvements. "Until the housing is secured as resident-owned, you have no guarantee it's going to be affordable," she said. Rep. Cheryl Golek, D-Harpswell, and Rep. Cassie Julia, DWaterville, have both put forward bills to cap the allowed annual rent increases for mobile homeowners. None of these bills is the perfect solution, Jorgensen said, but together they provide "a box of tools that might be useful." WINS AND LOSSES In 2019, the residents of two communities in Camden and Arundel purchased their parks, bringing the number of resident-owned communities in Maine up to 10. But then things were silent for almost five years. Schwebler credits the 2023 law for the recent surge in energy around resident-owned communities. "Before, these residents didn't even stand a chance and now they do," she said. In October 2024, the Blueberry Fields Cooperative closed on the Linnhaven Mobile Home Park in Brunswick for $26.3 million. The 278-home community became the first to purchase its park under the new law. Last month, Cedar Falls Mobile Home Park in Bangor followed suit, closing on the 130home park for $8 million. And in Monmouth, residents are under contract to purchase the 42-home West Village park for $1.8 million. They expect to close in May. All told, that's 450 units that will be preserved as affordable housing, Schwebler said. That number could increase to as many as 600 if the Brunswick and Bangor parks follow up on existing infill opportunities. Financing can be a challenge for the park, but assistance from the Cooperative Development Institute, as well as funding from MaineHousing, the Genesis Fund and sometimes the parks' municipalities, can help push efforts over the line. Jorgensen, at MaineHousing, noted that even with assistance, it's still a business deal. The park is real estate, and real estate is expensive. Rents will have to increase. "The goal is to make that as tolerable as possible," he said. In Brunswick, for example, residents were initially facing a nearly $275 increase, but additional funding from MaineHousing helped bring that down to $100, which will remain in place for three years. Jorgensen said that the success of the Blueberry Fields Cooperative was "catalytic" for many of the proposed bills. But so were some notable losses. While three parks have been successful, more than twice as many have failed. Schwebler said that since 2023, eight communities have tried to buy their parks but had their offers ultimately rejected. 90 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023671 A year ago, two parks in Old Orchard Beach - Old Orchard Village and Atlantic Village put forward a $40.5 million bid for their parks, which were owned by the same company. Ultimately, the owners, who feared the cooperative wouldn't be able to come up with the money, chose to go with Follett USA, a California real estate firm. Following their defeat, the residents instead lobbied to pass a rent control ordinance that capped annual rent increases at 5%. Old Orchard Beach voters approved the change in November. For communities that haven't been successful, or whose parks have already sold or are unlikely to be sold any time soon, rent control is the only hope for protection against constant increases. There's currently an effort to pass rent control in Standish, and one in Bowdoin was just struck down. [VA] RRHA homeowner event running all weekend (NBC12 Online, Richmond, VA) - full text NBC12 Online [3/21/2025 3:24 PM, Staff, 251K, VA] The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority is hosting an event all weekend to help residents take the first steps toward owning a home. The "Achieve the Dream" event is nationwide sponsored by the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America. The NACA is partnering with the RRHA locally to help those who need it most. In just one day, attendees go through a four-step process, including counseling, to begin their housing search. The event will run from Friday, March 21, through Sunday, March 23, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Virginia Union University, 1500 N Lombardy Street. Walk-ins are welcome. [FL] City of Tampa set to launch homeowner disaster assistance program after storms (ABC Action News, Tampa Bay, FL) - full text ABC Action News [3/21/2025 6:34 PM, Mary O'Connell, 690K, FL] VIDEO. The laundry list of repairs Kathy Kaestner has had to do to her home feels neverending. "We had to rip out all the floors, all the drywall four feet and under, the cabinets," said Kaestner. "I lost all my appliances." We've shared her story before on ABC Action News. She lives in the Forest Hills neighborhood and had flood damage after Hurricane Milton. "It was pretty bad because it was like 19 inches inside my house," said Kaestner. "So pretty much lost most everything that was at least two feet and below." Now, the City of Tampa is getting ready to launch a new program to help people like her who were affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The city has $3.2 million to distribute to primary homesteaded and income-eligible residents. "We are very excited to announce today that we are providing $3.2 million. This funding is coming from the state, and it's a part of a funding stream that we get for affordable housing," said Mayor Jane Castor. "So we're redirecting this towards assistance for those individuals that have incurred damage to their homes because of Helene and/or Milton." They're offering three types of hurricane disaster relief for homeowners: Insurance deductible assistance, up to $10,000, Mortgage assistance, up to $5,000, Cost of repair assistance, up to $20,000. To qualify, people need to be homeowners within Tampa city limits and earn up to 140 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI), which the city 91 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023672 estimates at about $133,700 for a family of four. People may apply for some or all of the three types of assistance, but the maximum reimbursement per household is $20,000. "While it is $3.2 million, it's not going to solve all of the needs of our community, and for that, we apologize," said Mayor Castor. "We are doing everything that we can to help those individuals, families, businesses that have been devastated by these two events to get back up on their feet." You'll want to double check the documentation that's required for each category of assistance. Pre-applications will be available online starting Monday, March 24. [FL] How No Property Taxes in Florida Could Impact Your Wallet as a Homeowner in the State (MSN News) - full text MSN News [3/21/2025 5:35 PM, Heather Altamirano, 126906K] Property taxes in Florida have been skyrocketing over the past few years, and residents are fed up. According to October 2024 data from Redfin, Jacksonville, Tampa and Miami are among the top five places in the U.S. where property taxes have increased the most since 2019. In Jacksonville, property taxes increased by a median of 59.6%, Tampa experienced a median 56.7% jump and property taxes in Miami rose by a median of 48.1%. Property taxes have gotten so high that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has mentioned abolishing property taxes entirely. Here are more details on the current state of property taxes in Florida as well as how no property taxes could impact Florida homeowners. Homeowners are so frustrated with the soaring costs that more than 66% of Floridians voted in favor of Amendment 5, a measure that reduces the taxable value of a property through an inflation adjustment. But DeSantis doesn't believe that's enough. "You buy a home, you buy land ... and you've been taxed many times [on that] ... Is it your property, or not? Just for being on your property, you've got to write a check to the government every year," DeSantis said at a recent press conference. "A lot of people can't afford that, so I think that that's a big issue ... and we're going to be looking at ways to bring people relief from that." While the idea is radical, it could create significant savings for homeowners. However, property taxes bring in more than $40 billion for the state, which helps fund schools, infrastructure, emergency services and more, per Realtor.com, so the state would need to find other ways to replace that lost revenue. It's a complicated situation with pros and cons. If you're a Florida homeowner, you may be wondering how this could impact you. Getting rid of property taxes could open up more affordable housing in the state and help homebuyers get into the home of their dreams, according to Robert Washington, a Florida-based broker and founder of Savvy Buyers Realty. "Homes would become more affordable on the basis of the homebuyer's monthly mortgage payments, which is what most lenders use to qualify buyers. For example, if a borrower buys a home that is $10,000 more expensive, that will only make their mortgage payment increase roughly $50-$60 per month." he said. "If property taxes are eliminated for a buyer on $400,000, their mortgage payment would be decreased by roughly $450 per month." In addition, eligible homebuyers could potentially get approved for bigger loans and purchase their ideal home. "It would allow for homebuyers to qualify for much larger home loans since property tax payments are factored into every lender's qualification determinations," 92 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023673 Washington said. No property taxes means a reduced monthly mortgage payment and Florida residents would have more money in their pockets to spend. "If property taxes are completely eliminated, it will absolutely lead to consumers having significantly more discretionary funds to spend," he said. "Most homeowners with a mortgage pay for their property taxes monthly into their escrow accounts. They would instantly see their mortgage payments significantly reduced." While there are some positive aspects of not having property taxes, Florida residents would likely shell out money in other ways. Sales tax in the state is 6%, but Washington expects it to likely increase if property taxes are eliminated to make up for the loss of revenue. "That revenue would likely be recovered by increasing sales tax and taxes on tourism," he explained. "Governor DeSantis has also created his own DOGE task force, which could decrease the amount of tax revenue needed." Doing away with property taxes is a bold idea that could face challenges in the beginning. "Eliminating property tax can absolutely work," he said. "It may not be the smoothest process during the initial implementation, but it is something that I think would make Florida an even more attractive place to live for prospective home buyers." There's no denying that taxpayers need relief, but is ditching property taxes the solution? While the initiative might be popular among homeowners and anyone considering buying property in the state, it could also be a risky move. Consumers could spend less due to potentially higher sales taxes, and tourists could go somewhere else due to higher fees and tax rates, according to Washington. [FL] Banning property taxes in Florida gains traction among lawmakers (HousingWire.com) - full text HousinqVVire.com [3/21/2025 5:55 PM, Chris Clow, 354K] As high property taxes continue to be a source of financial strain for homeowners, a proposal floated last month by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to ban property taxes in the state appears to be gaining traction, according to a new report in the Wall Street Journal. The plan, while popular, is not without risk to the state's revenue system, since a removal of property taxes would make the state far more reliant on its sales tax. Local governments in the state would also be cut off from a key funding source for schools and social services, the report explained. But the idea appears to be picking up steam among some legislators, even if it may take a while to implement. DeSantis first publicly floated the idea in a social media post last month, but included it in his State of the State address on March 4. "While Florida property values have surged in recent years, this has come at a cost to taxpayers squeezed by increasing local government property taxes," he said. "Escalating assessments have created a gusher of revenue for local governments -- and many in Florida have seen their budgets increase far beyond the growth in population. Taxpayers need relief." 93 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023674 DeSantis equated the concept of property taxes to "renting from the government" "just to live in your own property." He said he was aware that lawmakers were studying the issue to potentially place on the ballot in 2026, which would likely mean a revision to the state's constitution. Legislative deliberation has been happening quickly, with the Journal reporting that lawmakers have filed multiple potential bills on the matter ranging from measures designed to repeal property taxes altogether, to those that may offer more targeted relief for certain groups like seniors. On Thursday, the Florida Legislature passed a bill amendment in a committee meeting that would "prohibit consideration of any change or improvement made to homestead property to mitigate flood damage in determining assessed value" for tax purposes. "Hurricanes and other storms that result in flooding have caused billions of dollars in damage across all parts of Florida," an analysis of the amendment reads. "Flooding is one of Florida's most frequent hazards, and can happen any time of the year. Flood insurance can assist with recovery after a flooding incident, but most homeowner's insurance does not cover flood damage." But another big driver of the growing opposition to rising property taxes is its impact on the older population, a large -- and growing -- segment of Florida's overall population. "You're seeing a groundswell of opposition to property taxes generally," according to Jared Walczak. VP of state projects at the Tax Foundation, an international research think tank. The backlash is "reminiscent of a wave of protest in the 1970s and 1980s that triggered ballot measures including Proposition 13 in California that capped property taxes," the report said based on Walczak's input. Wyoming, Kansas and Montana are similarly weighing methods for reining in property taxes, he explained, but North Dakota voters this past November rejected a ballot initiative that would've eliminated property taxes. Local media in that state reported that the ultimate nail in the coffin for the measure there was voter concerns related to a disruption in both local and state services, since property taxes are levied by local authorities. In Florida, a similar debate is emerging, with opponents saying that the resulting loss to government services would make the state's residents worse off, not better. State Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat representing Orlando and parts of its eastern flank, told the outlet that she could support targeted relief for older Floridians but said an outright ban or rescission of property taxes would be "a terrible idea." It could also force the state to raise the sales tax, she said. Republican state Sen. Don Gaetz also voiced skepticism, wondering what could replace local property taxes without impacting constituents' ability to connect with services. [MI] Detroit homeowners gain $700M in housing wealth in `23, UM study finds (Detroit News, MI) - full text Detroit News [3/21/2025 4:06 PM, Louis Aguilar, 2110K, MI] Figures released Friday show owner-occupied homes in Detroit gained $700 million in net value in 2023, nearly a 10% increase in one year and bringing total housing-related 94 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023675 wealth gains to $4.6 billion in the past decade. The updated study by the University of Michigan Poverty Solutions provides annual data going back to 2014. On Friday, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and others touted that Black homeowners throughout the city and Latino neighborhoods have seen significant gains in the past decade. "This study tells us (that) those who made the choice to stay that their patience and hard work have been rewarded," Duggan said at the Friday press conference at the Northwest Activities Center. Black homeowner occupants have been among the "biggest winners," Duggan said. Since 2014, the value of Black-owned and occupied homes has nearly doubled, 94%, to total of $6.6 billion in 2023, Duggan said. Black homeowners continue to have the largest share of net housing wealth in the city, representing 75% of all housing wealth generated in 2023, the study found. The latest Census estimates show Black residents make up 76.8% of Detroit's population. Meanwhile, neighborhoods with high concentrations of Latino residents, especially in southwest Detroit, saw some of the largest increases in home values since 2014, the study found. Median home sale values grew the most in neighborhoods that were 45% or more Latino in 2014, which experienced a 329% increase in median home value as of 2023, the study found. One southwest Detroit neighborhood that saw huge growth was Condon. In 2014, the median home sale price was $7,500. In 2023, that price had soared to about $80,000, an 862% rise, according to the study. "It's such a blessing to have a home that increased so much in value, giving us a huge advantage in building generational wealth," said Mignon Padila, a Detroit resident, at the Friday press event. Another 10-year trend shows that increases in homes sale values were largest in neighborhoods that had the lowest property values and highest poverty rates in 2014. In communities that had lowest property values in the city, home values increased an average of 276%, a growth rate more than 2.75 times higher than that of neighborhoods with the highest property values. The UM study found that the 2023 growth in housingrelated wealth was fueled by three main factors: a slight increase in median home sale value from 2022; a "relatively large growth" of 7% in the number of homeowners compared to 2022; and declining number of tax foreclosures of owner-occupied homes, which fell from 421 in 2022 to 192 in 2023. For the ten year change, Duggan and other city officials touted a dramatic reduction in tax foreclosures and large-scale efforts to eliminate vacant homes, clean up blight and improve public spaces from parks to streetscapes. The data is further proof that Detroit's economic revival has stretched far beyond downtown, Midtown and Corktown, said Jeffrey Morenoff, a UM professor and one of the authors of the study, which is called "The Growth of Housing Wealth in Detroit and Its Neighborhoods." "This was not just about the wealthy neighborhoods getting wealthier," Morenoff said. "This was about raising all boats, but especially those in the neighborhoods that started off with the lowest property values." It also shows that many long time residents, including many Black and Latinos, are seeing financial gains in their homes, he said. "People of color who, you know, accrued value from the homes that they probably owned and stuck out during the Great Recession and continued to stay here and accumulate that wealth," Morenoff said. 95 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023676 [WA] New housing development aims to make homeownership a dream for middle income Post Falls residents (KXLY, Spokane, WA) - full text KXLY [3/21/2025 7:31 PM, Alexandra Coenjaerts, 170K, WA] VIDEO. A Kootenai County organization is taking a new approach to make owning a home in North Idaho more affordable. The Panhandle Affordable Housing Alliance (PAHA) is in the process of building 28 new homes in Post Falls near Ponderosa Elementary School. Casey Doyle was one of many middle income Kootenai County citizens who thought homeownership would not be a reality for a long time. "We were thinking when we hit 50 and the housing market crashes, then we would buy," Doyle said. A University of Idaho study found that the average price for a home in the area has gone up by 160% between 2016 and 2023. "There is nothing on the market today that address our middle income and upper middle income wage earners," said Maggie Lyons, executive director for PAHA. This new home development, titled Miracle on Britton, hopes to address that by providing shared equity homes at below market value. The first five homes for this development are close to completion. To qualify, a household must earn $75,000 to $126,000 annually. Garrett Kreitz is a new homeowner through Miracle on Britton. "What they're doing and the programs they are putting in place, it's bringing it back into achievability," he said. The ultimate goal of this project is to help families build wealth in the place they call home. [WA] More kinds of housing would help Seattle residents age in place (Seattle Times, WA) - full text Seattle Times [3/21/2025 10:45 AM, Marcia Peterson, 4826K, WA] Back in the 1990s, some friends came up with the idea - probably after a couple of beers - of purchasing an apartment building and converting it into an old folks' home, but just for us. Our parents were beginning to age out of their homes, and we were anxious that someday we might end up living with strangers who might not share our taste in music. We even got as far as identifying a building on Capitol Hill before more rational minds prevailed and we abandoned the plan. Long-term care costs are staggering in Washington. In 2021, the median annual cost for assisted living was $72,000 for a private room and nearly $80,000 for in-home care. That does not include the cost of medical care. My mother lived to be 100 and spent her last years in an adult family home where the yearly cost was more than $96,000. My mother had owned a home, which she traded for a condo when the upkeep on the house became too much. She eventually sold the condo and moved into a retirement home, and later into the adult family home. The savings from the sale of her home allowed her a degree of independence and dignity until the end. In the absence of longterm care insurance, many of us will fund our later years this way, through the equity in our homes. In 1986, my husband and I were able to purchase a home in Ballard for $78,000 using an FHA loan. It was a stretch for us at the time, even with our two salaries. Adjusted for inflation, that home would have cost us $225,000 in today's dollars. The median home price in Seattle today is around $900,000, out of reach for most young 96 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023677 families. Today, my home would sell for over a million dollars. Did I "earn" that equity? Not by any improvements I made to the home itself. Land value has skyrocketed in the last few years as the demand for housing in Seattle has far outpaced the building of new homes. Part of the reason there are so few homes for sale is that older homeowners like me, who want to downsize from our three-bedroom single-family homes, have limited options. The mayor's One Seattle Comprehensive Plan allows for the building of more middle housing types, including duplexes, triplexes, townhomes, row houses and stacked flats. But our current zoning laws and regulations tend to incentivize the building of townhomes, which are usually three or four side-by-side multistory homes and are inappropriate for people who want to age in place. A much better option would be condos, or stacked flats, both of which tend to have one unit on a floor, but current regulations make these disadvantageous to build, and relatively few have come to market in Seattle in the past 20 years. As seniors, we should be advocating for middle housing options that will allow us to age in place, instead of being locked into our existing homes. This will require changes in zoning and housing policies that allow for increased density and different types of homes in more neighborhoods. My friends and I may not have realized our dream of the 1990s, but we don't have to be chained to our homes, draining our savings on repairs until our kids take away our car keys and move us into senior living. We could be living in a slightly denser neighborhood where we could walk to the grocery store. restaurants and coffee shops, and hop on public transportation to move around the city. It just takes a little creative planning and some significant changes in housing policy. [CA] California Condos Placed on `Mortgage Blacklist' (Newsweek) - full text Newsweek [3/21/2025 11:01 AM, Martha McHardy, 52220K] More than 700 homes in California have been placed on a "mortgage blacklist." A "mortgage blacklist" is an unofficial term that refers to a list of individuals, often compiled by lenders or financial institutions, who are considered high-risk borrowers due to their lack of insurance or poor financial history. Being on such a list can make it extremely difficult for buyers to secure a cheaper conventional loan, which means that the person is less likely to be approved for a mortgage or may face higher interest rates if they apply. As condos are excluded from conventional loan eligibility, owners may struggle to sell their properties, potentially leading to foreclosures and financial losses. The blacklist, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, is maintained by Fannie Mae. The government-sponsored entity doesn't directly issue loans but, along with its sister company, Freddie Mac, purchases nearly half of all home loans, bundling them to sell to investors. Newsweek reached out to Fannie Mae for comment via online form outside of regular working hours. Fannie Mae's blacklist has grown in recent years for several reasons. The organization has become more cautious about backing properties that are underinsured, dilapidated, or lack sufficient reserves for maintenance. This has been the case since the 2021 Surfside condo collapse in Florida, which killed 98 people. Before the collapse, there were significant problems with the building's foundation, including the corrosion of steel reinforcement in the concrete slab and water damage to the structural elements. 97 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023678 However, an investigation revealed that the building's condo association deferred necessary repairs, likely due to the high costs and complexities involved. These structural weaknesses and the lack of timely maintenance ultimately led to the catastrophic collapse. In response, condo associations with insufficient insurance or those facing major maintenance issues became more vulnerable to being excluded from conventional loan eligibility as lenders sought to mitigate their risks. Additionally, the increasing frequency of natural disasters like wildfires has raised concerns, as properties without adequate insurance coverage for such events are considered too risky. At least 10,000 structures were destroyed in the Southern California wildfires in January. As of March 11, the number of properties on the blacklist in California reached 733, Stephen Marcus, a condo lawyer at Allcock & Marcus law firm, told The Wall Street Journal. This is an increase from 695 properties the previous month. In the Bay Area, San Francisco has 21 properties on the list, and San Jose has 18. In Southern California, Los Angeles has 37 condos listed, while Pacific Palisades--one of the cities most affected by the January wildfires--has 28 properties on the list. In January 2024, Fannie Mae blacklisted the majority of units in Rossmoor, an upscale retirement community of 6,700 homes south of downtown Walnut Creek in Contra Costa County, leaving real estate agents in a panic. "For a while there, we were in a panic -- no one was lending," real estate agent Larry Spiteri told The Mercury News. He added that with no lenders offering qualified mortgages, only those able to find a cash buyer were selling their homes. As the pool of potential buyers shrank, he said home values in the community temporarily dropped. Eventually, business picked up again after local mortgage broker Mary Niles found alternative lenders willing to offer non-qualified mortgages to buyers. These typically come with somewhat higher down payment requirements and interest rates. But Niles said if she'd had Fannie Mae's approval, she and her buyers would be in a "better place." A spokeswoman for Fannie Mae told The Wall Street Journal that its requirements are designed to "help protect borrowers from physically unsafe or financially unstable projects. This month, a report by the California Association of Realtors (CAR) revealed that California's housing market experienced a significant rebound in February, with existing single-family home sales reaching 283,540 on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis. This marked an 11.6 percent increase from January and a 2.6 percent rise from February 2024--the highest sales level since October 2022, signaling renewed buyer activity after a sluggish start to the year. Real estate lawyer Tyler Burding told The Mercury News: "There are many condos that are rotting from within. They need reconstruction. By the time HOAs get the numbers of what that's going to cost, there's no way to raise the money. Banks won't lend it. The owners can't afford to pay it." Burding believes that Fannie Mae will likely expand its blacklist in California as many condos built 30 to 40 years ago begin to deteriorate due to years of deferred maintenance and underfunded reserves. [CA] Delinquencies Tied to Los Angeles Wildfires Rising (Inside Mortgage Finance) 98 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023679 Inside Mortgage Finance [3/21/2025 11:55 AM, Brandon Ivey, 5K] Some 4,100 mortgage borrowers in Los Angeles were delinquent as of the end of February due to wildfires in January, according to Intercontinental Exchange. At the end of January, only 700 borrowers were delinquent due to the fires. ICE added that daily performance trends suggest that delinquencies tied to the wildfires could increase again as of the end of March. Meanwhile, State Farm recently received provisional approval from the California Department of Insurance to implement an emergency interim rate increase of 21.8% for property insurance premiums. CDI also raised concerns about State Farm's operations. "Despite multiple approved rate increases, State Farm stopped writing new policies in California and non-renewed thousands of existing policies, raising serious questions about its financial situation," the agency said. Disaster Recovery [FL] Tampa homeowners are now eligible for $3.2 million in hurricane relief (WUSF, Tampa, FL) - full text WUSF [3/24/2025 5:00 AM, Kiley Petracek, 179K, FL] Tampa homeowners who are still feeling the effects of Hurricanes Helene and Milton may be eligible for recently announced aid. The City of Tampa is distributing $3.2 million for residents who meet the income requirement. Hurricane-impacted homeowners who earn up to 140% of the area median income -- around $133,700 for a family of four -- are eligible, according to 2024 income guidelines. According to a memo to City Council members read in December, the funds come from a relocation of the State Housing Initiatives Partnership and will be used to "support insurance deductibles, mortgage assistance (foreclosure prevention), and other applicable recovery activities." The requests will be divided by: Insurance Deductible Assistance; This will help homesteaded homeowners with insurance deductibles with repairs that have been made or need to be done, up to $10,000. Mortgage Assistance; Homesteaded homeowners with delinquent mortgage payments due to lost wages from the hurricanes can request up to $5,000. Repair Cost Reimbursement; Hurricane-impacted homeowners who have paid out-of-pocket at least $500 for repairs could receive reimbursement of up to $20,000. This comes after the Tampa City Council voted unanimously in February to create a dedicated hurricane relief fund for residents. The money comes from a $12 billion package for 24 states and territories, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Five local counties - Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Sarasota, Manatee -- as well as the city of St. Petersburg are receiving $2.7 billion from HUD's Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program. Tampa communities such as the University Area and Forest Hills were hit hard by flooding due to stormwater drainage, despite not being in flood zones. "Homeowners hit hard by hurricanes have been painfully rebuilding their lives and their homes for months on end," Tampa Councilman Luis Viera, who represents northern Tampa and New Tampa, said in a press release. "It is our hope that this recovery assistance can help these struggling residents in the journey to get settled into their homes and find some sense of normalcy." 99 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023680 The assistance is not available for mobile homes, rental properties, or homes with no documented damage from the hurricanes. Registration and pre-application opens on Monday, March 24 at 8 a.m. Homeowners who qualify for the formal application will be notified by March 31. It may take up to 30 days to receive the funds once approved. [FL] City to open applications for hurricane assistance (Tampa Bay Times, FL) full text Tampa Bay Times [3/22/2025 6:00 AM. Divya Kumar. 1900K, FL] Eligible Tampa homeowners will be able to apply for up to $20,000 in hurricane assistance starting Monday. Last month, city officials unanimously approved reallocating $3.2 million in state affordable housing money to address the immediate crisis created by the hurricanes. Initial applications for eligibility screening can be submitted starting at 8 a.m. Monday at tampa.gov/hurricanerelief. Homeowners who live within city limits and meet income requirements will be able to apply for up to $20,000 for home repair reimbursement, including debris removal; up to $10,000 for insurance deductible assistance; and up to $5,000 for mortgage or utility assistance for those who were displaced or lost work. The total amount any household can receive is $20,000. Thirty percent of the funds will be set aside for those earning 50% or less than the annual median income, another 30% for residents earning 80% or less, and the remainder will go to those earning at or below 140%. Abbye Feeley, the city's development and economic opportunity administrator, said lowincome applicants would likely be prioritized first to ensure the city meets those setasides. For a single person, 50% of the median would be an annual income of $33,450, 80% would be $53,500 and 140% would $93,660. For a family of four, 50% would be $47,750, 80% would be $76,400 and 140% of the median would be $133,700. If each recipient receives the maximum amount, the initiative will reach 160 households, but Feeley said it's unclear what the needs will be at this point. The money comes from the State Housing Initiatives Partnership. Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said the city saw over $715 million in damages from the two storms and is continuing to work to help residents recover. These funds, she said, will only cover a small portion. "It's not going to solve all of the needs of our community, and for that, we apologize," she said. "We are doing everything that we can to help those individuals, families, businesses that have been devastated by these two events to get back up on their feet." Tampa City Council member Luis Viera, who said some residents are still sleeping on friends' couches and in recreational vehicles in front of their homes, said he plans to seek additional funding. "This has been such a devastating time for Tampa," he said. "We certainly had an unanticipated one-two punch with Helene and Milton, (and) one that devastated a lot of our working class, the middle class and our blue collar backbone here in the city of Tampa. . . . A lot of people in the middle class and in the working class often believe that government doesn't care about them, that government doesn't speak for them, and the government will not fight for them." 100 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023681 An initial pre-application will consist of questions to ensure that potential recipients are eligible. Mobile homes, second homes (including non-homesteaded and rental properties), properties that are foreclosed or have liens or judgments on them are ineligible. Feeley said once approved, residents will receive a full application, which will require documentation of expenses and will be processed by the private company ICF. Home repairs would require evidence of being done through a homeowner building permit or a contractor. Homeowners would need to provide receipts and proof of filing an insurance claim, as well as any payments received from claims if they have insurance. Mortgage assistance applicants will need to provide a recent mortgage statement and proof of home displacement or lost wages and that they are at least 31 days past due on mortgage payments. Mortgage holders who were behind on payments before the hurricanes are not eligible. Insurance deductible applicants will need to provide proof of submitting assistance applications with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the insurance claim payout and payments made to contractors. Feeley estimates it will take 30 days for residents to receive payments once approved. She said payments will either be reimbursements for expenses paid or due or go directly to a mortgage lender. [FL] City of Tampa announces millions for hurricane relief - Here's how to apply (News Channel 8, Tampa, FL) - full text News Channel 8 [3/22/2025 5:43 AM, Melissa Marino, 1957K, FL] VIDEO. Tampa city leaders announced a new program to give millions in aid to help hurricane victims. On Friday Mayor Jane Castor announced $3.2 million in aid from the State Housing Initiatives Partnership. "It's apart of a funding stream we get for affordable housing. We're redirecting this towards assistance towards those individuals that have incurred damage to their homes because of Helene and/or Milton," said Mayor Jane Castor. To qualify, residents must be homeowners within the City of Tampa city limits, and earn up to 140 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI) estimated at about $133,700 for a family of four. There are three categories of assistance: Insurance Deductible Assistance (up to $10,000), Mortgage Assistance (up to $5,000), and Cost of Repair Assistance (up to $20,000). Homeowners may apply for all three types of assistance but can only receive up to $20,000 per household. Insurance Deductible Assistance -- Applicants will be required to provide proof of FEMA application for Hurricane Helene or Milton and the results, insurance claim payouts, and payments to contractors. Government-issued photo identification for all members of the household Mortgage Assistance -- Applicants must provide a recent mortgage statement, proof of home displacement or lost wages, and that the mortgage payment has become delinquent since the hurricane (at least 31 days past due). Mortgages that were delinquent prior to the hurricane are not eligible. Government-issued photo identification 101 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023682 for all members of the household Cost of Repair Assistance -- Applicants will be required to provide receipts and/or invoices showing their payments. The homeowner will be required to show proof that they filed an insurance claim (if they had insurance) and any payments received from the insurance claim. Government-issued photo identification for all members of the household The Registration and Pre-Application Process begins on Monday March 24. [CA] L.A. approves first permits for rebuilding homes after Palisades Fire (Los Angeles Times) - full text Los Angeles Times [3/21/2025 3:32 PM, Liam Dillon, Dakota Smith, 13342K] The city of Los Angeles has cleared the way for three Pacific Palisades homeowners to begin rebuilding on their properties. The approval of the projects, one to repair a damaged home and two for full rebuilds, according to the Department of Building and Safety, represents a key milestone in the recovery from January's devastating wildfires. The first permit was issued March 5, less than two months after the Palisades fire destroyed or seriously damaged more than 6,000 homes in Pacific Palisades and surrounding areas. "We want this to be happening on your lot, too," said Mayor Karen Bass at a news conference in the Palisades on Friday. Bass and L.A. County leaders have pledged to streamline permitting procedures for property owners who want to rebuild. The Eaton fire, which ignited the same day, displaced 6,900 households from Altadena and nearby communities. The city and county have opened one-stop permitting centers for fire victims and waived discretionary hearings and other zoning reviews for those who want to build new homes that are roughly the same size as they were before. The first permit approved was for repairs to a fire-damaged primary bedroom, bathroom and garage of a split-level home near Rustic Canyon, according to city records and Paul Lobana, the structural engineer for the project. The homeowner submitted plans to city inspectors Feb. 17. "The process worked excellently," said Lobana, who has been working on homes in Los Angeles for 40 years. "The city was very courteous.". Construction has already begun on the repairs, Lobana said. Gary Lionelli, his wife and teenage daughter were living in a newly built home near the Palisades' main commercial strip for less than a year before the fire destroyed it. The longtime property owners decided to submit the exact blueprints as before. "We're not going to do anything that would delay us," said Lionelli, a film composer. With the city approval in hand, Lionelli said he hoped to commence construction once debris clearing was finished on his property. He wanted to beat an expected rush of rebuilds and competition for labor and materials. "My contractor said, you guys should just go while the gettin's good because we don't know what's going to happen six months from now with everyone getting their plans approved," Lionelli said. Lionelli said that the previous teardown and rebuild of his home took more than three years and faced numerous delays. He said he was pleased the new permit came quickly but otherwise isn't enthusiastic about going through the process another time. "To wrap my head around building this house again after we just did it, is not something I want to do," Lionelli said. "The first time I was very hands on. This time it's going to be, `Wake me up when it's over.- 102 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023683 The Times was unable to reach the owner or representatives of the third property to receive a permit, a full rebuild of a home on bluffs overlooking Pacific Coast Highway. As of last week, 72 property owners had submitted rebuilding applications to the city. An additional 135 property owners submitted blueprints to the L.A. County Department of Public Works for rebuilding in unincorporated areas - 109 in the Eaton fire zone and 26 in the Palisades fire area. The county is not approving plans until all debris clearing is complete on the property, said Celeste Hampton, a department spokesperson. State and local officials are still determining rebuilding rules, including if there will be any changes to building codes to incentivize or require more fire-resistant materials that might affect future permit approvals. This week, Bass updated an existing executive order clarifying that new accessory dwelling units would qualify for streamlined permitting and issued another order with plans to further expedite reviews for homeowners who choose to rebuild with all-electric systems and appliances. "Wildfires aren't going away," said Bass. "And climate-fueled disasters aren't going away, either." Kurt Krueger, the architect handling Lionelli's rebuilding project, said he's advising his clients not to wait before submitting applications to local authorities so they can get approved more quickly. He said that city reviewers have been reasonable in their requests to fire victims, but the lack of clarity on the regulations does present a risk. "It makes it hard for homeowners because they want to get going but don't want to make the wrong decision," Krueger said. Bass said at Friday's news conference that there are more than 1,000 property owners who have not opted in or out of the federal government's free debris removal service. Owners could face liens if they don't clear their properties, Bass said. Residents have 10 days to fill out the right of entry form on L.A. County's website. [CA] US senators push for more funding for California fire recovery (Reuters) - full text Reuters [3/21/2025 5:13 PM, Mary Milliken, 41523K] Two Democratic U.S. senators on Friday visited the charred ruins of Altadena nearly three months after a devastating fire and made a case for more funding to rebuild the California community. With burned residences and businesses in the background, senators Alex Padilla of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey said there were bright spots in the recovery. This included faster removal of toxic debris, initially expected to take 18 months and now projected to finish in less than a year. But they made the case for a steady stream of funding to help disaster-struck communities recover. They did not name a figure, but California Governor Gavin Newsom in February requested nearly $40 billion in wildfire aid from Congress. "This is a regional disaster but it is also a national disaster and in the United States we must take care of our own," Booker said. Wildfires ripped through Southern California in January. At least 29 people died in the fires. Altadena, a community east of Los Angeles, was among the worst hit with an estimated 6,000 homes burned and 17 people killed. Padilla said he voted this month against a measure to fund the federal government through September. One reason "was that it did not include supplemental disaster funding, not for Los Angeles, not for the Carolinas, or other regions of the country that have been impacted by disasters." 103 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023684 Booker, whose family has ties to Los Angeles, said he came to Altadena because "I want to send a message to this community that you do not stand alone." The senators' Democratic Party controls neither chamber in Congress. But Booker said there are "a lot of Republican senators who are just as committed to making sure that these funding demands are met." "So yes, there are funding challenges right now," Booker said, but added he was "confident that we have a very good chance of meeting those funding needs." Booker said they are also talking to the White House about funding. Padilla said the January fires' impact on Altadena and Los Angeles neighborhood of Pacific Palisades were unprecedented, destroying an area about four times the size of Manhattan. "A community like Altadena, very diverse, a lot of multi-generational family home ownership and a lot of wealth that was built into these homes, we will go parcel by parcel if we have to, not just on the clean-up but on the rebuilding," Padilla said. "We are doing well thus far, but there is a lot of work ahead of us," Padilla added. [CA] After the Eaton Fire, Altadena residents fight to keep out luxury developers (NBC News) - full text NBC News [3/23/2025 9:00 AM, Iris Kim, Alicia Victoria Lozano, 44742K] Smoke from the ravenous Eaton Fire had barely cleared when signs began popping up on the charred remains of destroyed homes declaring Altadena was not for sale. But one month after the wildfire consumed more than 9,400 residences and 14,000 acres in the foothill community north of downtown Los Angeles, the first vacant lot sold for $550,000 cash, $100,000 above the asking price. Of the 14 properties that have sold to date in fire-ravaged Altadena, at least seven were purchased by developers or investors, including several from outside the U.S., according to a list provided by Jasmin Shupper, founder and president of the nonprofit Greenline Housing Foundation. They were all cash offers, she said. Housing experts and community members worry the fierce competition could push out longtime residents who want to bring back Altadena's small-town flavor and diverse enclaves but see that vision slip away as buyers with deep pockets and little historical understanding of the area swoop in. "In our opinion, money isn't everything and it never will be," said Darrell Carr, whose Altadena home burned in the fire. "It's the character of the people." "We're just afraid that we'll see a bunch of cookie cutters go up and we'll get a bunch of people coming and going and coming and going and we'll lose the charm of Altadena." To counter this possibility, Greenline began securing long-term, temporary housing for displaced Altadena residents and entering into talks to purchase their burned lots. Greenline closed on a property for $520,000 earlier this month and is in discussions with a handful of other sellers, Shupper said. The foundation has effectively become a "land bank," which Pasadena-based lawyer Remy De La Peza describes as a space for immediate and urgent acquisition of land to prevent sales to private corporate interests. Land banks have been established in cities like Atlanta, St. Louis and Cleveland to develop vacant urban lots for use by local nonprofits, community organizations and affordable housing. "It's holding on to land within the bank to buy us time to think about what we want Altadena to look like," De La Peza said. 104 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023685 Deciding whether to rebuild is a difficult next step for families grieving the loss of their soulful neighborhood. Many want Altadena to remain the same quirky enclave that attracted artists' studios, small horse ranches and mom-and-pop stores. Before the January fire laid waste to much of Altadena, the neighborhood of some 42,000 people was a diverse haven for creatives and those who could not afford to buy homes in other parts of Los Angeles. It was one of the few areas in L.A. County exempt from redlining during the Civil Rights era, giving Black people a rare opportunity to own homes and build generational wealth. People of color comprised more than half of Altadena's population, with Latinos making up 27% and Black Americans 18%. The Black homeownership rate in Altadena exceeded 80%, almost double the national rate. More than 60% of Black households were located within the burn area, compared to 50% of non-Black households. according to a UCLA study of the fire's impact. Nearly half of Altadena's Black households were destroyed or sustained major damage, compared to 37% for non-Black households. "Policymakers and relief organizations must act swiftly to protect the legacy and future of this historic community," said Lorrie Frasure, a professor of political science and African American studies at UCLA and one of the study's authors. The housing market, which was already out of reach for many residents, appears to be showing signs of topping pre-fire prices. From 2019 to 2023, the median home price in Altadena was more than $1 million, according to Realtor.com, and the median income was $129,123, according to the U.S. census. Brock Harris, a local realtor who sold the first Altadena property after the Eaton Fire, expects new home sales to near but not exceed $2 million. He received dozens of cash offers for the first listing and now has five more listings, three of which are in escrow. They all have been cash offers. Prices have settled between $500,000 and $600,000, which is about 50% to 60% of what they were before the fire, he said. "It's purely financial," Harris said of the people choosing to sell. Rebuilding, he added, is an enormously expensive enterprise: "People have jobs and kids in school and lives they need to go on with. Is that a doable project for most people?" When Carr and his wife, Susan Toler Carr, first visited the remains of their historic Spanish-style home, neither could imagine returning. Most of their neighborhood was reduced to rubble and the house they shared for 25 years was damaged beyond repair. Little of the structure remained, but what did reminded them of their late son, Justin, who died in 2013 at age 16 during swimming practice. As the days wore on, it was those memories that convinced the couple to rebuild. But not all of their neighbors were convinced. Some have small children and are worried about the toxic environment, Carr said. "It's just a lot to think about," Toler Carr added. Altadena resident and realtor Michael Farah, whose home survived but was badly damaged by smoke, has seen his neighbors grapple with the question of whether to rebuild or sell. A neighbor who purchased his home in 2023 recently sold his vacant lot for $400,000 over the asking price in cash. It was in escrow for just 10 days. Farah said his neighbor considered rebuilding, but the cost of using fireproof materials, like concrete and steel, was the deciding factor. "The estimates just kept going up and up," Farah said. "It was the best thing for him and his family just to move on. 105 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023686 Ali Pearl, a University of Southern California writing professor who lost her home in the Eaton Fire, said she is committed to staying in Altadena. But her insurance payouts totaled $600,000 and builders are quoting her $1.2 million to rebuild. "We bought that house with the intention of living there for the rest of our lives and passing that house down to our children," she said, adding that she and her husband are applying for disaster loans to bridge the gap. Through her work with the community group Altagether, Pearl coordinates resources and information for neighbors looking for alternatives to selling to developers. She sends them to Greenline in hopes of matching land to community members who have been priced out of Altadena. "I think about my neighbors' kids who were born and raised on my street, and how they have not ever been able to afford to come back to the neighborhood, who talk about how great that would be to live in Altadena again," Pearl said. [HI] Big Island buyout program ending 7 years after eruption (Honolulu StarAdvertiser, HI) - full text Honolulu Star-Advertiser [3/22/2025 6:05 AM, Staff, 512K, HI] A Hawaii County program offering to purchase Puna residents' lava-damaged properties should finally wrap up this year. The Voluntary Housing Buyout Program launched in 2021 to offer residents whose properties were damaged, destroyed or isolated by the 2018 Kilauea eruption. After four years since it launched -- and seven years following eruption -- the program is winding down, with more than 750 applicants having completed, or still undertaking, the buyout process. County Recovery spokesperson Jen Myers confirmed the program should complete most of its buyouts by the end of 2025, although this depends on the remaining properties moving through the process efficiently, and with applicants responding in a timely manner. The program accepted applicants in three phases. The first, highest-priority phase was for owners of primary residences affected by the eruption. There were 311 applicants for that phase. As of February, only three phase one applications remained open, with the rest having been bought out. Phase two applicants were those with secondary homes affected by the eruption, with about 200 applicants, while phase three was for owners of vacant land, about 300 of whom applied. As of February there were 41 phase two and 282 phase three applications still open. Myers said via email that the program has had to contend with "the complexities of title issues, probate situations, and unique property cases" that have slowed down the process. Previously, the program was expected to close its last buyouts by the end of 2024. The program had an initial budget of $83.8 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. As the program went on and the number of applicants grew, the maximum payout for phase three applicants was reduced to $22,000 from $230,000. Myers said via email she estimates the program should be able to serve all eligible phase three applicants with some amount of federal funds. [HI] Why Maui Still Hasn't Recovered (City Journal, NY) - full text City Journal [3/21/2025 11:00 AM, Alex Hu, 539K] A year and a half since fires devastated the historic town of Lahaina on the island of Maui, Hawaii, only six houses have been rebuilt--six out of more than 2,000. Why is the recovery effort taking so long? Initially, the biggest hurdles were the pace of debris 106 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023687 removal and damage litigation. Both were overcome only last month. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cleared the final lots on February 19, while the Hawaiian Supreme Court ruled that a $4 billion settlement for victims can begin to move forward. The main challenge now is dealing with a crushing permitting regime that slows or outright bans construction. But local political dysfunction has discouraged state and local leaders from taking emergency action to cut through this red tape. Builders on Maui face a vast web of zoning restrictions, water-use regulations, and historical- and environmental-preservation requirements, and separate applications and schedules for electrical, plumbing, grading, and driveway work. The local permitting office is also poorly staffed, which makes processing take a ridiculous amount of time. Figures from September 2024 showed that the county took 206 days on average to issue a single building permit. Ordinarily, you need several to build a house from scratch. The Maui County Council attempted to speed up permitting by passing Bill 21 in February 2024, establishing a consolidated permit for rebuilding disaster-affected homes. But permitting times remained slow. Even after the county took the extraordinary step of opening a dedicated Recovery Permitting Center in April--hiring private contractors to process permits--approvals still took over 50 days. Homeowners with houses older than five years still had to apply for a new permit, and those without floor plans on record still had to hire an architect to draft new ones. Further permitting relief took eight more months. It was not until October 2024 that Hawaii governor Josh Green issued an emergency exemption sparing multifamily homes from "Special Management Area" reviews--coastal environmental reviews that would have added a whole additional year of permitting for 533 houses. Then there was another long lull. Only last month did Maui Mayor Richard Bissen work with Governor Green to extend SMA exemptions to 103 affected commercial properties. A still unresolved issue is that many historic structures remain illegal to rebuild under modern zoning laws. Jonathan Helton, a policy researcher at the Hawaii-based Grassroot Institute, has reported on buildings like Lahaina's Waiola Church, built in 1823. The church occupies a lot that planners designated as residential-only in the 1960s. The church was given an exemption at the time, but since the congregation has not met for a full year, the exemption expired. Only last month did the Maui County Council advance Bill 105, which would exempt historic buildings like Waiola church from zoning restrictions. It should pass this week. These exemptions are coming absurdly late, compared with California's recent disaster response. A week after the L.A. wildfires broke out, Governor Gavin Newsom exempted all rebuilding from California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and Coastal Waters Act reviews and directed state agencies to identify ways to expedite permitting. These long delays are a consequence of Maui's deep political dysfunction. Maui residents have long been furious at their leaders for allowing housing prices to quadruple over the past 20 years. The issue is not complex: a hostile regulatory environment has kept homebuilding from keeping pace with population growth. The only homes that do get built are typically large vacation properties for global elites, as those are the only projects that can turn a profit. The Maui County Council has nine seats, split five-to-four between rival visions for the future. One side wants to keep Maui rural and closed to outsiders, consequences be damned. The other recognizes that allowing luxury tourism is the best way to expand the 107 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023688 economy quickly and pay for public services. Tight electoral margins discourage bold action. The most recent election, last November, saw a close race in which incumbent councilman and self-described "builder" Tom Cook won his seat by only 97 votes out of more than 52,000 cast. The political divide has only grown wider since the fires. Aside from activists seeking Internet fame by provoking viral confrontations at public meetings, radical councilmembers have called their pro-building colleagues names like "colonizer," openly questioned what would happen if they defied Hawaii state law promoting homebuilding, and advocated for secession from the United States. A general spirit of conspiracy and bad faith pervades the island's politics. This polarization stems from the County of Maui's complex political geography, which has fostered overlapping layers of mistrust toward "outsiders." Some residents resent the U.S. federal government for the annexation of Hawaii in 1898, while many even distrust the state government. Since 70 percent of Hawaii's population lives on Oahu, Maui residents--who make up just 1O percent--often feel that state decisions are made without understanding their needs. The County of Maui also governs two smaller islands, Lanai and Molokai. Most residents live on Maui. But 2 percent live on Lanai, where Oracle founder Larry Ellison owns 98 percent of the land through a hotel and resort company. The other 5 percent live on Molokai, an island hostile to tourism and accessible only by propeller plane. Two of the county council's nine seats are reserved for residents of these vastly different islands. Deep divisions exist even on Maui itself. West Maui and East Maui are separated by a two-and-a-half-hour drive and have distinct local identities. They also have their own designated seats on the county council. Social and ethnic divides add further complexity: Maui is home to low-income residents, wealthy trust funders and retirees, Native Hawaiians, and descendants of Japanese sugar plantation workers, among others. These local dynamics discouraged Governor Green from taking aggressive action. Suspicious residents interpreted his initial promises to rebuild Lahaina quickly as a plot to redevelop the historic town to profit "outside" developers. He backed off in response. Even Mayor Bissen has avoided taking strong actions or asking for strong state assistance for fear of looking like an outsider dictating terms to West Maui. These problems are not particular to Maui. Local political dysfunction continues to manifest in post-wildfire recovery efforts across the United States. Though California did well in quickly issuing environmental-review exemptions in L.A., it now hosts at least nine recovery organizations that have failed to coordinate effectively with one another. L.A.'s own history of decentralized local politics is similarly reasserting itself. Maui now faces two big questions. The first is what it can do to mitigate future wildfires. Today, power lines in West Maui remain exposed above dry brush, and many wonder who will pay to bury these lines underground. Moreover, who will manage the brush? The county is understaffed, and the island's housing crisis has made it tough to attract qualified workers. Hawaii's unions have long prevented the Maui Civil Service from issuing private contracts or even paying differential salaries. Perhaps this time, the need for fire mitigation will prompt residents to support extraordinary measures. Another significant question is how--or whether--to grow Maui's economy. The fastest path to growth is to ease the housing crisis by making it easier to build. The island desperately needs zoning updates and streamlined permitting. Permitting can be sped up through 108 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023689 outright simplification or hiring more staff--as post-disaster actions have proven. But many oppose growth. The county has not only resisted updating its zoning code for 65 years but also added more layers of regulation and review. With all this in mind, one can perhaps empathize with local feelings of conspiracy and mistrust. It's a situation formed by both negligence and design. [HI] Editorial: Maui on mend, but aid needed (Honolulu Star-Advertiser, HI) - full text Honolulu Star-Advertiser [3/23/2025 6:05 AM, Staff, 512K, HI] It's been just over 18 months since the devastating Lahaina fire changed the face of life on Maui -- displacing more than 10,000 people, torching hundreds of businesses and, in its wake, severely reducing tourism, a phenomenon from which that sector has not fully recovered. And the situation remains dire for fire survivors. Thousands remain in "temporary" living arrangements. An outsized number are still looking for work, with an unemployment rate a dismal 8% for fire-affected people. And to make matters worse, the outlook didn't get better on housing or jobs, over the past six months. The silver lining? Survivors would have been far worse off without the direct support of federal, state, county and nonprofit assistance -- both financially and in developing and delivering housing -- and had Maui tourism not rebounded, even if "anemically," reports the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization (UHERO). Maui remains in a tough place, in other words, and all concerned must strengthen and accelerate efforts. To avoid losing people rooted on the Valley Isle, sufficient, stable housing and livingwage jobs must be secured. Governments and a nationwide network of "helper" nonprofits are striving to make a difference in many lives -- and the array of assistance will continue to be very much needed for Maui's fire survivors and to stabilize Maui's economy. More than 6,800 temporary housing units for displaced families have been or will be provided by the state, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Maui County and private sector partners, but the problem is that they're temporary. FEMA has committed $3 billion total for recovery, providing unprecedented support -- but prospects for additional federal aid are murky. Hundreds of Maui jobs supported by federal funding were abruptly eliminated this year, and Hawaii's nonprofits fear reduced budgets as the feds cut back. And federal emergency aid money to help with rent is expected to run out by July. Meanwhile, 45% of displaced Lahaina households live in "temporary" places -- down from 51% six months back, but still leaving far too many in precarious positions. On the jobs front, only about 60% of those in fire-affected households who worked in tourism pre-fire are still employed by the industry. Job training has been provided by the state, University of Hawaii, nonprofits and the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, and all of these efforts need to be broadened. Maui Mayor Richard Bissen, in his State of the County address this month, said the county is "determined to get our people home; determined to rebuild." But the county's median household income is about $95,000, meaning half of its workforce earns less, and Maui's affordable housing efforts have been anemic. The county supports adding affordable housing "where feasible," Bissen said, and kicks in for permanent supportive 109 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023690 housing when seed money is available. And the "quick-build" effort that Maui is launching to address its homelessness problem is a "Safe Parking" program, securing places where residents living in their vehicles can park. There's more potential in the county's pledge to actively participate in the Maui Homeless Alliance, which includes people who have experienced homelessness and service providers. Checking in with those who don't have shelter to determine their needs should be mandatory, but Maui's done little of this in the past. Similarly, permanent housing programs, including Lahaina's rebuild, must be rooted in the needs and preferences of Lahaina's fire survivors, as the survivors themselves have made clear. There is some movement: More than 1,200 new, permanent units are planned to open in the next two years. And the county's draft Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery Action Plan, under review, allocates more than $200 million annually over six years to rebuild and develop housing and infrastructure; this must be approved. The biggest factor in Maui's housing shortage, sadly, continues to be the proliferation of short-term rentals (STRs), which the county has enabled over the past decade and more. Bissen has said he supports county legislation to return 7,000 STRs to long-term housing -- but studies to support the transition are still pending. There's argument over just how much converting STRs would hurt Maui's economy -- but it surely hurts the economy to lose resident workers. Another UHERO report found that "at least" 430 to 510 Maui residents have left the state because of the fire, removing $50 million or more in annual income from circulation. With more tapped from enterprises that profit mightily from operating in Hawaii, as well as the ultra-wealthy who live or maintain homes in the islands, this problem would be easier to solve. Aiding Maui aids all of Hawaii, as the islands are part of a whole, and imbalance on one can tip others. This similarly applies to the private sector. All with the wherewithal must consider how best to contribute, whether with monetary donations, jobs and job training, better pay, home-building or other recovery efforts. Homelessness Who gets housing, and who is `disposable'? (Washington Post) - full text Washington Post [3/22/2025 11:16 AM, Kristen Martin, 31735K] Celeste Walker's housing crisis began in the spring of 2018, when the two-bedroom house she was renting for $850 a month in East Point, a suburb of Atlanta, went up in flames. After she and her three children spent a few nights in a hotel paid for by the Red Cross, Celeste struggled to find an affordable place to rent on her income as a warehouse worker. When she applied for a smaller apartment that would cost $1,025 a month, she was swiftly rejected. Celeste discovered that the private-equity real estate firm that owned her now-uninhabitable rental had served an eviction notice after she refused to pay two months' rent to break the lease after the fire. Kara Thompson, an EKG technician at an Atlanta hospital, was pushed into crisis after complaining about the broken water heater in her two-bedroom rental. After a month of struggling to keep herself and her four young children clean without hot water, she threatened to withhold rent until her landlord fixed the problem. But landlord-friendly Georgia didn't require property owners to guarantee habitability or forbid them from 110 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023691 "retaliatory evictions." Soon Kara, too, would have an eviction on her record that made it next to impossible to rent another apartment. The Walkers and the Thompsons -- both families led by single Black working mothers -- quickly found themselves in a downward spiral of housing precarity, one step away from sleeping on the street. The Walkers spent 18 months in a room at an extended-stay hotel that cost more per month than their burned-down house, before falling one rung further down, to a dilapidated rooming house. The Thompsons regularly slept in Kara's Toyota Avalon when they couldn't afford even the cheapest hotel rooms. Despite their lack of stable housing, neither the Walkers nor the Thompsons would be considered officially homeless under the federal government's current definition. Only people living on the street or in shelters fall into this narrow category. Research suggests that the total population of people experiencing homelessness in the United States -- including people living in cars or hotel rooms, or doubled-up with friends or family -- is several times larger than the official figure, which was 770,000 in 2024. "There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America," by journalist and anthropologist Brian Goldstone, shines a light on what the author calls the "shadow realm" of working people who are not considered officially homeless but lack a fixed place to sleep at night. As Goldstone writes, in the popular imagination homelessness is linked to "individual pathology" -- primarily mental illness and substance use disorders, but also "laziness" or an unwillingness to hold down a job. Americans cling to the idea that if we work hard enough, not only will we avoid homelessness, but we will one day become homeowners. Indeed, the myth of the American Dream depends on a decoupling of homelessness and employment. But Goldstone exposes how working families like the Walkers and the Thompsons, "besieged by a combination of skyrocketing rents, low wages, and inadequate tenant protections . . . are becoming the new face of homelessness in the United States." The five Atlanta-area families he follows sleep in their cars, on the floors and couches of relatives' and friends' crowded apartments, or in exorbitantly priced extended-stay hotels and rooming houses riddled with vermin and mold. They tell themselves that these arrangements are temporary, but with their eviction records and bad credit scores -- as well as low wages that don't keep up with rents in a rapidly gentrifying Atlanta -- true housing security is beyond their reach. By compassionately telling these families' stories and excavating the systemic forces behind their housing insecurity, "There Is No Place for Us" shifts the paradigm on homelessness, revealing how America's disinvestment in public housing and relentless pursuit of free-market growth has come at the terrible expense of poor working families. To report "There Is No Place for Us," Goldstone drew on his background in anthropology, spending more than two years immersed in the lives of five families. He observed them in their hotel rooms and the apartments they managed to rent for stretches of time. He accompanied them to work, family gatherings and visits to the Gateway Center, the "coordinated entry" hub for accessing the woefully limited assistance that public agencies and nonprofits are able to offer to homeless people in Atlanta. Goldstone stitches together a textured and extraordinarily detailed narrative of each family's multiyear struggle to keep a roof over their heads. The effect is reminiscent of "Random Family" (2003), Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's much-acclaimed portrait of life in a 111 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023692 poor neighborhood in the Bronx overtaken by the drug trade. Like the Walkers and the Thompsons -- and 93 percent of homeless families in Atlanta -- the three other families Goldstone profiles are Black. The adults range in age from their early 20s to their mid40s, and are all low-wage workers; they support children ranging from infancy to teenage years. Three of the families have deep roots in Atlanta, a city that was 67 percent Black in the early 1990s and is now 47 percent Black. As Goldstone recounts each family's trials, he seamlessly weaves in explanations of the systemic reasons behind them. He explains, for instance, how Britt Wilkinson, born and raised in Atlanta, faces a far more difficult housing market than the one her family knew for decades. Wilkinson, a mother of two who works in food service, spent the early years of her 1990s childhood in the East Lake Meadows public housing complex, where five generations of her family lived. By the end of that decade, the complex was demolished to make way for the redevelopment of an adjacent golf course. Housing has been an issue for Wilkinson and her mother ever since. As Goldstone explains, this family was experiencing the consequences of the end of the federal government's relatively brief experiment in subsidizing low-income housing at scale. Complexes that had been erected in the New Deal era to provide affordable housing for White working-class people had, by the 1970s, become majority-Black and highly stigmatized. The federal government began to cut funding, leading to the deterioration of complexes and eventually their demolition. "The federal government had created the very conditions that were later pointed to as evidence of the 'failure' of public housing," Goldstone writes. In place of publicly owned housing projects came the Housing Choice Voucher Program, popularly known as Section 8, which left housing for the poor up to private landlords. As Wilkinson found when she was miraculously selected for a voucher after years of waiting, they are increasingly difficult to use in Atlanta, where gentrification has pushed up rental prices. Since Wilkinson's childhood, Atlanta has successfully employed tax incentives and other public subsidies to spur private investment and development. This "engineered renewal," Goldstone explains, has displaced lower-income Atlantans farther and farther from the city's core, which is now studded with luxury housing units that make up 94 percent of the new apartments built in the city over the past decade. Wilkinson's much-awaited Section 8 voucher expired before she could find a landlord who would accept it, and her family was back to couch-hopping. Throughout "There Is No Place for Us," Goldstone makes clear that the Reagan era's "neoliberal revolution -- marked by large-scale privatization, massive tax cuts for the wealthy, and major reductions in social spending" -- laid the groundwork for the conditions that push families like Wilkinson's into homelessness. Predatory industries have cropped up to maximize profit on vulnerable people once they fall into crisis. Worst are the extended-stay hotels relied on by four of the five families Goldstone followed. One double-income family with bad credit and an eviction on their record came to see their room at an Extended Stay America as an "expensive prison." The eight months they lived there in 2020, as they tried and failed to be approved for an apartment, cost them $17,000. That year, Extended Stay America raked in $96 million in profits; it was soon purchased by Blackstone for $6 billion. The extended-stay hotel business is booming in "places where working people are most likely to be deprived of housing," Goldstone writes. The people who end up languishing in these places are at the bottom of a "housing caste system," and the hotels cash in on their desperation and lack of 112 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023693 other options, often charging twice as much as the apartments in the area that won't rent to their customers. Sarah Jones, a senior writer at New York magazine, says this class of people is seen as "disposable." In "Disposable: America's Contempt for the Underclass," Jones grapples with how the covid-19 pandemic exposed preexisting societal conditions that leave certain groups of people especially vulnerable. This includes those experiencing "official" homelessness -- Jones notes that New York City's shelter system, for instance, had an age-adjusted covid mortality rate that was 50 percent higher than the city's cumulative rate by February 2021. But even before the pandemic, officially homeless people were dying prematurely -- their life expectancy is just 48. Indeed, as Jones writes, "trends in COVID mortality were built on long-standing social inequalities," meaning the virus caused disproportionate harm not just to people experiencing homelessness but also to seniors, people with disabilities, poor people, "essential" low-wage workers, Black and Indigenous communities, and incarcerated people. Jones forcefully argues that our country's capitalist system deems the deaths of such people acceptable. Throughout the book, she draws on Friedrich Engels's theory of "social murder" -- which posits that society is guilty of murder when a worker dies a premature and unnatural death -- as well as the theory of social Darwinism, to lay the blame for covid deaths on our economy's relentless quest for profit. "Disposable" lacks the deep, sustained reporting and detailed narratives that drive "There Is No Place for Us." But five years after the World Health Organization declared covid a pandemic, Jones's book stands as a reminder of the lessons our country has willfully ignored -- an especially stark one with Donald Trump back in the White House and further shredding the social safety net. Both "Disposable" and "There Is No Place for Us" force readers to reckon with how American society has drawn lines that assume certain people are undeserving of security, in health and in housing. Our calculus rests on a capitalistic system that pushes profits to those at the very top while inflicting suffering and even death on those at the bottom. "We have taken it for granted that housing is a commodity, a vehicle for accumulating wealth, and that the few who own it will invariably profit at the expense of the many who need it," Goldstone writes toward the end of his book. We could just as easily, he and Jones argue, take for granted that housing and health are human rights and public goods, and that all levels of government should invest in them as such. We could take for granted that none of us is disposable. How cities and the federal government can deal with homeless encampments (Federal News Network, DC) - full text Federal News Network [3/21/2025 10:38 AM, Tom Temin, 1089K, DC] AUDIO. Cities across the country have become dotted with unsightly homeless encampments. They're in parks, along beaches, under bridges. President Trump has ordered the camps in Washington D.C. swept away. What exactly is a good way for cities and the federal government to deal with the homeless and the encampments? For one view, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin turn to the founder and CEO of Dignity Moves, Elizabeth Funk. Interview transcript: 113 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023694 Tom Temin You have come up with a model in your organization that is different from what people seem to be pursuing to deal with people that are homeless. Tell us what that model looks like. Elizabeth Funk Sure. Well, we believe that we should be prioritizing getting people off of the streets, ending unsheltered homelessness. And today's system is focused almost predominantly on focusing on building permanent housing for people because only when they're in permanent housing, they're no longer homeless. And that's ambitious. But as you know, in California and other places where the cost of housing is so expensive, that's costing us $800,000 per unit for housing for people who are experiencing homelessness. We're just not going to build our way out of that. So we think we need to rethink alternatives and traditional shelter, big warehouse with bunk beds, that's not appealing to anyone. It's not safe, it's not cost-effective. But we believe if we can get people into cabins or tiny places where they're not permanent, but they are significant and they are sufficient, that people are willing to come, quite frankly, is the most important. And then we can start helping them turn their lives around because they're feeling safe and secure, and we can have a better chance of getting them back on their feet and ultimately into permanent housing. Tom Temin Well, the issue I've always had when I hear [the Department of Housing and Urban Development] cooperating, or different agencies and getting people into apartments is you need income to pay for an apartment or else they're permanently in an apartment and often there are psychological or addictive or other issues with a person that makes it not really likely they're going to succeed even in a permanent apartment. Fair to say? Elizabeth Funk Well, our system has two types of permanent housing: permanent affordable, which is usually subsidized by a Section 8 voucher, but the person is independently living. And then we have what we call permanent supportive housing, which is really where people are destined if they become too traumatized, mentally ill, and addicted to drugs, that they're not able to support themselves on their own. And those are reserved for people who are experiencing chronic homelessness. And I have to say, really the fundamental belief of my organization is that chronic homelessness should be eradicated. It shouldn't be a condition that's allowed to exist. It's defined as someone having suffered on the streets for over a year with chronic illnesses. And we need to be able to get folks indoors well before chronic homelessness sets in so that they don't need to be taken care of the rest of their lives. Tom Temin And the shelter that you mention, I mean, what is your model for where it exists, how it's constructed and how it operates? Elizabeth Funk Yeah, well, first and foremost, we're just trying to change policy to talk about interim housing in general in any form, which is that it's OK to fund dignified places for people to come off the streets and be in the meantime, so our streets aren't the waiting room for that permanent housing. But the way we tend to do it is we looked at it and we said, well, why don't we have everyone indoors, in addition to policy and funding not being there? 114 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023695 Land is expensive. OK, great. We'll borrow it. Building codes are onerous? We will use the emergency building codes because FEMA doesn't have to build the building codes, right? This is a crisis. And the construction costs are high, so we use prefabricated. We use little tiny cabins. And the most important thing is we can put them on vacant land that's temporarily vacant so we can borrow it and not have land costs and literally pick them up with a forklift and move them. But the expensive parts are shared. There's shared dining and bathroom facilities, just like in college dorms. And they're built around a community with 24-7 care and community values and community living, and hopefully a place where people are gonna be able to return to being taxpayers rather than traumatized on the street, in which case the chances are slim. Tom Temin We're speaking with Elizabeth Funk. She's the founder and CEO of Dignity Moves, a nonprofit. And what do you see as the federal role in this? And would it be HUD or somebody else? Or Veterans Affairs? Elizabeth Funk Yeah, it's all of it. I think our entire system for a decade or more has been focused on this policy of the only valid use of taxpayer money is permanent housing. And so it needs to be more flexible. And we're seeing in local municipalities, especially in California, places like San Francisco, Mayor Lurie and San Jose Mayor Mahan, they've kind of come to the point where they say, I don't care if the federal policy isn't on board, we've got to get everybody off of streets. And they're starting to do it anyway, but they don't have funding. and they're reaching into general funds and they're scrapping it together. It's time for the federal funding programs to acknowledge that interim housing is okay and to allow municipalities to use it. So I would say Section 8 vouchers and other housing subsidies ought to just be more flexible. They ought to be applied to more things. We know that the CalAIM, which is the version of Medi-Cal in California, reimburses for a lot of the costs of having people in interim housing. That's absolutely essential to continue. The federal government needs to recognize the new reality and join the local municipalities that are crying out for it. Tom Temin And the land that these would occur on, I guess, would be within city limits in a lot of cases. And so it's different land, I'm presuming, than where the encampments are, like in a park right now right in the middle of Washington. There's a couple of them. And then under bridges near the ballpark. I mean, I know what I'm talking about here. Or just embankments where roads intersect. Where, say, in the city would this land possibly be, typically? Elizabeth Funk Well, the good news is we don't need it for very long. And so we can look to privately owned land, for instance, a developer who's got a project tied up in entitlement so that they're pausing. Wealthy families tend to land bank and hold onto land for the future. Walgreens shut down in San Francisco. So we're using Walgreens parking lot for a while until whoever buys it, picks it up. And the nice thing is that private land owners who let their land be used for this purpose get their property taxes exempt during the period that they're using it. So there's an incentive. But we also find government agencies, transportation agencies and so forth, they're all holding onto land for future uses. And this is a really clever way to put it to use in the meantime until those future uses come along. 115 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023696 Tom Temin And these things you envision, well, is it in place anywhere and what does it look like and what's it made of? Is it shipping containers or two by fours or what? Elizabeth Funk We buy from a lot of different manufacturers. The good news is that manufactured housing has become very trendy in the last few years. There are hundreds of manufacturers to choose from, so we don't have a supply constraint concern. Sometimes we use shipping containers. More often, we use systems that, for instance, come flat packed, like IKEA. They're panels that get assembled on site in California, assembled by union labor, just to be clear. Tom Temin No wonder it's $800,000 to build an apartment, because if they demand that too, then that's where it goes. Elizabeth Funk So in California, we have half of the nation's unsheltered. Since California has been where we've started, we have projects in San Francisco, Santa Barbara, San Jose, Modesto, Watsonville, Ojai, Los Angeles, just frowning up everywhere. It's really becoming very trendy. But the thing we're starting to do is talk to municipalities and say, rather than just build one, why don't we look at the whole system and start thinking about what it would take to end the problem comprehensively? To have enough beds for everyone in your municipality so that no one needs to resort to sleeping on the streets. And then quite frankly, no one needs to be allowed to sleep on the streets, but you have to have enough places for everyone. So it's called functional zero unsheltered is the technical term. And both San Francisco and San Jose are embarking on that. Santa Barbara County started doing that a couple of years ago and they're halfway there. It's really exciting to see. Tom Temin All right, and by the way, is anybody, say, at the federal or state or municipal level looking at what it is about California that has half of the homeless in the entire nation? Elizabeth Funk Well, it's the homeless, but particularly the unsheltered. And in our nation, most of the people who are experiencing homelessness at least have a place to sleep, particularly on the East Coast because of the weather. It's California that has decided that we want to prioritize getting people into permanent places, which I think is misguided, because quite frankly, you and I both know nothing in life is permanent, especially for this population. The reason we're obsessed with permanent is because it's what's funded by the federal subsidies. And I just think that's the wrong incentive. But California housing costs are so high, land is scarce, and we're just a little too idealistic. We need to be more practical and just get people indoors. [RI] Did the Pawtucket City Council just kill plans for a homeless shelter at Memorial Hospital? (Providence Journal, RI) - full text Providence Journal [3/21/2025 7:50 AM, Patrick Anderson, Providence Journal, 28K, RI] A homeless shelter in the empty Memorial Hospital complex might not reopen as state housing officials had hoped due to opposition on the City Council. For more than two years since the Memorial shelter was closed when a sprinkler pipe burst, the state Department of Housing has been working to bring it back online to combat homelessness amid a court fight over the property's ownership. Why Pawtucket City Council is not on board with homeless shelter at Memorial 116 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023697 Last month, the state announced an agreement with nonprofit OpenDoors to provide 120 beds there for people now living outdoors, including some reserved for military veterans. But Pawtucket City Council President Terrence Mercer, whose council district includes Memorial, is not on board with having a shelter there. He wrote a letter to Attorney General Peter Neronha at the start of this month questioning whether a shelter is allowed under the terms of the deed that transferred ownership of Memorial from the nonprofit health care group that used to run the hospital to its current owners. The attorney general oversees the use of charitable assets in the state and previously intervened to make sure the court-approved terms of Memorial's sale were being followed. "Based on my layperson's review of that above-referenced court order and deed restrictions, it does not appear that a 'homeless shelter' is an allowed use," Mercer wrote to Neronha on March 1. "Although the property owner is allowed to use the property for 'residential and health care related services provided primarily to United States military veterans and their families,' the establishment of a homeless shelter, even on a temporary basis, is neither of those things." OpenDoors currently runs a shelter in a Motel 6 on Jefferson Boulevard in Warwick and, along with the Department of Housing, wants to move the people living there to Memorial. Mercer opposes the Department of Housing plan to move people currently living at the Motel 6 in a "commercial/industrial section of Warwick to an entirely residential neighborhood in my district." Asked whether Neronha agrees that a shelter is not allowed under the Memorial deed, spokesman Timothy Rondeau said that after receiving Mercer's letter, a city lawyer had informed the attorney general's office that Pawtucket intends to intervene in the ongoing hospital ownership court case. "Accordingly, it was our expectation that we would respond, to the extent necessary, in court," Rondeau wrote. "The parties have been in touch with us about the possibility of amending the proposed deed restrictions in light of Pawtucket's concern, and any proposals are still under review." Rondeau did not respond to follow-up questions as to which parties had been "in touch" and whether they intended to amend the deed to allow a shelter or ban one. The latest twist in the Memorial Hospital saga Mercer's intervention is the latest twist in a Memorial Hospital saga that began when Care New England shuttered the money-losing facility in 2017. In 2020, Mayor Donald Grebien recruited Florida-based Lockwood Development Partners to turn the 100-yearold building into an assisted-living center for military veterans. But the Lockwood project foundered, and in 2022 Gov. Dan McKee's administration opened a temporary shelter in the building, which operated for several months before it was shut down by the broken sprinkler. Then a company controlled by colorful Rhode Island businessman Michael Mota moved to foreclose on the hospital complex and take it over, triggering the ongoing court case that Neronha intervened in. A hearing in the case is scheduled for March 26. In the meantime, Mota has left the scene, and the Department of Housing says Memorial has been acquired by a company called Feenix Venture Partners. Nick Horton, co-executive 117 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023698 director of OpenDoors, said Wednesday that Mercer "has likely made it impossible for the project to continue." "We think that this is a good project for the city because it would help this development move forward," Horton said. "The owner would be able to get some income he could put back into the project and pay taxes to the city. Without it this building will continue to sit empty and be used by squatters and vagrants like it is now." Department of Housing spokeswoman Emily Marshall wrote that the agency "believes that the Memorial Hospital site is well positioned to provide access to wraparound services, enhanced support systems, and a more stable living environment. ... We are committed to working closely with local partners, community leaders, service providers, and stakeholders to address the needs of our most vulnerable neighbors." A statewide resistance to homeless shelters Since the COVID pandemic, the number of Rhode Islanders living on the streets or in tent encampments has steadily grown, and efforts to open shelters to help them have been met with resistance in every municipality. In 2023, Mercer successfully lobbied the East Providence City Council to kill a proposed temporary shelter in the Narragansett Park Plaza shopping center in that city near the Pawtucket line on Newport Avenue. "The challenge Rhode Island is facing with the homeless crisis is made impossible to solve by the fact that every community will work against the creation of a homeless shelter," Horton said. "This is a way for Pawtucket to move people off the street and out of encampments lining its rivers and wooded areas." Horton said he went door to door at the homes near the hospital, and of 31 people he spoke to about the shelter, 18 supported it. At a Wednesday evening City Council meeting, Mercer told colleagues that his letter was about "legalities and not ideology," but that he had been "inundated" with messages from people "telling me they don't want [the shelter]." He also criticized Horton for going door to door to speak to neighbors about it. "I would not have been canvassing the neighborhood hoping to find people who see it their way," Mercer said. "I wasn't out canvassing. All the opposition I heard about it came directly to me." Christopher Hunter, a spokesman for Grebien, said the mayor agrees with Mercer "that there are legal concerns" with the current plan, but declined to say if he thinks there should be a shelter at Memorial. Three Pawtucket General Assembly members, state Sen. Meghan Kallman and Reps. Leonela Felix and Jennifer Stewart, co-wrote a letter asking the City Council to "approve this proposal and help provide a safe and stable option for those in need." "This project is a necessary and responsible solution to a growing crisis, and we hope to work together to ensure that Pawtucket remains a compassionate and forward-thinking community," the letter said. [CT] Thousands of kids experience homelessness in CT. What a regional foundation is doing to help. (Hartford Courant, CT) - full text Hartford Courant [3/22/2025 5:15 AM, Staff, 1025K, CT] It's an effort to address homelessness experienced by Connecticut public school students. According to the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, that included more than 5,600 students experiencing homelessness at points during the 2023-24 school year. 118 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023699 That number is a 63 percent increase since 2021, and 85 percent of those were students of color, 26 percent had disabilities, and 29 percent were English language learners, according to the foundation. To help address this, the foundation has awarded a $142,725 grant to the nonprofit REINSTITUTE for a planning effort "to support the Greater Hartford region's education and homeless response system." "The team at REINSTITUTE are excited to be working once again in Connecticut, where we have previously facilitated youth-focused 100-Day Challenges which have housed 395 people," said REINSTITUTE CEO, Sarah Robens. "Our focus on enabling cross-system collaboration will be at the fore of this Challenge, as we bring together a team of people from relevant sectors, including education, housing, and employment, to make significant change to young people within a 100Days, through the creation and testing of innovations that will change how the system works. We are looking forward to getting going and appreciate the interest and support of this work from Governor Ned Lamont, and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving." According to the foundation, the 100-Day Challenge aims supports the "education, homeless response, and employment support systems in the Greater Hartford CAN geographic area to leverage local resources and connect more students and families to housing and employment services." This means working toward "closer collaboration between service providers," so that families are housed "sooner and more efficiently." The Greater Hartford CAN area includes 17 school districts, representing 10 percent of the state's public-school districts overall, according to the foundation. The foundation said the homelessness and housing instability brings "significant educational challenges" for students and educators, and addressing it can make a "significant impact on improving educational outcomes for these students." "The Hartford Foundation remains committed to ensuring that all students can reach their full potential by eliminating barriers to their success," Hartford Foundation President and CEO Jay Williams said in a statement. "The Foundation is proud to support this effort to foster greater collaboration between educators, homelessness and housing providers, and other stakeholders. By building on the work that local school districts and community providers are already doing, we can ensure that students and their families have access to stable, secure housing and young people can focus on being successful in the classroom." The foundation noted the project fits with its strategic priority of "increasing stable education and employment opportunities for Black and Latine adults and youth" in the region, who "face barriers to employment. It will "work to ensure that students experiencing homelessness can remain present and engaged in school, improve educational outcomes by addressing the overrepresentation of marginalized students in housing instability, and strengthening cross-sector collaboration to enhance support systems and public awareness of available programming." The project also will collaborate with the Connecticut Department of Education on behalf of the Governor's Kids Cabinet. The foundation also noted that its grant would allow REINSTITUTE to access McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act resources "as well 119 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023700 as services and expertise of Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network to connect more students and families to housing and resources in school districts and communities." According to the foundation, the Greater Hartford CAN has reported nearly 900 students experiencing homelessness, which represents about 16 percent of all students experiencing homelessness in Connecticut. "Our administration's Kids Cabinet has made responding to youth homelessness a top priority because students facing homelessness deserve our support to get a good education," Lamont said in a statement. "Our state already makes significant investments in homeless prevention and intervention, and there is good work being done at the local and state levels, including the Head Start on Housing program that is led by the Connecticut Department of Housing and the Office of Early Childhood. This new partnership will improve our coordination and response system in central Connecticut, so we can maximize the impact of our current funding -- all to deliver better outcomes for students experiencing homelessness. I want to thank the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving for their generous support, and for recognizing how government and philanthropy can work together in smart ways to improve lives.". Citing data from the National Center for Homeless Education and elsewhere, the foundation noted: Students experiencing homelessness consistently score 10-20 percentage points lower than their housed counterparts in standardized testing, particularly in core subjects like mathematics and reading comprehension; In Connecticut, students experiencing homelessness graduate at rates up to 23 percent lower than their peers; Among those who graduate, average GPA tends to be significantly lower, affecting college admission prospects and future career opportunities; Chronic absenteeism is also a significant challenge for students experiencing homelessness. They miss an average of 15-20 more school days per year than their housed peers; The absence rate directly correlates with lower test scores and increased dropout rates; Transportation challenges, frequent school changes, and the need to work or care for family members often contribute to attendance issues. [NY] NYC Council leaders call for moratorium on new homeless shelters to boost affordable housing (New York Daily News, NY) - full text New York Daily News [3/21/2025 10:41 AM, Chris Sommerfeldt, 3253K, NY] Mayor Adams' administration should put a stop to all new construction of homeless shelters in the five boroughs, according to two City Council leaders. In a Friday letter to Adams' budget director, Jacques Jiha, Council Finance Committee Chairman Justin Brannan and Council Oversight Committee Chairwoman Gale Brewer wrote that such a moratorium is necessary to turn the tide on a concerning trend they've noticed whereby real estate developers are opting to build shelters instead of affordable housing. "Simply put, developers have found that building homeless shelters is a more lucrative option than building affordable housing," Brannan and Brewer wrote in the letter, a copy of which was reviewed by the Daily News. The two lawmakers argued a shelter construction moratorium should be in place at least until the conclusion of a set of 120 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023701 ongoing investigations touching on the Adams administration's real estate and shelter practices, including a Manhattan DA probe scrutinizing the Department of Citywide Administrative Services' commercial leasing program. As an example of the issue at hand, Brannan, who represents a section of southern Brooklyn that includes Coney Island, pointed to an affordable housing project in Marine Park that was recently switched into a shelter development. "Endlessly building new shelters will not fix this," he told The News of the city's housing crisis, which has resulted in skyrocketing rents and a short supply of affordable apartments. Brannan and Brewer also argued in their letter that Adams' administration should increase transparency on how much the city pays major real estate firms like Bayrock in rent for operating shelters on their sites. Brannan, who's running for city comptroller in this year's local elections, said that's particularly important at a time that Adams' administration is reeling from a web of scandals, including the mayor's own federal corruption indictment. "With an administration awash in corruption, taxpayers deserve to better understand what exactly is happening here," Brannan said. Adams spokeswoman Liz Garcia blasted the proposal for a moratorium. "It's disturbing that elected officials -- who claim to care about New York City's most vulnerable -- are calling on us to stop building homeless shelters when there are still homeless New Yorkers in need of a safe place to sleep at night," Garcia said. "Tackling homelessness requires a multifaceted approach that includes building shelter -- the emergency room of our housing ecosystem -- and permanent housing, and the Adams administration is doing both." Ultimately, Brannan and Brewer wrote they are encouraged by the Adams administration's focus on developing more housing by, among other things, working with the Council to pass the "City of Yes" rezoning plan. "However," they added, "we want to express our concern that the way this administration handles deals with developers of affordable housing vs. of homeless shelters is undermining the good work we have done together." [NY] Transportation Secretary Slams NYC Subway, Pressures MTA (Bloomberg) full text Bloomberg [3/22/2025 4:20 PM, Myles Miller, 16228K] US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy intensified the Trump administration's criticism of New York City's subway system on Saturday, accusing Governor Kathy Hochul of neglecting safety and homelessness issues in the transit system. "If you want people to take the train, make it safe, make it clean, make it beautiful, make it wonderful," Duffy said during a press conference in Morris County, New Jersey. "She could fix it in hours -- not days, not weeks, not months -- hours. And she chooses not to," Duffy added. The remarks came days after Duffy sent a letter to Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO & Chairman Janno Lieber requesting detailed information on crime, fare evasion, and how the agency plans to improve safety. The MTA has until March 31 to respond, with Duffy warning that a failure to do so could lead to a withdrawal of federal funding. The MTA relies heavily on federal support -- as much as $2.5 billion a year -- to fund 121 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023702 projects including subway and rail car upgrades and system accessibility. Roughly $14 billion, or 20% of its upcoming multi-year capital plan, is expected to come from Washington. An MTA spokesperson said the agency welcomes the opportunity to discuss its safety and fare enforcement efforts. The agency has reported a significant drop in transit crime since 2020 and says fare evasion has declined since last summer. Hochul has increased the number of National Guard troops patrolling the subway and directed the NYPD to place two officers on every overnight train. Her office has framed the deployments as part of an aggressive response to high-profile incidents that have shaken public confidence in the system. Duffy's comments also come amid a separate dispute between the Trump administration and New York officials over congestion pricing, a plan designed to raise $15 billion for infrastructure improvements by charging drivers entering Manhattan's central business district. The White House has tried to block the initiative, and the MTA is suing to allow it to continue. [VA] Plea for plot of land to save those aging out of foster care from homelessness (WAVY-TV NBC 10 Portsmouth, VA) - full text WAVY-TV NBC 10 Portsmouth [3/21/2025 5:00 AM, Katie Collett, 1081K, VA] VIDEO. With statistics indicating that half of the homeless population has spent time in foster care, the Virginia Beach nonprofit Connect With A Wish is trying to find a place for people to go when they age out of the foster care system. To that end, it has a big ask of the community to help make it happen. "In the state of Virginia, there's approximately 5,000 kids in foster care," said Joy Rios, who founded Connect With A Wish 11 years ago. "In the Hampton Roads area, we have about 1,000 kids in foster care. Here in Virginia Beach, we have somewhere around 200 kids in foster care and around 60 foster parents to those kids. "We benefit local youth and foster care. We connect the wishes and needs of kids in foster care with the generosity in our community. We have over 20 programs and events in place serving kids from newborn to age 25 and in all the surrounding cities of Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Suffolk." One of those children served is Qayon "Q" Jenkins. He was 16 when he and his sister went into foster care. Now 21, Jenkins is aging out of the system. "I probably bounced from like five to six homes in a period of probably six months," Jenkins said. He eventually settled in a home where he bonded with his foster mom. He made it very clear, though, that his heart will always belong with his biological mom. He said she did her best in a bad domestic situation. Jenkins credits Connect With A Wish with helping him successfully navigate foster care. "Having a support like Connect With A Wish, [with] the supports they have, allow me to be able to keep going in the time of destruction and still be able to prosper how I need to, but some kids can't," Jenkins said. "They can't do that because they don't have these these spaces or them people to go to. All they have is what they know, and sometimes what they know is not good, but that's what they have." He calls Connect With A Wish a lifesaver. "Everybody needs somebody to go to in a time of need for when they need things," Jenkins said. "We have a life crisis, whether it's your mom, your dad, your cousin, your uncle and sometimes in some situations, they are not permanent people. 122 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023703 "So, to have an organization like Connect With A Wish that I can go to when my back is against the wall -- I need a little help no matter what it is, whether it's food, whether it's clothes, whether I need somebody to talk to or I need help filling out an application or I need help figuring out this terminology -- having these people in your corner is very beneficial. It really helps because ... recently I have needed Connect with a Wish assistance, and I appreciate them. Now, I'm back, getting on my feet. So it just goes to show you fall, but you get back up, and having the necessary supports there for you helps you to be able to get back up in an effective manner." Right now, you can find Connect With A Wish in a small, but mighty office not far from the Virginia Beach Courthouse. Staff there provides everything from clothing to toys to counseling services for those in foster care. One of the focuses of this nonprofit is on those aging out of the system. "At age 21, homelessness is really knocking on their door when they age out of foster care," Rios said. "There are some programs in place. Recently Virginia Beach has been working with a program called the Fostering Youth Initiative, which is a voucher program that has been a gift -- not an easy one to accomplish, but we're working on it, and we're working with Department of Human Services and Housing and Development and really making this work and getting some kids roofs over their heads. "However, there's lots to that. There's lots of hoteling in between. There's limitations on the voucher, and where we're putting the kids is often not the safest place that you would want to put a 21-year-old vulnerable youth, but is far better than the streets.". Rios said there is more than can be done. "Connect With A Wish has been working for a few years on our Take2Community, and developing more than just the idea, but the structure of the plan, both physically and what we want to do with these kids," Rios said. "It would be exclusive for kids aging out of foster care. It would be a transitional place for about three years, because when kids age out at 21 of foster care, their mental and emotional, as we all know even our own kids at 21, are really not ready to cut the cord and just let them go. So you can imagine spending several years in foster care, not having continuous support, not having a parent or a support to turn to and having been through so much trauma that you truly aren't at 21 when you're at 21. "So they definitely need extra time, and with Take2Community, we would not only provide a roof over their head, but they would also have the wraparound support of our Connect Careers programs, our case management during that time, so that they can achieve the independent living skills that, although taught while in foster care, they weren't mentally ready to take. So, now at 21 that now maturity is starting to kick in, and we are certain that the success rate after three more years will be far greater than when they have left at 21." Here is where the big ask comes in. Rios say they are looking for someone to donate an acre-and-a-half of land, preferably in Virginia Beach, where they could build the Take2Community. "We have been working very hard, knocking on doors, making all kinds of noise with developers, with city council, with anyone we can," Rios said, "because financially, to have the land and then to build the property would make this whole thing so much more accessible and easier to do. It's greatly needed." The community would house 25 people who are aging out of foster 123 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023704 care. "We can take care of those 25 and get them what they need so that they can then independently go out and live on their own," Rios said. All of Connect With A Wish's services would also be under one roof. "With Take2Community, we would not only provide a roof over their head, but they also have the wraparound support of our Connect Careers programs, our case management during that time so that they can achieve the independent living skills that, although taught while in foster care, they weren't mentally ready to take," Rios said. She said Take2Community would truly teach independent living. It would be a place of pride for those who live there. "It would be single-room apartments, and double, and two-room apartments for those who have kids," Rios said. ". . .They would also be living in a community with others who are going through the same thing, which is really huge for the kids, and I know with Connect with a Wish, even in the past 10 years and starting our boys youth group and our girls youth group, for a lot of the kids, that was the first time that they have been in a space with others going through what they've going through other than being in a foster home. We see a lot of benefit to that, to having us there and having the resources of our food pantry and clothing closet to really fill in the gaps of the need, and then get them to go to that next step on their own.". The key lies in that acre-and-a-half of land. "We have a generous community here in Virginia Beach and the Hampton Roads area," Rios said. "I am certain that there is someone out there that will find it in their heart to take this mission as their own, and we will work with whoever that is for whatever rights that they would like to this." Jenkins lights up at the idea of the Take2Community and the possibility that someone may be generous enough to donate the land. "I feel like they'd be saving a lot of lives," Jenkins said. [VA] Pulaski looks to community partnerships to combat homelessness through "Program Recovery" (29News, VA) - full text 29News [3/21/2025 4:47 PM, Lindsey Cook, 177K, VA] VIDEO. Pulaski leadership is introducing "Program Recovery," an initiative to help alleviate the homelessness crisis in the town. They said it's the first of it's kind and takes all members of the community to make it possible. Homelessness isn't a new problem in Pulaski. But this year, Town Manager Todd Day said the number of crimes related to homelessness are over the FBI national average. That includes rates of breaking and entering 13 times higher than the national average, trespassing rates six times higher than the national average, and vandalism rates two times higher than the national average. "We really need to address it and just turning your back on it, saying we can't do anything, is not acceptable," said Day. That's where program recovery comes in. Day said it will connect town leadership and the police department with volunteers from around the community. Chief Sam Shumate said officers responding to a scene can directly call organizations and volunteers that focus on issues like mental health, substance abuse, homelessness programs, and more for a person in the moment. Even if it's at 3 o'clock in the morning, officers will be able to take homeless people to a 124 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023705 safer place instead of putting them in handcuffs. "If we could get those resources there and build that, then it it'll be much better," said the Chief. "I think the individuals needing the resource is actually going to start feeling like hey, you know, somebody does care.". "This is an opportunity to get an individual some help. And hopefully over a period of time we can eliminate the number of individuals that are on our street that need help," said Day. Day said the town is still working to connect with volunteers and organizations to join program recovery. [VA] Williamsburg nonprofit that helps homeless people hit with federal funding cuts (Hampton Roads Daily Press, VA) - full text Hampton Roads Daily Press [3/21/2025 4:51 PM, James W. Robinson. 217K, VA] The nonprofit Williamsburg House of Mercy joins a growing nationwide list of organizations hit by federal funding cuts. The organization, a frequent recipient of food drives in the Williamsburg area, has long provided food and shelter to the community's homeless population. In a recent statement from Executive Director Liz Buckley, however, she said that WHOM was not awarded this year's Virginia Housing Trust Fund. which provided yearly support for its housed clients and case management efforts through its Housing Mission program. "Without a continuation of Housing Trust Funds, we cannot fulfill that promise of stability, and we recognize it would not be sustainable to continue the program," Buckley said. The Virginia Housing Trust Fund was established in 2013 by the General Assembly "as a flexible financial resource to create, preserve, and support affordable housing projects," according to the Virginia Housing Alliance. From 2014 through 2024, the fund contributed to the preservation and creation of at least 19,367 affordable units and supported over 8,500 households experiencing or at risk of homelessness, the alliance states on its website. According to WHOM's website, its Housing Mission uses grants to provide financial resources to help its clients reach stability and self-sufficiency. The program uses a "rapid rehousing program" to lead clients toward permanent housing, and provides resources and support to help them successfully maintain their housing. It's not clear how many people will be affected by the end of the Housing Mission, which has been in place for nearly four years. Buckley would not say how much the grant was for. Cutting the program also means the elimination of some staff, but Buckley did not say how many. "I'm unable to provide anything further at this time since this is a very new transition for WHOM," she said. Buckley did say the program's closure will be done in phases to ensure "as smooth a transition as possible" for clients. "We are currently in the process of contacting clients individually to share this information and next steps with compassion and care," Buckley said. The nonprofit's other mission areas of food insecurity, outreach and both its Harbor Day Shelter and Hope Pregnancy Center will still continue on, Buckley said. [WV] Homeless encampment destroyed in Parkersburg leaving some with no resources (WTAP-TV NBC 15 Parkersburg, WV) - full text WTAP-TV NBC 15 Parkersburg [3/21/2025 6:17 PM, Hailey Lanham, 103K, WV] A homeless encampment near the East Side Bridge in Parkersburg was cleared without 125 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023706 notice to those staying there. According to Ellisha Seabolt, founder of Freedom Fighter INC., she went down to the area where a sign was posted by the City of Parkersburg stating all personal belongings are to be removed by April 15. According to a couple living in that area, someone came through and destroyed everything they owned. The people to the left of them were told they had one week to clear their belongings, according to Seabolt. Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce says the city did not touch the items. He said while they did post the sign, they did not send any crews down, contract anyone, or touch any items in the area. According to Mayor Joyce, this property is privately owned. "The other two people I had spoke to, you know, they were just totally confused, there was no prior warning, there was no word, there was no commotion of it and now these people literally have no resources. I did speak to the one couple, they are male and female, and I talked to them about possibly going to a shelter when there is a shelter bed open." said Seabolt. Katey Hornbeck, the co-founder of Freedom Fighters INC., stated she used to struggle with addiction and homelessness at one point in her life. She says to see this happen to the people she used to be homeless with is harmful. "It doesn't make anyone that is struggling want to get better or get help when the community is against them." said Hornbeck. There are options and resources for those who may be struggling with homelessness. According to Crystal Williams, a representative from The Gathering, House to Home is a day shelter with showers and places to wash your clothes, Latrobe Street Mission provides meals, The Salvation Army, and The Gathering provides meals Mon.-Fri. 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Saturdays from 4 p.m. to 5 pm., they also have showers. Steven Belisky expressed that when people are down on their luck, no matter what they are struggling with, sometimes the best thing to do is show them that somebody actually cares. [Editorial note: consult source link for video] [FL] Orange County planning board backs controversial East Orlando homeless shelter (Orlando Sentinel, FL) - full text Orlando Sentinel [3/22/2025 7:30 AM, Tyler Williams, 989K, FL] An Orange County planning board on Thursday narrowly endorsed a proposed East Orlando shelter that would deliver much-needed beds for the homeless, but the property owner's history is raising questions about the project. The proposal passed the Planning and Zoning Commission by a margin of 5 to 3, GrowthSpotter reported. The vote sets up a showdown before the Board of County Commissioners. Kaleo Ministries used to operate a makeshift facility on 6.2 acres at 1717 Harrell Rd., called Hope City Refuge, that once sheltered as many as 120 people at a time in bunkhouses and repurposed storage containers. The county fire marshal shut down the facility last March with a court filing that stated conditions at Hope City Refuge posed "severe life safety issues." The county alleged that facilities lacked proper fire detection, prevention, and suppression devices and that the ministry had long resisted fixing the problem. 126 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023707 Now Kaleo wants to build 120 emergency housing units, 120 transitional housing units, a 9,000-square-foot drug treatment center, and a 9,000-square-foot educational and administrative building on the site. The facility would temporarily house young adults who have aged out of the foster care system and other people experiencing homelessness. Residents could live at the facility for up to two years before transitioning into permanent or alternative housing. Fire Marshal William Farhat said last year that officials tried to get Kaleo Ministries to comply with building codes and provide fire extinguishers, install smoke detectors in the buildings, and provide a 24-hour "fire watch" log for the now-shuttered facility. Kaleo Ministries Pastor Marcos Diaz claimed that the housing was safe, but Farhat said that the ministry failed to comply with the county's demands. The latest project went before the Planning and Zoning Commission in January. After more than three hours of discussion and comments from the public, the commission voted to continue the item until March to allow the applicants enough time to prove that they have addressed ongoing code enforcement violations on the property, such as illegally parked tractor-trailers on the site, the presence of inoperative junk trailers, and unauthorized storage containers. During Thursday's meeting, Chief Code Inspector Megan Marshall said that Kaleo Ministries has made progress toward addressing the code violations. However, there are still outstanding code violations on the property that date back to 2021. As a result, the ministry has incurred over $2 million in fines. "The multi-million dollar fines are something that, once all of the properties are in compliance, we would look at [reducing], but currently the repeat offender fines are not something that the county will reduce," she said. "I've never seen a case where we had the fire marshal and the building department come and step in." "I am unaware of any time where the Fire Rescue Department had to go through the county attorney's office to request an emergency injunction to enforce basic fire safety applications in a structure. We couldn't get compliance in any other way," Farhat added. The Hope City Refuge property hasn't housed homeless residents since it was shut down by the county over a year ago. Some have questioned whether the organization is trustworthy considering its history of building code violations, but Diaz defended his record during the meeting and claimed that he has the money lined up to build the new facility through private funders. All he needs is approval from the county. "In eight years before we were closed, we had no deaths. This was an orderly place," he said. Some P&Z members were willing to allow Kaleo Ministries to prove themselves. "The reason why I am giving Hope City Refuge the chance is because they already tried to correct and address the code compliance issues. They're already there to help a very needy population, and I think we need to give them a chance to do that," Chair Nelson Pena said. Diaz and Planning consultant Kendell Keith of Oak Hill Planning Studio are requesting to rezone the property from agricultural to Planned Development and amend the future land use from PD-Commercial/Office to PD-Commercial to allow for the construction of the new shelter. County planning staff recommended approval of the rezoning and land use amendment. 127 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023708 "From a staff perspective, we review things from a technical aspect, but we also consider whether or not the ultimate proposed development can be compatible with the surrounding development program. In this particular case, the application checked most of those boxes," Olan Hill, Assistant Manager of Orange County's Planning Division told GrowthSpotter. The proposed facility has generated substantial public opposition from neighbors who are concerned about how it will impact neighborhood safety. About 55 residents attended a community meeting in September for the proposed complex, where only a few participants spoke in favor of the project. Many neighbors also question Kaleo Ministries' reputation. "We're not able to be as flexible in applying other factors to our decision-making process, as the board may be able to do," Hill said. "Is this the right project? Do we trust the developer to do the right thing? Those are things that the board can consider in their decision-making process, but it's not something that we as staff do." Homeless shelters almost always receive a great deal of opposition from the public, even though the Orlando region has a shortage of over 1,000 shelter beds. Earlier this month, Orlando dropped plans for a controversial 300-bed SoDo homeless shelter that would have used the dormitory portion of Orange County's former Work Release Center for inmates at 130 W. Kaley St. The proposed shelter received substantial pushback from executives at Orlando Health and from residents who were concerned about how it would affect neighborhood safety and property values. [FL] Homeless mom finds shelter, hope in Miami-Dade (CBS Miami, FL) - full text CBS Miami [3/21/2025 11:04 PM, Ivan Taylor, 51661K, FL] VIDEO. Just months ago, Adanay Galvez was pregnant and living in her car. Now, she is celebrating the birth of her daughter, Elianys Fernandez, in the safety of a home, at least for now. Galvez, 23, is one of several women receiving temporary shelter through a Miami-Dade program for homeless pregnant women. The program allows them to stay in housing until their babies reach three months old, giving them time to seek stability. A helping hand in time of need CBS Miami first highlighted Galvez's story in October, when she was among 50,000 applicants for affordable housing in Miami-Dade County. She didn't secure a spot, but with the help of CBS Miami, Miami-Dade Housing and the nonprofit Hermanos de la Calle, she found a temporary home through the program. Since moving in, she has received additional support, including a baby stroller delivered by CBS Miami's Ivan Taylor and Neighbors 4 Neighbors. "Thank you very much, I appreciate it a lot," Galvez said. "It was the one thing I needed the most for the baby." Preparing for the future Galvez is already looking ahead, knowing her housing is only guaranteed for a few more months. "Hermanos de la Calle helps us look for rent somewhere else and also helps to apply for free daycare," she said. The program aims to help new mothers transition back into the workforce while ensuring they have resources to care for their children. Despite the uncertainty of what comes next, Galvez remains grateful. "I want to thank CBS Miami and Neighbors 4 Neighbors because that [the stroller] was the only thing I was missing, honestly," she said. [FL] Hope in Action: Tackling Homelessness Through Housing, Support, and Community (WSFL-TV, FL) - full text 128 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023709 WSFL-TV [3/23/2025 6:00 AM, Staff, 6K, FL] Over 1,000 families and over 7,000 individuals are currently facing homelessness in Broward County. As times grow more uncertain, these numbers continue to rise--but thankfully, organizations like Hope South Florida are stepping in with a mission to bring stability, support, and long-term solutions to those in need. Joseph Kenner, President of Hope South Florida, joined Inside South Florida to speak about the organization's powerful vision and the vital programs they offer. Kenner explained that Hope South Florida focuses primarily on situational homelessness, which refers to individuals and families who find themselves without a home due to sudden life events--like job loss, health crises. or eviction--not necessarily long-term systemic homelessness. These are people who are often still working and striving to maintain normalcy, including sending their children to school. "Many times, people that are situationally homeless, you don't see them. They're not the folks on the street that are panhandling," Kenner emphasized. "It's the person you could be working right next to. These are the people that stay out of the limelight because they don't want to lose their kids or because they're still working and just can't keep pace with the cost of living." To address this growing issue, the organization operates through three core pillars: housing, physical support, and supportive services. The first pillar, housing, includes rapid rehousing and transitional housing along with personalized case management. The second pillar addresses basic physical needs like meals and day centers for families and children. But it's the third pillar--supportive services--that Kenner considers the most transformative. "We ask: why are you experiencing homelessness? Is it employmentrelated? Mental health? Education? And then we connect you to those resources within the community to get you to the point where you can become self-sufficient and independent again," he said. Kenner also pointed out that homelessness is often tied to a crisis of disconnection--a breakdown in family ties, support networks, or places of belonging like faith communities. Hope South Florida aims to repair that by offering a network of support and care, something Kenner calls "The Hope Way." The ultimate goal isn't just shelter--it's selfsufficiency and independence. For those experiencing homelessness--or those who want to help--Hope South Florida offers several ways to get involved, from accessing resources to volunteering or donating. As Kenner encouraged, anyone can visithopesouthflorida.org and click on "Give Hope" to begin a partnership that could change someone's life. To those facing homelessness, or those walking alongside someone who is: you are not alone. Help is available, and organizations like Hope South Florida are ready to walk with you toward a better, brighter future. [Editorial note: consult source link for video] [TN] Local group fights Nashville's homeless crisis (WZTV-TV Fox 17 Nashville, TN) - full text 129 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023710 WZTV-TV Fox 17 Nashville [3/21/2025 6:13 PM, Chris Nails, 334K, TN] Facing eviction can be overwhelming, especially for low-income residents who don't have legal representation. That's where Eviction Right to Counsel (ERTC) steps in. A coalition of local nonprofits, the group provides free legal assistance to help Nashville renters stay in their homes. During a recent presentation, ERTC shared staggering results from its pilot program: 95% of tenants represented by ERTC lawyers achieved their case goals. 567 households avoided eviction. 42% of those households would have faced homelessness without legal aid. For many tenants, navigating the court system without legal help can feel impossible. Elizabeth Lierserson, Project Director at the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee & the Cumberlands, explained the challenges: "If you go to the courthouse alone, you may not know where to go or what to say. Many people get shuffled through the system, sign papers, and leave without even knowing what happened." Evictions don't just displace families, they create long-term hardships. Darkenya W. Waller, Executive Director of the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee & the Cumberlands, emphasized the lasting effects: "Evictions lead to homelessness, housing instability, poor school outcomes, and the inability to move forward in life." Without stable housing, daily life becomes a struggle. "When you don't have housing, you can't get to work, you can't access food, and your mental state suffers," Waller added. ERTC's legal aid extends beyond fighting evictions. Anne Boatner of the Nashville Hispanic Bar Association described their broader mission: "We assist people not just with eviction cases but also with lease violations, repair issues, and other housing-related problems." Research shows that eviction prevention saves money, reduces crime, and strengthens communities. A fully funded eviction defense program in Davidson County would cost $9.3 million per year but generate up to $43.9 million in benefits. For every $1 spent, Nashville sees $5.10 in benefits--a clear sign that eviction prevention is worth the investment. If you or someone you know is facing eviction, Eviction Right to Counsel can help. [Editorial note: consult source link for video] [MO] Specialized Staff Serving Influx of Homeless Library Patrons (Flatland KC, MO) - full text Flatland KC [3/21/2025 7:00 AM, Toni Cardarella, 21K, MO] People experiencing homelessness in Kansas City often find refuge in public libraries when shelter options are limited during the day. However, metro-area library systems also provide assistance that goes beyond temporary protection from the weather. In fact, the Kansas City Public Library has built an entire department around helping the city's unhoused, providing a range of services that focus on serving this niche group of patrons. Located in a large dedicated area on the third floor of the Central Library downtown, the Community Resources Department has four full-time employees, including social workers who offer one-on-one guidance to unhoused patrons. The library created the department in response to the growing number of unhoused 130 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023711 people living in the communities served by the library, and the dearth of city-driven solutions to end homelessness in Kansas City, said Community Resources Manager Beth Hill. For some, the library has become a "de facto shelter," she said. "At the end of the day, on any given day, if you want, if you need a place to be, it's the library.". A report released last year by the U.S. Department of Housing showed that, at 95.7%, the Kansas City area had the highest share of people experiencing chronic homelessness living outside and not in some kind of shelter than any other major U.S. city. As of March 1, the city expanded capacity in four low-barrier shelters. The additional 100 beds came as part of a collaboration with providers in the city's Zero KC strategic plan to end homelessness, said Mayor Quinton Lucas. In Johnson County, the city of Lenexa approved expanded capacity to 50 beds at the county's only homeless shelter, Project 1020. Area shelters generally require those who spend the night to leave every morning, as early as 7 a.m., which puts people experiencing homelessness on the streets until the evening. That's one reason Randy, 68, was at Community Resources recently. "It's a place to spend the day after getting out of the shelter," he said, explaining that he walks to the Central Library most every day from the downtown shelter where he's been staying for several months. At the library, the former office assistant said he enjoys using the computer to learn more about topics and pursuits he's interested in, such as stopaction animation used in VR content. "I keep a positive attitude," he added, before heading back to the shelter. In addition to computers, patrons at the library get access to bathrooms, water, phone chargers, and Wi-Fi, and at the library's Community Resources department they can get socks, hygiene products, and snacks. Further, Community Resources staff regularly connect patrons with food pantries, shelters, clothes, showers, and medical services, and help navigate government programs, fill out paperwork, and make phone calls. Patrons often need a copy of their birth certificate, which is required to apply for a Social Security card or SNAP (food stamps), but there is a fee charged by a county or city for the records request. If a patron doesn't have an agency-issued voucher to cover it, the department is fortunate to have privately donated funds to use for that purpose, Hill said. Community Resources will send staff to any branch as needed, but a staff member makes weekly visits to Northeast and Westport branches, which are located in areas with large homeless populations. Out of respect for patron privacy, Hill said, the department tracks how many people it serves by counting interactions instead of individuals coming in. While numbers vary as weather shifts, the department logs hundreds of interactions a month. Frigid temperatures drove 660 interactions in January, and there were 517 in February. Last year's peak of 800 interactions came in August, which recorded the summer's highest temperatures. U.S. public libraries have long provided access to information and resources to all corners and adapted offerings to align with changing needs and populations. "People experiencing poverty or homelessness constitute a significant portion of users in many libraries today and this population provides libraries with an important opportunity to change lives," the American Library Association said on its website. Along with the Kansas City Public Library, the Johnson County Library and the MidContinent Public Library have added specialized staff or training aimed at helping 131 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023712 residents experiencing homelessness. Johnson County and Mid-Continent library officials said they typically see the largest numbers of unhoused customers coming to branches on busy bus routes, including Grandview, Blue Ridge and Independence in Missouri, and Lenexa City Center and Central Resources in Kansas. But Emily Becker, community relations manager at MidContinent Library, noted the district covers a wide service area, with 43 branches in Jackson, Clay and Platte counties, and that unhoused customers are also at rural and suburban branches. Mid-Continent created a Community Specialist Coordinator (CSC) position to serve as a "connector" for customers who face particular challenges such as housing and food insecurity. The system has three CSCs, who are trained in trauma-informed care and crisis care service, one each at the Grandview, Blue Ridge, and South Independence branches. "We see a lot of different kinds of ways to live," said Grandview CSC Morgan Perry. Whether they're trying to locate an overnight shelter or seeking help with paperwork, customers come in with a range of needs, and are often in crisis mode, Perry said. "We can meet with people in a private room to tell their story, particularly if a person has experienced not being heard," she said. In Johnson County, the library works with local groups and county and city officials to help serve the needs of the community's unhoused populations, including United Community Services of Johnson County (UCS). The Central Resource Library offers events and programming with the community in mind, such as job resource fairs, said Adam Wathen, associate director of branch services. In addition to being located on the public transit line, the Central Resource Library is a regular drop-off point for people coming from the Project 1020 shelter. "We've done some additional staff training on working with those populations," said Elissa Andre, the library's marketing and communications manager. The training covers several areas, from learning to better identify customer needs, without making assumptions, to de-escalation tactics. "We never know what someone wants when they're walking through the door," said Wathen. "They may be unhoused but that may not be the problem they want to solve today.". When developing the Community Resources department, Kansas City library staff and leaders tapped their years of firsthand experience with unhoused communities and the expertise of those at the Denver Public Library, which has a well-developed program for serving the unhoused. The library continues to work with Denver as well as with similarly constructed Community Services departments at the San Francisco Public Library, which is noted as having the first of its kind in the country, and the Washington, D.C., library, Hill said. One of Community Resources' first programs, started when it was operating out of Central Library's basement, is "Coffee and Conversation." Held the fourth Wednesday of each month, the event allows patrons to have breakfast, get personal care items and access resources. "We invite partner agencies to come and set up tables and make themselves available to our patrons," Hill said. "Then we have a guest speaker from a nonprofit who would like to come talk about what their services are and how patrons can access them.". 132 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023713 Community Resources staff communicate regularly with local organizations and agencies to stay informed on services available for its patrons, including for a handout listing shelters and free meals closest to Central Library and a more extensive guide in the quarterly "Street Sheet.". Further, the library partners with a local agency for its Peer Navigation program, which provides two certified peer specialists -- trained in deescalation techniques and trauma informed care -- at the Bluford branch. In certain instances, the peer navigators can also transport a patron to a doctor's appointment or other services. Devon, 26, who was homeless in Phoenix for six months before moving to the Kansas City area, said he's been coming to Central Resources every day since he started staying at a downtown Kansas City shelter. He appreciates being able to charge his phone and welcomes the department's guidance, including help updating his resume for a job search. On a recent afternoon, he sat tucked away in a corner making calls, several feet away from the dozen or so patrons on the sofas and chairs in the department's center space. Once off the phone and about to head back to the shelter, he happily shared, "I have a job interview on Wednesday.". [MI] Mobile health center being launched in Grand Rapids to help the homeless (WSJM-FM 94.9, MI) - full text WSJM-FM 94.9 [3/21/2025 8:00 AM, Staff, 26K, MI] Homelessness is a big problem nationwide, but in the Grand Rapids area, a unique approach is being taken to help the homeless with medical care. Catherine's Health Center will launch a mobile health van this summer, according to CEO Megan Erskine. "Along with medical services, we're going to provide some addiction medicine," Erskin said. "We'll also provide some mental health services, some case management services, and then we'll have a medical assistant along for the ride as well." Erskine says she expects other cities to try this approach, although she says Kalamazoo and Detroit already do. [IL] Connections advocates zoning reform (Evanston Now, IL) - full text Evanston Now [3/21/2025 7:43 AM, Matthew Eadie, 27K, IL] Pro-zoning reform housing experts advocated strongly Thursday for Evanston to join communities across the country removing restrictive zoning practices, saying "People lie, numbers don't" when it comes to zoning reform. "Every person who wants to live in a community ought to be able to do so," said Angela Brooks, the City of Philadelphia's new chief housing and urban development officer. Brooks was in town as the keynote speaker at an annual luncheon and fundraiser hosted by Connections for the Homeless to celebrate five years since the Margarita Inn first opened in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Brooks spent nearly a decade at the Chicago Housing Authority and was president of the American Planning Associate for two years. She also sits on the City of Chicago's Zoning Board of Appeals. In her keynote address to attendees, who included several elected officials, including Mayor Daniel Biss and Alds. Jonathan Nieuwsma (4th), Eleanor Revelle (7th) and Juan Geracaris (9th) as well has a handful of council hopefuls, Brooks suggested several possible land reforms she said could help address high costs of housing in the region. 133 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023714 "There's not a one size fits all solution," Brooks said. "[But] we have to make a decision of what we want to do in our communities and who we want to live there." Connections' luncheon on Thursday at the Woman's Club of Evanston. Credit: Matthew Eadie Her suggested reforms mirror much of what's appeared in early drafts of Envision Evanston 2045, including by-right multifamily zoning areas, increasing density and eliminating or relaxing parking requirements for new developments. "We do have to think about how we create more housing supply in our communities," Brooks told the room of about 250 people. Brooks also advocated for adaptive reuse and for protecting exiting and naturally occurring affordable housing, later saying "[Zoning] alone won't create affordable housing units." Later in the day at a panel, Brenda O'Connell, a senior policy advisor at the Illinois Housing Development Authority praised Evanston's proposed zoning reforms, saying from the state's perspective, the changes are "a flip from really what we're against to really what we're for." From left to right, Brenda O'Connell, Angela Brooks, Sue Loellbach and zoning attorney Donna Pugh. In December, the state released a report on "missing middle" housing, advocating for action to eliminate bans on accessory dwelling units, reform parking mandates and "require large lot sizes to allow for multi-family development." In January, State Rep. Robert "Bob" Rita (28th) filed a bill in the Illinois General Assembly to reform the state zoning code, requiring all cities with more than 25,000 people to "allow the development of all middle housing types on lots of parcels with a total area greater than 5,000 square feet." The bill, if passed, would essentially establish the housing reforms Evanston is considering statewide. The bill is endorsed by Gov. JB Pritzker and Evanston State Reps., Robyn Gabel and Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, both signed on as co-sponsors on March 10. On Thursday, advocates like Sue Loellbach, Connections' Director of Advocacy, urged residents to stand up in support of Envision Evanston 2045 and the zoning code rewrite that's to follow. "There is tons of opportunity for advocacy and we are looking for people who can speak," Loellbach said, adding that Connection's fully supports the goals of the comprehensive plan, something she's repeatedly said at public meetings throughout the process. "One of the key roles of municipalities is to remove the barriers that exist," Loellbach said when asked what Evanston can do. "Zoning I think is one of the key ways of doing that." [IL] Changing zoning and adding housing encouraged by expert at Connections fundraiser (Evanston RoundTable, IL) - full text Evanston RoundTable [3/23/2025 11:58 PM, Alex Harrison, 45K, IL] Supporters and donors of Connections for the Homeless heard about emerging policies in zoning and housing supply and celebrated the five-year anniversary of the Margarita Inn homeless shelter Thursday afternoon during the nonprofit's "Inspire" fundraiser luncheon. A capacity crowd of 250 people attended the event the Women's Club of Evanston, 1702 Chicago Ave., including several incumbent officials and candidates running in the city's April 1 election. After lunch was served, a keynote address billed as "a contribution to the community dialogue about zoning" was delivered by Angela Brooks, the immediate past president of 134 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023715 the American Planning Association (APA) and the recently-hired chief housing and urban development officer for the City of Philadelphia. Though Brooks didn't explicitly reference Envision Evanston 2045, the ongoing project to develop and adopt a new comprehensive plan and zoning code, much of her speech centered on ideas that have been local flashpoints, especially around the strategy of increasing the supply and diversity of housing to help address rising costs. While discussing the APA's Equity in Zoning Policy Guide, she said the "root" of many zoning codes are restrictions that "keep my grandparents from living next to some of yours." "That history is there, and we've gotta try to eradicate that, by thinking about it with an equity lens," Brooks said. "And that equity lens is thinking about [how] every person who wants to live in a community ought to be able to do. That is not currently the case, and zoning is part of that." Brooks went over a variety of housing strategies cropping up in cities around the country, such as allowing accessory dwelling units (ADUs), encouraging adaptive reuse of existing buildings, pursuing transit-oriented developments and allowing construction of multiple units per lot in neighborhoods currently restricted to single-family homes. She acknowledged that "the word density often scares people," but said increasing housing supply and typology has to be a part of any area's approach to easing the housing affordability crisis. "Use whatever semantic word doesn't make people run for the hills, but we've got to start having these conversations," Brooks said. "Because anybody can look at census data and see that we need to start looking at how we can grow ... it's a full housing continuum to support the types of communities that you want." To that end, she highlighted the APA's Housing Supply Accelerator Playbook, published last year in partnership with the National League of Cities and designed to assist local governments "working to boost diverse, attainable, and equitable housing supply." She called the playbook the "thing I'm most proud of" from her tenure as APA president, and cited the engagement and negotiations with realtors, mortgage brokers and builders that went into building its recommendations. And on the issue of changing unit allowances, Brooks said planners and legislators should move away from using the framing of "eliminating single-family zoning" and toward "providing housing options for all" through a variety of typologies and densities. "It's not eliminating your ability to build a single-family house, it's just that if you want to build a triplex there, you can do that too," she said. Wrapping up, Brooks encouraged the audience "to have this conversation in Evanston," and said that although those conversations "can be divisive," they're needed to preserve the city's ability to have a diverse population across racial, social and economic groups. "When we think about the zoning changes you need to make to continue to accommodate that [diversity], really look at the data, because people lie, numbers don't," Brooks said. "And when you look at the numbers, the need for providing a diversity of housing options is there, the demand is higher than ever." After the keynote address, the luncheon shifted to a "Mission Moment" section focused on Connections' hotel shelter operation at the Margarita Inn, 1566 Oak Ave. Thursday marked five years to the day since Connections moved its first participant into the nowformer hotel, the same day Gov. JB Pritzker announced a statewide stay at home order at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Former Councilmember Robin Rue Simmons (5th Ward) introduced this section by connecting the subsequent struggle over a zoning proposal to make the Margarita Inn a permanent shelter to Connections' origins in a 135 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023716 group of churches fighting the city's zoning to allow an emergency shelter in the basement of Lake Street Church. "There is truth in the saying that history repeats itself," Rue Simmons said. "We are in we are in a unique moment where we hold the power to not have history repeat itself." The audience was then played a video from Connections commemorating the Margarita Inn's history, which features interviews with Connections staff, shelter residents and local elected officials who supported the project and its zoning proposal. In the video, Connections CEO Betty Bogg said the zoning "battle," as she described it, cost the nonprofit over $1.5 million and took "an enormous toll on the morale" of shelter staff and residents. It highlights a series of negative comments from both the public comment sections of City Council and Land Use Commission meetings, as well as written ones from the comment sections of the RoundTable and Evanston Now. The proposal was ultimately approved and Connections later purchased the property, ensuring its permanent operation. Pastor Monte Dillard, Connections' board chair, said in the video he felt "amazing relief" when he received the phone call that the purchase had gone through. "What I was most impressed by," Dillard said in the video, "was that many who had opposed the purchase of the Margarita Inn stood in celebration with us that day at the press conference." After the video ended, Connections' Chief Development Officer Nia Tavoularis led staff in canvassing the room for donation pledges at various amounts to support the organization's programs. [MN] Dakota County had plans for its own homeless shelter. More than a year later, what happened? (Minneapolis Star Tribune, MN) - full text Minneapolis Star Tribune [3/20/2025 8:00 PM, Eva Herscowitz, 3572K, MN] A year and a half after Dakota County paused plans for a permanent homeless shelter amid fierce backlash, Minnesota's third most populous county still lacks such a facility, concerning some service providers who say the area desperately needs more shelter beds. The county has partnerships with three hotels that offer temporary rooms to adults and families experiencing homelessness, said Madeline Kastler, Dakota County's deputy director of housing and community resources. But Kastler said that approach, which took hold in several suburbs during the COVID-19 pandemic, wasn't meant to be long-term. It's one of a smattering of methods suburbs have leaned on to tackle homelessness, which reached a record high across the country in 2023. Plans are underway in Washington County to build a permanent emergency housing facility, but Dakota County's efforts to open a similar space have stalled. Dakota County Commissioner Joe Atkins said county officials are exploring other options to shelter people experiencing homelessness following the decision to pause the shelter plans. Atkins added the county is proceeding with caution amid concerns that state and federal funding to municipalities could dry up. "We're being extra careful," he said. Such a facility seemed imminent in September 2023. That month, most county commissioners coalesced around an idea to buy a Norwood Inn & Suites in Eagan and convert it into a 55-room housing facility, pledging to apply for a state grant that would defray the costs of the $24 million project. But after residents sounded alarms about the 136 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023717 short window for public comment and claimed the shelter would dent traffic to businesses and endanger children, commissioners reversed course. Since then, the county has kept up the hotel approach, with about 30 people staying in rooms at any given time, Kastler said, in addition to partnering with community providers, mental health groups and a street outreach team to tackle homelessness. Kastler lauded the county's relationships with its hotel partners, whom she declined to name. But she called the set-up a "temporary fix," noting that such businesses could always pull back from the arrangement. "There is some risk to using hotels as a long-term option for sheltering," she said. To Atkins, the hotel model presents one clear advantage: Such buildings remain on the property tax roll while simultaneously sheltering homeless people. A facility built by the county wouldn't be subject to property taxes, he noted. But some service providers say Dakota County urgently needs its own low-barrier homeless shelter -- a place for people to stay, no questions asked. Among those calling for such a facility is Amber Hanson, the housing and homeless services director at Ally Supportive Services, a West St. Paul-based organization that conducts street outreach to homeless people. "Every community within Dakota County is saying not in my neighborhood, not in my city," Hanson said of the blowback over the Eagan shelter idea. "But I think with the right information, and the right services, it can be done really, really well." Housing unsheltered people in hotels took off during the pandemic, amid worries of coronavirus' rapid transmission in congregate settings. The Bloomington City Council loosened its zoning code to allow hotels to house homeless people at the height of the health crisis. In Washington County, the pandemicera practice has persisted, said Sarah Tripple, the county's community services division manager. Easy to deploy in a crisis, the hotel approach nevertheless requires the county to hew to building owners' rules. "We're somewhat limited with what we can do," Tripple said. That's one reason Washington County is in the process of building its own shelter in Stillwater. American Rescue Plan Act money is primarily funding the construction of a 30-unit emergency housing services building, a partnership with the county's Community Development Agency. Tripple noted that a permanent shelter, staffed 24 hours a day, will eventually be cheaper than continually renting hotel rooms. Plus, a planned community room will give service providers space to meet with guests, connecting them to job opportunities, health care and housing. "The more services we can bring on-site to wrap around folks, the quicker they're able to figure out their barriers to housing and move on to a more stable housing situation," Tripple said. Scott County, in contrast, lacks a fixed emergency shelter, housing coordinator Peter Goldstein previously told the Minnesota Star Tribune, though the county and various partners offer programs to help place people in temporary shelters. How many people are homeless in Dakota County? In Dakota County, the only permanent shelter for families experiencing homelessness is Dakota Woodlands, an Eagan-based nonprofit. "Dakota County has an ever-present need for shelter for people experiencing 137 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023718 homelessness," said Kastler, the deputy housing director. "Even though we do have correct shelter options, there's always people sleeping outside." On one night in January 2024, the annual "Point in Time" count tallied 82 homeless people in Dakota County. In 2023, those participating in the endeavor counted 104 homeless people in Dakota County. To Lisa Lusk, the county doesn't have enough beds to adequately support its homeless population. Lusk, the director of programs and operations at 360 Communities, a Burnsville-based group that operates a 23-bed emergency shelter for adults and children fleeing domestic violence, said stagnant funding forced her group to close a second domestic violence shelter. And she worries homelessness across Minnesota could worsen if state politicians reduce the money they afford municipalities for rent assistance to families facing eviction. "I do worry that as those funds become less, and as the cost of living has continued to increase, that we're going to see more and more people who can't afford the rent that they're paying and make ends meet," Lusk said. Hanson, the Ally Supportive Services housing director, said she believes a permanent shelter is still possible in Dakota County. But that project's success, she added, depends on whether officials address community concerns head-on. When "people have their fears calmed and the questions answered," Hanson said, "they will be more supportive of having a place for unsheltered neighbors to go.". [TX] Proposed law allows state intervention against crime, homelessness in downtown Dallas (Dallas Morning News, TX) - full text Dallas Morning News [3/21/2025 8:00 AM, Everton Bailey Jr., 2778K, TX] Two proposed Texas laws could force Downtown Dallas Inc. to get rid of crime in the city's central business district, improve cleanliness and crack down on homelessness -- or be sued by area property owners. House Bill 4078, filed by state Rep. Jeff Leach, RPlano, and Senate Bill 2594, from state Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, are nearly identical proposals introduced this month and affect cities with populations between 900,000 and 2 million. The legislation mandates that public improvement districts eliminate crime and vagrancy in the downtown area or central business district. It also calls for improving the area's cleanliness and beautification. A public improvement district is a designated area in a city or county where property owners agree to pay an additional tax or fee for specific improvements and amenities that go beyond city services. Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth and San Antonio are the only cities that fall within that population range and all four already have nonprofit groups that manage their downtown areas through established public improvement districts. In Dallas, it's Downtown Dallas Inc. The new bills appear to upend the governing structures of improvement districts in Dallas and the trio of other cities. The bills require cities only to contract with groups that have a seven-member board of directors selected by the city, county, governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the state House of Representatives. The remaining two spots would be elected by the top 10 largest owners of taxable property in the district, excluding tax-exempt property. Downtown Dallas Inc. has a board of directors and a board of governors that help guide 138 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023719 the group's operations and programs. It's not clear from the bills whether the new seven-member board would replace or supplement the existing boards overseeing the improvement districts in Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth and San Antonio. It's also unclear why the bills target only those four cities and leave out Houston, which has 2.3 million residents, or the cities Leach and Middleton represent. If the legislation is signed into law, it would go into effect in September and affect the largest public improvement districts in the four cities' downtown areas or central business districts. DallasNews Corporation, the parent company of The Dallas Morning News, is a member of Downtown Dallas Inc., and DallasNews Corporation President Katy Murray chairs the nonprofit's board of directors. Jennifer Scripps, Downtown Dallas Inc.'s president and CEO, said her group was still trying to determine the full scope of the proposals' impacts. "DDI learned about these bills after they were filed," she said in a statement. "We look forward to speaking with the authors this week to learn more and share our questions and concerns." Leach didn't respond to phone and text messages from The News seeking comment. Julie Atkinson, Leach's spokeswoman, told The News, "I'm unfortunately not able to get a comment from Rep. Leach at this time!" and didn't respond to follow-up messages. Middleton didn't respond to phone and text messages left at publicly listed numbers. Mathew Minor, spokesman for Middleton's office, said the state senator "would be happy to talk" about his bill proposal, but Minor didn't respond to any follow-up messages seeking clarity on when Middleton would be available to comment. The bills echo concerns about safety in downtown Dallas raised publicly by hotelier Monty Bennett, who told The News he believed the benefit of the proposals would be providing more resources to Downtown Dallas Inc., "which I wholeheartedly support." Bennett has at least one hotel in downtown Austin and doesn't own any property in downtown Dallas, though last year he expressed interest in relocating his real estate investment firm there. "Right now, we feel like we can't because of some of the safety issues downtown and what it would do to our people," Bennett said in March 2O24 at Downtown Dallas Inc.'s annual meeting and luncheon. "Our lease is up in three or four years, and I want to move us all downtown. But we need to improve what's going on.". When asked by The News if he had any input in the creation of either bills, the Ashford Inc. CEO said, "I have been very vocal to legislators and many others about the need for Texas' largest cities to have vibrant and safe downtowns, but I'm certainly not the only one." "Others, including various state and local leaders, have expressed similar sentiments publicly and privately," Bennett said. He didn't respond to follow up questions. The bills define "vagrancy" as "the habitual act of loitering, begging, panhandling, scavenging, camping, sleeping, or otherwise remaining idle for extended periods of time in a public place without a lawful purpose." Bennett, publisher of online news outlet The Dallas Express, wrote in a 2O22 editorial that Dallas had a "significant vagrancy problem" 139 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023720 and that more needed to be done to address it. The bills take a similar approach to a Dallas charter amendment approved by voters in November. It was put forward by Dallas Hero, a nonprofit financially backed by Bennett. Proposition S mandates the city waive its governmental immunity to allow lawsuits from residents and businesses who argue officials aren't following state or local laws. The House version of the bill has a similar provision waiving immunity. Both proposals say property owners within the district could "bring an action against a management organization to seek injunctive relief or specific performance in a district court to enforce compliance with any applicable law or the governing documents of the management organization.". Bennett, a Republican donor, gave $1,000 in 2017 and 2021 to Leach, state records show. It doesn't appear from state records that he has donated to Middleton as of last year. The Dallas Downtown Improvement District was created in 1992 and area property owners contribute annually to help pay for services like cleaning crews, security patrols and homeless outreach work within the district. The district's 2025 budget estimated the cost of improvements and services provided by the district would be $13.6 million, including $10 million for safety, cleaning and improvements. The downtown improvement district boundaries roughly run between Interstate 35E in the west, Interstate 30 in the south and U.S. Highway 75 in the east. The district has been renewed by the City Council five times between 1996 and 2020, and its current term runs through the end of December 2027. The House version of the bill says the proposal would allow the downtown area public improvement district to "exist in perpetuity and shall not terminate except by act of the Legislature." The Senate version has an additional section saying area property owners could petition to dissolve the district, triggering a public hearing on the topic. Under the proposal, cities can transfer the same amount of revenue collected through an existing special assessment on properties in the district from the previous fiscal year. It also calls for counties to provide the nonprofit management group separate funding equal to half the amount the cities put in and says the nonprofit management group could also receive state funding. But money from the state could only be used for efforts to eliminate crime or vagrancy, according to the bills. [IA] `Foot in the revolving door' - Iowa bill aims to reduce hospitalizations and homelessness for people with mental illness (KCRG-TV ABC 9 Cedar Rapids, IA) full text KCRG-TV ABC 9 Cedar Rapids [3/21/2025 6:33 PM, Conner Hendricks. 642K, IA] VIDEO. A bill working its way through the Iowa legislature aims to break the cycle of repeated hospitalizations and homelessness for people with mental illness. One mental health advocate says it will save lives. Leslie Carpenter with Iowa Mental Health Advocacy says far too often people who struggle with mental illness are released from the hospital without any supports. The practice, she says, is called "streeting". "I know of one case where the parents were guardians for their daughter and she was discharged from the hospital. They were never notified, so they were not there able to help provide support and who they received a notification from was actually the police. They came to notify them that she had died by suicide," she said. A bill working its way 140 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023721 through the Iowa legislature seeks to change this. When hospitals go to discharge a patient who was involuntarily committed, House File 385 requires they provide a 15 day supply of medication for that patient. The bill also requires hospitals to provide the patients with paperwork that includes dates and times for follow up appointments and how to stick with treatment. It also requires hospitals to notify the court and family members that their loved one is set to be released. "It requires an accountability and a responsibility to discharge the person with reasonable communication and care coordination to stop and limit the possibility of that person going back off their medications and out of treatment and deteriorating over and over again," she said. Thursday, the bill passed out of the Iowa House unanimously. Rep. Eddie Andrews (R-Johnston) said, "This bill will help us to pause the revolving door of repeated hospitalizations to lessen homelessness, incarceration, and victimization of people with severe mental illnesses here in Iowa.". Rep. Timi Brown-Powers (DWaterloo) said, "Hopefully this is going to save some lives and aid in the families as they look for other resources in the communities." Carpenter likens the bill to putting a foot in the revolving door of homelessness and hospitalizations for people who struggle with severe mental illnesses. She hopes the Iowa Senate and Governor Kim Reynolds agree. [IA] Iowa bill aims to reduce hospitalizations and homelessness for people with mental illness (KTIV-TV NBC 4 Sioux City, IA) - full text KTIV-TV NBC 4 Sioux City [3/21/2025 6:32 PM, Staff, 160K, IA] Leslie Carpenter with Iowa Mental Health Advocacy says far too often people who struggle with mental illness are released from the hospital without any supports. The practice, she says, is called "streeting." [Editorial note: consult source link for video] [ND] Lack of homeless shelter creates crisis (Minot Daily News, ND) - full text Minot Daily News [3/21/2025 8:00 PM, Jerrand Assibey, 68K, ND] I am writing to express deep concern over Minot's ongoing failure to address a critical public safety crisis -- the complete lack of a shelter for homeless and temporarily displaced residents. It is deeply troubling that an oil-rich city like Minot has not taken the necessary steps to provide such a fundamental resource, leaving vulnerable individuals exposed to dangerous conditions. The urgency of this issue became even more apparent when I, too, found myself homeless due to a domestic dispute. Despite my limited resources, I have taken the initiative to launch The Hartford Project, an effort to address this dire need. However, the reality is that charitable organizations and churches, while well-intentioned, simply do not have the capacity to meet the overwhelming demand. Tonight, I am writing this email from a McDonald's, with no idea where I will sleep. This is not just my struggle -- it is the reality for many others in our community. Minot's frigid winters make this situation even more perilous. Without a shelter, those experiencing homelessness are at severe risk of hypothermia, frostbite, and death. Moreover, this issue affects the entire city -- overburdening emergency services, increasing crime rates, and straining public health resources. Families in crisis, victims of 141 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023722 domestic violence, and those facing sudden financial hardship are left without safe options, further compounding the instability in our community. The question remains: Why has Minot, despite its economic strength, neglected such a vital public service? Other cities with similar financial resources have taken action, yet Minot remains stagnant. If local leadership continues to ignore this crisis, my next step will be to reach out to CNN, The New York Times, or another national media outlet to shed light on why one of the coldest cities in America lacks a shelter for its most vulnerable residents. The citizens of Minot deserve to know why this issue remains unaddressed. I urge city leaders, business owners, and community members to take immediate action before more lives are lost to negligence. The time for excuses is over. [CO] Colorado Springs Fire Department knocks down homeless fire Friday evening (Colorado Springs Gazette, CO) - full text Colorado Springs Gazette [3/21/2025 7:24 PM, Mackenzie Bodell, 771K, CO] The Colorado Springs Fire Department knocked down a fire at a homeless encampment near Interstate 25 and Bijou Street Friday afternoon. The Fire Department said multiple engines responded and the fire grew to about a half-acre by the time it was extinguished just before 5 p.m. Fire personnel remained to ensure there were no hot spots and warned the community smoke might be visible from 1-25. Saturday will bring red-flag warnings across central and southern El Paso County, according to KOAA meteorologist Alex O'Brien. Warnings will extend from noon until 8 p.m. with low humidity and gusty winds expected. [WY] Casper's Invisible Couple - Homeless, Pregnant And Living In Abandoned Car (Cowboy State Daily, WY) - full text Cowboy State Daily [3/22/2025 4:34 PM, Zakary Sonntag, 803K, WY] Malachy Zion Springer and his partner Kayla Riley sleep in an abandoned sedan on a vacant lot near the train tracks in north Casper. The passenger side windows are stuck in the down position, so they hoist a ragged box spring mattress against the car frame to shield out the elements, pulling it snug behind them as they climb in through the only functional door on the passenger side. The car holds everything they own, which amounts to little more than a mound of blankets and clothing along with their latest food pantry haul. Springer sleeps upright beside the open window. Kayla curls up like a question mark on the seat beside him. The quarters are as tight as they are breezy. "We bury ourselves in insulation. You gotta make sure every nook and cranny around you is isolated and insulated, or that one little breeze is going to freeze you out all night," Springer told the Cowboy State Daily on a recent March morning as he made fresh tracks through a 6-inch blanket of overnight snowfall surrounding the car. Either together or separately, Springer and Riley have mutually spent their entire adult lives cycling on and off the streets. So, as it relates to sleeping in a cramped sedan, it could certainly be better, Springer said. But he's also had it a lot worse. "When I was 17, most of the time I didn't even have a sleeping bag," he said. "It was just alleyways and my leather jacket. You learn how to deal with shit." 142 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023723 Springer and Riley are among the growing number of people experiencing homelessness in Wyoming, which in the Casper area is estimated to have risen by 15% in the last year. This is according to the measure of occupied beds at the Wyoming Rescue Mission, Adam Flack, community coordinator at the mission, told Cowboy State Daily. Their experience calls attention to the hardship of unsheltered life and offers a glimpse at what more Wyomingites are likely to face if the trend continues. In both appearance and demeanor, there's nothing to obviously suggest Springer's a man experiencing homelessness -- a man who brushes his teeth without a sink, defecates against a fence line in the open air and who must come and go furtively from his nightly shelter to not bring attention to himself or Riley. Malachy Zion Springer and his partner Kayla Riley meet up with street family at a bus stop in Casper. Springer, 21, is tall and lean. He has mousy brown hair, whiskey brown eyes and prides himself on a sense of fashion, wearing finger rings as well as a half-dozen pendants around his neck. He has an air of teenage buoyancy, and a theatrical flair with shades of a prop comic. His back scratcher becomes a wand for casting boisterous, nonsensical spells. He jokes how the previous night's 16-degree low was delightfully balmy. Appearances, however, can be misleading. Despite his playfulness, he confided to Cowboy State Daily that he's bothered by awful thoughts, trailed by trauma, reliant on substance and given to violent tendencies, checking off every dark hallmark of homeless life. In recent years, his unsheltered experience has been running in the family. Springer, along with his unmarried mother and father, have all overlapped in their stays at the mercy shelter at Wyoming Rescue Mission. At one point last year, he spent four months living with his mother in an encampment under the Poplar Bridge that crosses the North Platte River. He has no shame in his lifestyle but is suddenly feeling an urgent need to reign in his demons and get off the street, because his responsibilities are about to grow significantly: Springer and Riley are expecting a child. As he prepares for fatherhood, he's reflecting on his own upbringing and asking himself what he might do differently to break the cycle. In many ways Springer's upbringing was conventional. As an adolescent he played first-person shooter video games and took part in sports at the Wells Park complex. He was naturally athletic and relentlessly competitive, parlaying these tendencies into his "first hustle" of running wagers on playground races -- always betting on himself. His later hustles, however, put him on a fast track to big trouble. These began shortly after his family moved to the area of south Casper known locally as "Felony Flats," where he says he fell in with the wrong crowd. "I was around 15 or 16, I got into the wrong crowd," he said. "I started smoking weed, getting into crimes, robberies, burglaries. I was usually the guy standing guard and helping the others get in and out of the house through the window.". Trouble like this is part of why his parents kicked him out at 17. He then cycled between the streets and a series of non-permanent residences, swiftly developing a rap sheet of violent offense and drug possession charges. "By the time I turned 19, I had a string of violent offenses on my record, because if somebody stole from me or owed me money, I'd track them down and beat the hell out of him and whoever was with him," he said, 143 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023724 adding that such violence was often galvanized by meth use. More than one of these charges involved his first wife, a woman named Jessica to whom he was civilly married in 2021, and whose mutual drug addiction and ensuing conflicts invoked the imagery of a crime thriller. On one occasion, he confronted his wife in the act of an extramarital affair on the top level of a parking garage in downtown Casper. "I came up to that parking garage like a bat out of hell, and when I found them on the fourth floor, I popped her front tire and back tire with a razor blade," Springer said. "They try to drive away, and I jump on the hood of the truck and I start bashing the window in with my bare hands. They swerve and I fall off the truck and they run me over.". Springer filed for divorce that year, and said he's come a long way since, making strides against his drug addiction and building a network of sober, supportive people. But the biggest reason for his recent life improvements is owed to one person specifically, he said. Kayla Riley takes a mid-morning break to rest in the car she lives in with her partner. They've their lives cycling living on and off the streets. (Zakary Sonntag, Cowboy State Daily). In contrast to Springer's liveliness, Riley, 31, keeps a soft and cautious bearing. She has coffee-colored complexion and a pair of guarded, ember-dark eyes that harbor the trauma of her past. Her life took a rough turn early, and she came of age on a rollercoaster of foster families, treatment facilities, group homes and the Casper Youth Crisis Center (YCC). She was fostered at the age of 8 along with her younger sister following an incident that, coincidentally, involved Malachy's father, who shot out the back window of Kayla's mother's car in a drug dispute gone sideways, she told Cowboy State Daily. Though, she didn't learn of the connection until more than a decade afterward. As a 9-year-old, she was raped by her 16-year-old foster brother, a moment that haunts her still. "It's a work in progress," she said about dealing with it more than two decades later. "It still traumatizes me." In this way she matches a common pattern among people experiencing homelessness, a demographic with a disproportionately high level of childhood trauma, said Flack of the Wyoming Rescue Mission. "Severe childhood trauma, especially under the age of 7, is something that's often reported as a reason that people are going through their struggles" related to homelessness, he said. "Because that can lead down a road to mental health issues that then lead to substance abuse. It's a domino." In Riley's case, the dominoes kept falling. At age 12 she attempted to end her life by overdosing on prescription drugs she found in her grandmother's cabinet. "I felt like nobody understood me," she said. "Nobody heard me, nobody was paying attention to me. I felt like the outcast in my family and so the best way to solve the problem was take me out of it. I died for two minutes.". This was followed by stints at, and recurrent runaways from, the Hemry Group Home and YCC. She had a child at 17 and dropped out of high school. When the state took custody of her son, she started using drugs and excessive alcohol. By 23, she was irreparably addicted to meth. Her preferred method was "shakers," or syringes in which meth rocks are shaken up with water into an injectable solution. 144 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023725 "I used to shoot it in my legs, in my foot, my hand, backs of my arms, front of my arms," she said, rolling back her sleeve to reveal a map of tracking scars and "craters," or the scarring that happens when a chemical reaction burns from the inside out toward the surface of the skin. Her addiction might have continued unabated were it not for an eyeopening moment of betrayal. In her late 20s she was living in a Casper apartment with friends from her addict community. One night while sleeping, her roommates injected her with a dangerously potent dose of meth, a tactic deployed by addicts to get other users more deeply hooked, Riley explained. "I'd just fallen asleep on the couch after being up for, like, two weeks as it was from just smoking it," she said. "Next thing I know, I'm wide awake and I've got two syringes sticking out of my arms. "I was so high I couldn't see straight. I was coughing and hyperventilating at the same time. It was 80 ccs. They could have killed me." She wanted to start over and get clean, but she also knew she couldn't do it alone. As if by divine grace, she shortly after began getting close with a man who shared her goals of getting clean and living a healthy life. Springer was there for her when she got out of a community drug help program at the Central Wyoming Counseling Center, and they've been giving one another support since. Soon they'll be supporting one more. Springer and Riley are on a waiting list for housing support through the Community Action Partnership of Natrona County. Once they have housing, Springer envisions getting into the construction trade. Riley intends on becoming a retail cashier, and is attending courses at Casper College in preparation for her high school equivalency test. In the meantime, they're maintaining their routines. Springer walks the fence lines at local high schools and other foot-trafficked areas with an eye out for loose change. A day's gathering can usually get him a pack of cigarettes or a few "pre-rolls" of THC-9, a cannabinoid derivative that helps him sleep. Throughout the day they'll stop by the downtown transfer station bus stop, the unofficial "street family" meetup. Here they may pass a pint of vodka, smoke pot halfies and pre-rolls and gab with friends. The atmosphere at the transfer station is typically friendly, but it can devolve fast. On a recent afternoon, Cowboy State Daily witnessed men come to a physical altercation over a disputed winter jacket. Whereas Springer said that at this bus stop he'd recently stabbed a man in the side with a surgical steel knife "because he raised a hand to Kayla.". Other errands include the mission, where they can count on a handful of free warm meals provided by volunteers during the week. On Saturdays, they stockpile sack lunches provided by the local food pantry, grabbing enough for their "household of five," Springer explained with a wink. They keep a mental calendar of the days certain restaurants are likely to toss food. Lately, they've found steady plunder in dumpsters at Little Caesars Pizza. "We gotta stock up when we can," Springer said at the bus stop, turning to nod at Riley. "She's eating for two." [WA] Opinion I Washington must continue programs that address homelessness (Wenatchee World, WA) - full text 145 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023726 Wenatchee World [3/21/2025 12:56 PM, Bill Lucia, 64K, WA] Homelessness is a crisis we can solve -- but only if we move beyond temporary fixes and commit to long-term, equitable investments in proven solutions. With the election now behind us, Washington's legislators have a chance to act for families this January when the 2025 session gets underway. Homelessness requires sustained effort and a commitment to equitable, trauma-informed support systems. At the organization I lead, Building Changes, we see both the cost of inaction and the hope brought by well-funded, community programs. In the upcoming session, Washington's lawmakers have a vital chance to strengthen two key investments that have made a lasting difference for youth and families. For 20 years, the Washington Youth & Families Fund has been our state's most important resource for driving innovative and equitable solutions to meet the needs of youth and families experiencing homelessness. Last year, 67% of families and youth in programs the fund supports successfully found permanent housing -- up from 47% in 2020. This progress was made possible by the Legislature's $1 million increase for the fund in 2023. To sustain success for Washington families, we are asking legislators to maintain this increase. The Homeless Student Stability Program, launched in 2016, provides housing support for homeless students and families, including unaccompanied youth. As the first program of its kind, it uses evidence-based strategies to tackle racial inequities in education and housing. Last year, Washington identified 46,049 homeless students statewide. Of these, 26,209 were enrolled in the 49 school districts receiving funding from the Homeless Student Stability Program, and nearly half - 13,210 students -- were directly supported by those funds. We are urging the Legislature to allocate an ongoing $2.6 million to the program to sustain the successful collaboration between housing and education partners. Homelessness is often reported with doom and gloom, and the visible tragedy of this crisis fuels the perception that nothing can be done. Yet, coordinated and targeted programs like the Washington Youth & Families Fund and Homeless Student Stability Program are making a difference -- from 2016 to 2023, we saw a 40% drop in youth homelessness. What's more, these programs are tailored to meet the needs of Black, brown, Indigenous, and LGBTQ+ youth--serving those too often left out by traditional approaches. No set of programs will solve homelessness entirely. Poverty, systemic racism, and policies that exacerbate inequality continue to fuel housing instability. But addressing these root causes means pushing beyond temporary fixes. We must close persistent funding gaps that limit our state's ability to meet these challenges long-term. Meaningful change requires sustained investment, not just crisis response. Fully funding the Washington Youth & Families Fund and the Homeless Student Stability Program will expand their proven impact statewide. To reduce homelessness, these programs need consistent support for years to come, not just one budget cycle. Daniel Narvaez Zavala is the executive director of Building Changes. The organization is a local nonprofit that works to advance equitable responses to homelessness in Washington State, focusing on children, youth, and families and the systems that serve them. This editorial first published in the Washington Standard. 146 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023727 [WA] Bills limiting how much cities can regulate homelessness could return (Seattle Times, WA) - full text Seattle Times [3/21/2025 6:00 AM, Sofia Schwarzwalder, 4826K, WA] Two bills to limit how much cities can regulate homelessness died in the Washington Legislature this session, but could come back next year. The proposals, one seeking a new statewide standard for cities' homeless camping bans and another looking to reduce permitting roadblocks, never made it to the House floor. Lawmakers were divided over the proposals and are turning to a budget fight, letting these proposals die. Republicans' primary focus has been on housing supply and rent assistance rather than homelessness, said Rep. Sam Low, R-Lake Stevens. He said to address homeless issues at the statewide level the two parties "need to start working together" as the majority of Republican bills on the topic were never given a committee hearing. Rep. Mia Gregerson, D-SeaTac, proposed House Bill 1380, which would have required any laws regulating the use of public space be "objectively reasonable" as to the time, place and manner. The bill, modeled off an Oregon law, drew criticism from city officials who said it was too vague. Following a U.S. Supreme Court Ruling last June that ruled punishing people for sleeping outside was not "cruel or unusual," many cities adopted stricter regulations on the use of public space. Burien passed an outright ban on living outside in February. Gregerson said the proposed state standard would have allowed cities to continue developing policies to fit their unique needs while also ensuring local homeless populations were protected from unreasonable punishments. The bill is dead for this year's session. However, Gregerson said she is "absolutely interested and committed to" reintroducing the bill next year. Another piece of Democratic homelessness legislation, House Bill 1195, also never made it to the House floor. The bill sought to remove permitting roadblocks that prevent emergency shelters, transitional housing, indoor emergency housing and permanent supportive housing from being built in certain areas. Gregerson said pairing HB 1195 and HB 1380 is important. "Accountability in these areas is where rubber meets the road," she said. "We need to keep working in partnership with everyone so we can solve these problems." Alison Eisinger, executive director of the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, supported both bills and hoped to see them move in tandem with a Senate effort to ensure compliance with housing elements of the Growth Management Act, which directs local governments on how to manage population growth. Eisinger said the coalition will continue working on the House legislation between now and next year's session, knowing that legislative progress on these kinds of policies is often a multiyear effort. [WA] Editorial: Coordinated efforts to combat homelessness show positive progress (Tacoma News Tribune, WA) - full text Tacoma News Tribune [3/21/2025 1:07 AM, Staff, 397K, WA] Two heads are better than one. That's what Walla Walla area organizations discovered after years of disjointed efforts to combat homelessness from each of their own silos. Right around the time when the COVID-19 pandemic started taking off, so did a collaborative effort to tackle the homelessness problem from every direction. Shelter providers in the area began meeting, and the city manager and hospital joined in soon after, sharing resources and best practices. 147 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023728 This allowed the organizations to share ways in which they were able to make progress and gave them a community that helped them push forward. "We went from folks focusing on their own operations and programs to folks coming together and trying to coordinate services," Sam Jackie, who works in human services for Walla Walla County, told Northwest Public Broadcasting. Collaboration came in the form of strategizing funding allocation and sharing landlord contacts and letter templates, among other things. Cooperation between the City of Walla Walla and the low-barrier homeless shelter or "camp" has helped residents utilize the shelter as a stepping stone toward a more stable situation, especially since it has become a 24/7 spot instead of evening-only, allowing people to treat it as a home base at all times rather than having to roam each day until night time. This also helps those who are struggling with addiction and mental health crises to take care of their basic need for shelter in hopes that a more secure situation allows them to focus more effort on recovery. Stories like these reinforce what we already know about our community: The people in it care. We extend gratitude to those working tirelessly to address the problem of homelessness and the factors that contribute to it. We also encourage other local systems of organizations to embrace the idea of collaboration rather than competition. The results may continue to improve the Walla Walla Valley in a multitude of ways. [CA] `I'll be out on the streets' - Oakland to close two major homeless shelters (San Francisco Chronicle) - full text San Francisco Chronicle [3/21/2025 6:43 PM, Maggie Angst and Sarah Ravani, 5046K] Oakland will shut down two major homeless shelters that house about 70 people in West Oakland by this summer, worrying residents and advocates who say the closures will make its homeless crisis worse. They argue the city continues to lack enough temporary or permanent beds for its large unhoused population. The homeless shelters are run by the same operator and adjacent. One is an RV safe parking lot, which launched in July 2021, and the other is a community cabin site, which opened in February 2023. Both sites were opened to serve people who lived at the once-sprawling encampment at Wood Street, once the biggest encampment in Northern California. The closures, which are scheduled for June 30, come about a month after the site's service providers raised concerns that the city was behind on making its payments. The city said in a statement Friday that its lease on the land expires in December, but officials need six months to clean up the site. Donald Frazier, the executive director of the nonprofit that runs the sites, Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency, said the city was behind on making nearly $1 million in payments. Frazier said he met with the city administrator's office on Friday and officials promised to pay BOSS within 10 days. If the city fails to pay, Frazier said he would be forced to close the sites by the end of March. The city's contract unit was behind on approving the vendor's insurance by four months, but Oakland officials did not say why there was a delay. As the city prepares to shut down the sites, homelessness continues to be a major issue for residents. A recent city 148 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023729 survey found that housing, affordable housing and blight were among the top concerns for residents. Oakland's homeless population grew by 9% from 5,055 in 2022 to 5,490 in 2024 and accounts for nearly half of all homeless people in Alameda County. The Wood Street shelters were designed to serve up to 100 people in tiny cabins and another 40 people in the RV parking lot, but it appears they were operating well below their capacity. As of Friday, the community cabin site housed 51 people -- 10 of which were in the process of moving on to permanent housing -- and the RV site provided services to 19 people -- one of whom was moving to permanent housing, according to Frazier. The remaining residents, Frazier said, would be moved to other shelters when the site closes. The city has not yet said where those residents will move. Wood Street was once home to the largest encampment in the city -- at one point spanning nearly 25 city blocks with around 300 residents who parked RVs or built makeshift shelters on land owned by the city, state, railroad companies and other agencies. City and state officials long pushed to shut down the site, which had more than 100 fires as well as other health and safety hazards. Gov. Gavin Newsom awarded Oakland a $8.3 million grant to build a homeless shelter at Wood Street. Newsom kicked in the money after a state agency, Caltrans, started removing about 200 people from the part of the site that the agency owned. Homeless advocates fought and lost in court after battling to prevent the site from being cleared. On Thursday, the sites appeared in disarray. Sections of fencing were missing, several cabins had broken windows and garbage and debris were littered around the perimeters. Residents said they'd been alerted about an impending closure from on-site staff but that they had not received official notices from the city or operator. Most residents told the Chronicle that they had nowhere to go when the sites shutter. "I'll be out on the streets," said Suzanne Newton, 54, who has lived at the RV site since it opened about four years ago. "It's horrible. They made a bunch of promises that never happened." Newton's RV was towed to the site in 2021 from a spot in the city's former Wood Street encampment. The frame of the RV cracked when it was dropped at the site, so she said she'll have to abandon it there. Newton's on the waitlist to receive a Section 8 housing voucher, which would subsidize rent in market-rate rental buildings, and is holding out hope that she gets housing before the site shuts down. She said she's not interested in staying in a group shelter. Mac Wilkins, 68, said he planned to ask someone to help him tow his RV to a nearby street. Since arriving at the site a few years ago, Wilkins said rats had eaten through the vehicle's wiring and people had smashed all his windows. But having some form of shelter and maintaining his personal space, he said, was better than the alternatives. Both Wilkins and Newton said the RV site was poorly run and that the city failed to live up to its promises. The conditions of the bathrooms, they said, were so disgusting that they often opted against using them. Despite on-site security guards, large holes in the fencing around the property contributed to rampant theft issues, they said. And after years of living at the site, staff had not helped them secure housing or register their vehicles. "It's difficult, but I try to stay positive as much as I can," Wilkins said. At the tiny cabin site, residents were meant to stay for up to six months before transitioning 149 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023730 into permanent housing, but some people have ended up languishing there for years. Linda Gomez, 38, said she was one of the first residents to move from the Wood Street encampment into the cabins about two years ago. Since then, she said the window of her cabin has been smashed and she's been robbed several times. Gomez has yet to get a housing match and she doesn't feel optimistic that she'll receive a placement before the closure, she said. "I've already been here hella long and I don't have anything," she said. "They just want to wash their hands and say goodbye to us." [CA] 14 arrested in North County for violating homeless encampment ban (KUSITV Fox 5 San Diego, CA) - full text KUSI-TV Fox 5 San Diego [3/22/2025 4:44 PM, Amber Coakley, 978K, CA] A law enforcement operation in Vista led to the arrest of 14 individuals on Thursday for violation of the city's homeless encampment ban, authorities said. According to the San Diego County Sheriffs Office, there have been ongoing concerns from the community about unauthorized encampments and public nuisance issues in the 400 block of La Tortuga Drive. Deputies from the Vista Sheriffs Station's Community Policing and Problem-Solving Unit (COPPS) responded to the area. The operation resulted in the arrest of 14 individuals that were found to be in violation of Vista's homeless encampment ban. Among those arrested was a suspect with a felony warrant for vehicular manslaughter. The sheriff's office did not release further details about the individual, but authorities confirmed that they were wanted in connection with a criminal case. Local authorities emphasized its continued commitment to balancing enforcement with outreach efforts, collaborating with local partners to connect individuals experiencing homelessness with available services. The department says its approach aims to address both the needs of vulnerable individuals and the concerns of residents who have reported public safety risks linked to encampments. Sheriff's officials are urging community members to report any suspicious or criminal activity by calling the Sheriffs Office at 858-868-3200. [Editorial note: consult source link for video] [CA] Fourteen people arrested at illegal homeless encampment in Vista (KGTV-TV ABC 10 San Diego, CA) - full text KGTV-TV ABC 10 San Diego [3/22/2025 3:25 PM, Staff, 728K, CA] Fourteen people suspected of violating a homeless encampment ban in Vista were taken into custody, authorities announced today. Deputies from the Vista Sheriff's Station Community Policing and Problem-Solving Unit responded to the 400 block of La Tortuga Drive on Thursday to reports of continuous complaints of an unauthorized encampment and public nuisance, according to the San Diego County Sheriffs Office. Investigators determined after further investigation that one of the alleged violators was arrested on suspicion of a felony warrant for vehicular manslaughter. "The San Diego County Sheriff's Office remains committed to a balanced approach of outreach and enforcement, working closely with community partners to connect individuals in need 150 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023731 with available services while addressing criminal activity that impacts public safety," sheriff's officials said in a statement. Anyone with additional information regarding the case was urged to call the sheriffs office at 858-868-3200. [CA] Three Months After Homeless Man Is Killed in City Cleanup, Vallejo Pauses Encampment Sweeps (KQED, CA) - full text KQED [3/21/2025 6:00 AM, Ericka Cruz Guevarra, Vanessa Rancano, Jessica Kariisa, Mel AUDIO. In recent weeks, the public has learned that a 58-year-old man named James Oakley was crushed to death during a city-run trash cleanup on Christmas Eve, sparking outrage and shock among unhoused residents and advocates. Now, the city has put a temporary pause on encampment sweeps. [CA] Michael Smolens: Homelessness is going to get worse (San Diego Union Tribune, CA) - full text San Diego Union Tribune [3/21/2025 8:03 AM, Michael Smolens, 1682K, CA] There hasn't been much to cheer about on the homelessness front for years. And what's to come may bring a torrent of tears. Local and state budgets are tight, teetering on, or dropping into, deficit territory. Reduced funding from those sources combined with increasing costs already meant fewer people can be helped, whether assisting them with shelter or keeping those with housing from losing it. The region's overtaxed shelter system that ideally would be a bridge to permanent housing isn't that for a lot of people. Some 40 percent of those who were able to find a shelter bed ended up back out on the street or living in their cars, according to a recent study by UC San Diego. Planned federal spending cuts will almost certainly worsen the situation exponentially -- in San Diego County, across California and elsewhere in the country. An anticipated economic downturn likely will exacerbate the impact of the cuts. Even President Donald Trump has acknowledged his policies may well hurt the U.S. economy at least in the short-term -- a necessary precursor, as he sees it, to making it much stronger. Money for homelessness programs continued to flow recently, though not as much as in the past, as the city of San Diego recently learned. Nevertheless, there have been some blips of optimism about how homelessness numbers were trending. Mayor Todd Gloria noted a break in the two-year string of monthly reports that showed more people falling into homelessness than becoming housed. But that two-month reprieve didn't last. Gov. Gavin Newsom called a 3% rise in homelessness last year progress -- a slower increase than before and well below the nationwide increase of 18.1%. That has done little to stem bipartisan criticism that the region and state haven't gotten much return on the billions of dollars spent to combat homelessness over the years. In any event, a lot of that money will be going away under plans by the Trump administration. The budget bill passed by the Republican-controlled Congress, despite slight increases in some housing programs, suggests a stark outlook. For instance, the bill provides a total of $32.14 billion for tenant-based rental assistance contract renewals -- $3.6 billion higher than the funding for those voucher renewals in the previous fiscal year, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. 151 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023732 Yet that's not going to cover the cost of renewals "and is projected to cost the program an estimated 32,000 vouchers upon turnovers," the coalition said. Currently, rental assistance programs only help about 1 in 4 low-income households that qualify across the country. Rental assistance is widely considered one of the most effective programs for keeping people from becoming homeless. Under the voucher system, recipients essentially pay an amount for rent based on their income and the public assistance covers the rest. In San Diego, a voucher costs hundreds of dollars less than providing a shelter bed and services that go with it, according to the city's housing commission. More than 180,000 households are on San Diego's city and county waiting lists for rental assistance. The average wait for a Section 8 voucher is 15 years, as The San Diego Union-Tribune recently pointed out. Even before the threat of federal cuts, local agencies were so strapped that they stopped accepting new voucher applicants and struggled to provide enough money for those who already have them, according to the Voice of San Diego. Meanwhile, shifts in federal Homeless Assistance Grants could reduce funds by an estimated $168 million, and "may endanger the housing stability and services of over 18,000 people on the verge of or experiencing homelessness," according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Further, the federal office that funds housing and other support for homeless people is targeted for deep cuts. The Office of Community Planning and Development, which is within the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is slated to lose 84% of its staff, according to National Public Radio, citing an administration document. Potential Medicaid cuts would not only affect regional plans to expand behavioral health assistance, much of which is aimed at homeless residents, but would make it a struggle to keep what's already in place. Also, the federal Emergency Housing Voucher program, a temporary program enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic, is running out of money sooner than anticipated, CalMatters reported this week. That program differs from Section 8 in that it targets those in most dire need: people living on the street or in shelters, those just on the verge of homelessness and people fleeing domestic violence or human trafficking. The program has helped house about 60,000 renters nationwide, more than 15,000 of them in California and more than 400 in San Diego, CalMatters said. There's no plan as yet to replace that money. Ironically, despite all of this, there's the potential eventually for at least a downward adjustment in the nationwide homeless count. An immigration surge prior to last year's homeless count likely distorted the picture of homelessness in the country, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis of research by University of Pennsylvania professor Dennis Culhane, a leading national expert on homelessness. What's known as the "point-in-time" count does not assess immigration status, but Culhane's research suggests domestic homelessness probably increased by not much more than 7% nationally rather than more than 18%. Culhane's calculations would bring the nationwide total to nearly 680,000 homeless people, down from 772,000. The surge was curtailed by the Biden administration, and Trump has even stronger 152 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023733 actions planned, including mass deportations. That might mean some lower numbers, but that alone is not going to stop homelessness from becoming a worsening national scourge. On homelessness and other matters, local and state governments will have to figure out how to deal with the shrinking federal social safety net launched nearly a century ago. [CA] This is how Daniel Lurie wants to grow S.F.'s homeless shelter system dramatically (San Francisco Chronicle, CA) - full text San Francisco Chronicle [3/21/2025 7:00 AM, J.D. Morris, 5046K] Mayor Daniel Lurie has begun to shed more light on how he plans to achieve his goal of significantly expanding the San Francisco homeless shelter system during his first half year on the job. Lurie wants to grow the city's supply of interim housing units by 1,500 beds in the six months following his Jan. 8 inauguration, and his aides say they're well on their way to that goal, one of the mayor's core campaign promises. It's already generated some pushback and is likely to face more given that residents frequently object to new homeless services near them. To hit Lurie's 1,500-bed target, his administration will rely in part on projects that were launched under his predecessor, former Mayor London Breed. But Lurie is betting that he can implement those initiatives faster because of an ordinance he got passed to accelerate city contracts related to homelessness, drug addiction and mental health services. At the same time, his administration has settled on criteria to propose an influx of additional shelter and treatment beds -- and get them opened quickly using the powers granted by the mayor's ordinance. Nearly 700 beds are already "in implementation planning," which means the city has determined a project is feasible at a particular site but is still figuring out the details, according to an internal document from the mayor's office. Lurie is under pressure to make visible reductions in street homelessness -- a top concern among voters and one reason why he defeated Breed in last year's election. But any addition of new shelter facilities will inevitably face resistance, as is common in San Francisco. The mayor learned as much recently when community members pushed back on some of his early discussions about building a large new shelter or extending the operation of controversial shelter sites. In a statement to the Chronicle, Lurie said San Francisco's shelter system is currently "at capacity, and thousands of people are sleeping on our streets every night." The city's most recent official tally of its homeless population found that about 4,300 people were unsheltered. "There's nothing compassionate about that," Lurie said in the statement. "My administration has set an ambitious goal to add the capacity we need to offer people a better option, match the diverse needs of San Franciscans experiencing homelessness, and help people move through our system to long-term stability. Our process is rigorous and data-driven, and we will continue to work with communities to make sure this works for them." To underpin the shelter expansion, Lurie's administration combined data from the city's public health and homelessness departments to get an overview of the needs of thousands of unhoused people who interact with city health services. Officials found that nearly half have chronic diseases and more than a third have a long- 153 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023734 term disability. Thirty percent struggle with addiction and 18% have what the internal document from the mayor's office described as a "serious mental illness." Led by Kunal Modi, Lurie's chief of health and homelessness, the mayor's administration is eying a mix of various shelter and treatment facilities to meet the 1,500-bed goal. That includes warehouse conversions, tent-like structures, transitional housing, tiny cabins, residential treatment and hotel vouchers. The kind of sites Lurie is looking at include empty buildings and parking lots, hotels, various government-owned complexes and buildings up for sale. He's also trying to figure out how much capacity can be added at existing shelter and treatment sites. The internal document said 160 beds to be counted toward the 1,500 goal are already "confirmed and online." That number includes 130 hotel beds newly available through a voucher program offered by Compass Family Services, which has been in the works for about six months, according to the nonprofit. Another 690 beds fall under the "implementation planning" category and includes some previously disclosed sites such as a drug-free housing facility in SoMa, a crisis stabilization unit in the Tenderloin and a tiny cabin village in the Bayview. Lurie officials have also discussed adding more than 200 shelter beds to the Bayview site, drawing the ire of Supervisor Shamann Walton, who represents the neighborhood. Walton introduced a successful Board of Supervisors resolution that urged Lurie to "implement a fair distribution of new homeless shelters" across the city. It's still not clear exactly how Lurie will spread the 1,500 beds out across the city, but he previously told the Chronicle that he would be "fact-based and fair about where we put these additional beds." Lurie doesn't plan for the shelter expansion to be entirely permanent. His intent is to surge bed capacity to get people off the streets faster now, with the goal of being able to wind down some of the shelters later. The mayor's office has had preliminary talks with Stanford University researchers who have been studying data related to the homeless response in Los Angeles and are interested in analyzing San Francisco's approach as well. One of the Stanford academics, Preeti Hehmeyer, said San Francisco has an opportunity to combat what she described as a bureaucratic fragmentation problem that hinders homeless response efforts throughout California. "You have these different systems where someone is providing homeless services -- it's distinct from the health and mental health data sets and then separate from criminal justice (too)," she said. "Anything that San Francisco can do to integrate the various pieces of information we have about these really vulnerable populations will make it more likely that we are working toward enduring solutions." Hehmeyer, managing director of Stanford's California Policy Research Initiative, said she's optimistic about Lurie's plans because "different interventions will work for different populations at different times and under different conditions." "But without the data, there's no way to target those interventions at the populations that need it most," she said. [CA] UCSF homelessness study complicates common narrative of crisis' causes (San Francisco Examiner, CA) - full text 154 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023735 San Francisco Examiner [3/21/2025 2:20 PM, Keith Menconi, 148K, CA] A bout of mental illness, a decline into drug addiction and then a downward spiral into homelessness: That's the linear, causal progression -- drugs and mental-health problems leading to homelessness -- that many think of when imagining how people end up on the street. But a new report from UC San Francisco researchers suggests that for most homeless people, the actual story is a lot more complicated, and often runs in the opposite direction. "There is no question that substance use and mental-health challenges increase an individual's risk of homelessness," said Dr. Margot Kushel, who directs the university's Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative. However, the reverse seems to be true as well, said Kushel during a webinar held Thursday to present the findings of the report authored by her team. "Homelessness increases the risk of behavioral-health challenges through a variety of mechanisms," she said, pointing to the stresses, dangers and traumatic experiences that often accompany life on the street. The UCSF report, also released Thursday, examines the complex link between homelessness, mental illness and drug use. It draws on a 2023 survey of California's homeless population -- which included thousands of questionnaires and hundreds of interviews -- that the UCSF team describes as "the largest representative study of homelessness in the U.S. since the mid-1990s.". The report's release comes as the administration of Mayor Daniel Lurie works to firm up its plans to move the thousands of people currently living on San Francisco's streets into shelters or housing in the coming years. Among its key findings, the report found that among California's homeless population, mental illness and drug abuse are widespread -- though not universal -- with about 48% of respondents reporting one or both problems. That figure is roughly in line with separate survey findings for San Francisco. The UCSF report also examined how the half of the unhoused population struggling with drug addictions or mental illnesses first became homeless. Among that group, it found that 8% of people cited drug or alcohol use as the primary reason that they lost housing. However, far more, 42% of respondents, said that they began to regularly use substances only after they fell into homelessness. Researchers behind the report said that life on the street often comes with traumatic experiences that, over time, push many people to use drugs and alcohol. For example, the survey found high rates of assault and sexual-abuse reports among respondents. Many homeless people also said they had lost personal belongings during encampment sweeps or had been roughed up by police. Sometimes, homeless people -- a population that the report found suffers from depression and anxiety at high rates -- turn to drugs as a coping mechanism. Other times, many homeless people, fearing for their safety, turn to methamphetamine as a means of staying awake and alert at night, the researchers said. The findings suggest that earlier interventions are more effective when it comes to arresting the downward spiral that often accompanies the fall into homelessness, said Marc Dones, the policy director at the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative. "Let's not get to four weeks; let's not get to six months," Dones said. "If we resolve people's experiences of homelessness faster, then we might not need to couple as many behavioral health supports to the homelessness system as we are currently seeking to do.". The new report landed just days after Lurie signed an executive directive that lays out 155 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023736 his plan for tackling San Francisco's homelessness, addiction and mental health crises. The directive renewed the mayor's pledge to create 1,500 additional shelter beds. It also calls for a broad overhaul of San Francisco's homeless initiatives, including the introduction of streamlining and accountability measures for The City's rehousing efforts, and its various programs to provide support services and rental assistance to homeless people. Earlier this month, Lurie's office also announced the launch of an 18-month pilot program that aims to prevent family homelessness before it begins by offering assistance to families on the brink of losing their homes. The program will be funded with $11 million from Tipping Point Community, the nonprofit that Lurie once led. Researchers behind the UCSF report have put forward their own list of policy recommendations that they say will help to prevent the slide into homelessness. Among them, the researchers said local governments should expand the use of support services that have a low barrier to entry for those who need help. They pointed to things like sober centers, the use of medications for opioid-use disorders, and outreach teams that are trained in crisis intervention. Dones also cited a pilot program currently underway in Los Angeles that uses artificial intelligence to better direct resources towards helping to prevent people from losing their homes. The program tracks things like arrest reports and the use of food support to identify residents that are at heightened risk of homelessness. "That's the work that is for our team on the prevention side of things really exciting," Dones said. "And we would love to see more jurisdictions really aggressively pursuing prevention, to really tamp down on the inflow into the system.". [CA] San Francisco mayor fights crime, homelessness amid turnaround hopes (Washington Post) - full text Washington Post [3/23/2025 5:00 AM, Dan Balz, 31735K] Mayor Daniel Lurie was walking along the corridor to his private office when he paused and pointed to a photograph on the wall. The photo was of James "Sunny Jim" Rolph Jr., with whom Lurie bears a special kinship. Both were elected to lead the city despite having no prior experience in government. Rolph, who served 19 years as mayor and later served as governor of California, was first elected in 1911. It took more than a century for San Francisco voters to vest the powers of the office again in a political novice. There is perhaps no more telling indication of the depths to which the city had fallen in recent years and the impatience among city residents for action than the outcome of the 2024 election. "We won convincingly because people wanted change," the 48-year-old Lurie said, sitting behind his desk in City Hall. "They wanted accountability. And they wanted their government to serve them. . .. This is not a political thing. You want to feel safe walking down the street, and people lost that over the last few years." San Francisco has long been an international tourist destination as well as a symbol of tolerance, liberalism and inclusivity, qualities praised by the left and often pilloried by the right. In the past few years, the city came to symbolize a breakdown in governance. The downtown was overrun by crime, homelessness, open drug use and squalor on the streets. Along with that, there was a lack of affordable housing, a rising budget deficit and a local government seemingly incapable of dealing with the problems. In 2022, fedup voters began to take out their frustrations on elected officials. They recalled three members of a school board whose focus on the political correctness of school names -- a proposal later rescinded -- took precedence over reopening schools that had been 156 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023737 closed during the covid pandemic. A few months later, voters recalled progressive district attorney Chesa Boudin. He had campaigned on a pledge to try to "decriminalize poverty and homelessness" by not prosecuting what he called "quality of life" offenses such as soliciting sex, urinating in public and blocking sidewalks, rather than targeting rising crime in the city. As crime rose in the city, Boudin was hit by a voter backlash. Last November, voters here sent another message by ousting Mayor London Breed and putting their city in the hands of Lurie, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune. The election was seen nationally as another rejection of the city's liberal political tradition and its progressive governance. Lurie said he sees nothing ideological in the vote that brought him to office or the promises he made as a candidate. "There's nothing progressive about 810 people dying of fentanyl overdoses on our streets," he said, citing a 2023 statistic. "There's nothing progressive about having families have to stand at a bus stop while somebody is using drugs openly. There's nothing in San Francisco's DNA that says we have to tolerate, you know, people walking into stores and taking what they want." Nor, he said, was the vote a demand for the city to turn away from his traditions. "We're San Francisco," he said. "We're never going to change that. We're going to be the city where you can come and be who you want to be, love who you want to love. We're a city of immigrants. We're a city that prides itself on our diversity because that's what makes us such a great city, and nothing changes about that." Lurie's most immediate priority is to deal with the fentanyl crisis, which he said had caught the city "flat-footed ... and we still have not caught up." In February alone, he said, 61 people died of overdoses. Through compromise and negotiation, he persuaded the board of supervisors to cede some power to his office and won solid support for his emergency fentanyl initiative. Lurie and the supervisors are working cooperatively after a period of acrimony that marked Breed's tenure. "A lot of the historic animosities between personalities are not really part of the picture anymore," said board president Rafael Mandelman. "He's [Lurie] managing to get things done at the board of supervisors that, you know, I don't think the prior administration would have been able to do with the prior board." Last week, Lurie announced a plan to confront homelessness, addiction and mental health issues. "You're going to see a lot of changes to our policy on that front in the coming weeks," he said. "In the coming days we'll announce 100-day targets, six-month targets and one-year targets on that." San Francisco's problems are much broader than those dealing with drugs, homelessness and crime. The city faces a budget deficit of roughly $800 million, which Lurie said could grow to closer to $1 billion if some federal reimbursements never arrive. Residents say there is no appetite for higher taxes, and Lurie said he will balance the city's budget without raising them. "We took things for granted here. We just assumed, you know, the good times would keep rolling," Lurie said. ". . . We sort of said, 'Okay, we don't have to build more housing. We don't have to enforce the rules or laws. We can just keep taxing people and they'll stay no matter what.' And we've found out that they will leave." Doing business in the city is often maddeningly complex and costly because of layers of state and local regulations. Lurie said it takes "61 different steps and about $21,000 to open a restaurant." He cited the example of a homeowner who recently told him he had applied to expand his house in 2021 and still hadn't received the permits. "And that 157 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023738 person's paid $19,000 in permit fees," Lurie said. Housing is a major problem in many cities, but San Francisco lags behind many others in its pace of new housing. Mandelman said the state has set a target for the city to build 82,000 units over the next eight years. Lurie said that he does not think the city built even 1,000 last year and that he is determined to attack the problem aggressively. But Mandelman said a streamlined regulatory process alone won't solve the housing problem. "If this is not a city where money wants to invest in real estate, and thinks it can make money on real estate, then we won't have more market-rate production." Before running for mayor, Lurie had worked for 15 years running Tipping Point Community, an anti-poverty program he founded. Friends occasionally suggested that he run for office, but it was not until the city was emerging slowly from the pandemic that he began to think seriously about doing so. "I thought my experience matched the moment," he said. Lurie said he has two mayoral role models: former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg and the late Dianne Feinstein, the senator and former San Francisco mayor. He admires Bloomberg for what he did to restructure city government in New York with a goal of "making sure there was accountability at every level." He admires Feinstein's example as a mayor who was a visible presence. "Mayor Feinstein walked the streets," he said. "She would call department heads out of the office and say, 'Meet me on the street corner.- Lurie said he has started to copy that approach. The mayor also is working to persuade the business community to help restore the city's vibrancy. Late last week, about two dozen corporate executives and wealthy San Franciscans announced the formation of the Partnership for San Francisco to help spur a revitalization of the downtown economy and environment. Not quite three months into his term, Lurie is still enjoying a honeymoon. Even among voters for whom he was not their first choice, there is a sense of goodwill and hope that he can succeed in cleaning up the city. "I don't know anyone who wishes him ill," said a local resident who did not support Lurie's candidacy and was skeptical about his ability to run the city. Another San Francisco resident, who backed Breed and believed she was beginning to turn the city around, nonetheless said of Lurie, "He's governing exactly the way I want him to as a resident, which is, 'Hey, we're not putting up with any more of crime or homelessness, and we're cleaning it up.- Lurie said progress is being made. Still, the problems facing the city are daunting enough that real solutions may not come before the honeymoon inevitably ends. The mayor is trying to move quickly while setting expectations realistically. "This is not an overnight thing," he said. "Ifs taken us years to fall into where we are. It's going to take us time to get out." [CA] San Jose mayor and county clash over homelessness crackdown (San Jose Spotlight, CA) - full text San Jose Spotlight [3/23/2025 11:30 AM, Vicente Vera, 135K, CA] San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan wants Santa Clara County to scale up shelter and health treatment options in response to the city's renewed crackdown on homelessness. During Tuesday's City Council discussion on Mayor Matt Mahan's 2025-26 March budget message, Councilmembers David Cohen and Domingo Candelas sought to involve county officials in the mayor's "Responsibility to Shelter" initiative -- which would allow for police to arrest homeless residents who refuse shelter after three attempts within 18 158 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023739 months. But county officials continue to scoff at the city's plan to increase the detainment of homeless residents, leaving San Jose with an uphill battle in putting Mahan's initiative to work. Cohen said the relationship between the city and county has been strained and it's time to start cooperating with each other. "That's why Councilmember Candelas and I requested that we set up a meeting (by June) to better understand the roles we can each play in addressing this big challenge," he told San Jose Spotlight. "It will likely take multiple meetings to develop a clear set of expectations, and I am committed to making sure we do what it takes to better serve our community." Following council's approval of his budget message, Mahan said the county needs to align its resources with his plan. "For those who are unable or unwilling to accept (shelter) there's often a more serious underlying behavioral health issue, and that's where we need our partners at the county to lean in," he said Wednesday. San Jose has about 3,000 beds for homeless residents, but its shelters are nearly full. Officials anticipate creating another 1,000 spaces this year, but San Jose has roughly 5,500 unsheltered homeless people living on the streets. Mahan told San Jose Spotlight residents with overwhelming complaints about street homelessness blame him and other city leaders, often unaware who represents them in the county. "There's no intention of criminalization," he said. "But we have to get this person into the care of the county and make sure the county knows who they are and that they have a responsibility for getting that person indoors one way or another." Earlier this week, Mahan and his team met with Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Otto Lee and the District Attorney's Office, which he described as "productive." "Next, I'm inviting all of the key stakeholders from both the county and city to come together to discuss better integrating our efforts to get everyone off of our streets," Mahan told San Jose Spotlight. "But the one thing on which I will not compromise, is that we need to hold everyone accountable, from the city and county for our responsibility to provide shelter and in-patient treatment beds to homeless neighbors for the responsibility to come indoors." But Lee said Friday the county is still awaiting outreach from San Jose officials, and isn't going to budge on its approach to addressing homelessness. While the county and city collaborated in the past to make inroads on housing and mental health services needs, there have been missed opportunities. "Our county needs more shelter capacity -- it is as simple as that," Lee told San Jose Spotlight. "Clearly, any type of incarceration against our unhoused neighbors does not work, and we don't believe that was the mayor's intent. Through the 'Responsibility to Shelter' initiative, individuals who are experiencing homelessness are now at risk of further trauma by way of a citation and arrest for trespassing." A spokesperson for the Santa Clara County Sheriffs Office told San Jose Spotlight homeless residents arrested under the initiative would most likely be released. One way county officials are addressing mentally ill and drug-dependent people in the criminal justice system as an alternative to incarceration is with pre-trial jail diversion programs, 159 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023740 including crisis treatment, outpatient behavioral health services and temporary community-based housing. San Jose has previously blocked proposals from the county to purchase city-owned sites for jail diversion programs, but ultimately allowed the sale of Vermont House, a smaller site, in December. County officials said last year they want to double their mental health and substance use treatment beds to 530 beds by 2030. The increase in treatment beds could double the number of people receiving substance use treatment to 20,000 by 2030, according to the county. Mahan said the county, by its own admission, is spending less than 1% of its annual budget on moving people directly out of encampments and into shelter. "The measure of success is the number of people living outside in tents and in vehicles, and until the county gets serious about scaling up shelter and in-patient treatment, and requiring that people come indoors, our community will continue to have low trust in local government and rightly believe that we are failing to deliver on their top concern," Mahan said. [CA] Stop finding ways to kill the Venice Dell homeless housing project (Los Angeles Times, CA) - full text Los Angeles Times [3/23/2025 5:00 AM, Editorial Board, 13342K, CA] There are lots of reasons it's difficult to build housing for homeless people in Los Angeles. One of them shouldn't be city officials standing in the way of a project -- especially one already approved twice by the City Council. But that's the outrageous situation that has trapped the Venice Dell project in predevelopment hell since 2017. After a competitive process, city housing officials chose nonprofit developers Venice Community Housing and Hollywood Community Housing Corps to take a 2.65-acre expanse of city parking lot in Venice just blocks from the beach and turn it into housing for homeless and low-income individuals and families. It was an ideal piece of surplus city land found at a time when city officials had begun scouring their inventory for lots that could be used for affordable housing, particularly homeless housing. Since then the developers have done everything required: They held numerous public hearings, did environmental studies, designed and reconfigured the now-120-unit project, designed and redesigned the parking garage to accommodate city officials' concerns and to allow plenty of room to keep a popular boat launch. The City Council approved the project in 2021 and again in 2022 when the developers were awarded a development agreement. Instead of being fast-tracked through the rest of the process, they've been slow-walked by the officials who should be helping them. Starting in the spring of 2023, at the direction of the newly elected city attorney, Hydee Feldstein Soto, who had been openly critical of the project since before she took office, city departments were told to stop working with the developers because there was pending litigation (which was resolved last year). A former official in the mayor's office who was familiar with the project said that the order was unusual and that they had not previously seen a city attorney stop work because of a lawsuit. Since then, the departments have worked only off and on with the developers, which has 160 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023741 jeopardized their funding and delayed by more than a year their Coastal Commission approval. But the project has survived, prevailed in two lawsuits from a nonprofit Venice group that opposes it, and finally got the necessary Coastal Commission permit in December that will allow them to move forward. (That was despite the city attorney trying to convince the commission not to approve the project.). Yet city officials found more obstacles to put in the project's way. The latest hurdle was a review by the Board of Transportation Commissioners, which the city attorney argued is a necessary stop for the project -- even years after the City Council approved it. The commissioners -- an advisory body to the city's Department of Transportation -- declared the project unsuitable for the lot. Instead they recommended a nearby smaller (more awkwardly configured) lot for housing and suggested the Venice Dell site be turned into a "mobility hub." It turns out that the city and the developers were already sued on the grounds that the city neglected to put the project before the Board of Transportation Commissioners. In that case, the city attorney along with counsel for the developers argued that the commissioners may have control over acquiring and managing city parking lots, but the City Council did not delegate its power over the use of city property -- including parking lots -- for housing to the transportation commissioners. The judge agreed and ruled for the city and the developers. Now the city attorney is arguing otherwise? This is absurd -- and nothing more than another ploy to kill the project. Councilmember Traci Park, who succeeded the project's champion, Mike Bonin, in the council district including Venice Dell, is a longtime opponent of the project. She declared it dead and introduced a motion to explore the feasibility of the smaller lot that the Transportation Commission recommended for housing. That motion has already been through one City Council committee. Now it must go to the city's Housing and Homelessness Committee. So far, Councilmember Nithya Raman, who chairs that committee, is rightly uncomfortable moving forward with a motion that she says "seems to be an implicit endorsement of a bad-faith effort to stop an affordable housing project that the city has already approved." Venice Dell is not a rogue project on a piece of land haphazardly turned over to the developers by the city's Housing Department and City Council. This is a vetted, thoughtful housing project in a well-resourced area of the city where there is little permanent housing for low-income and homeless individuals and families. If Park and others believe that the nearby smaller lot would be suitable for housing, great. Build housing there, too. The Westside needs all the affordable housing it can get. And if the city wants a mobility hub, that can be set up alongside the housing on the Venice Dell site. This is nothing more than the current City Council trying to go back in time and invalidate a decision made by a previous City Council -- a decision that gave developers a contract to build Venice Dell in partnership with the city. Meanwhile, Mayor Karen Bass, who has made housing homeless people a priority, says only that she supports affordable housing on the Westside and around the city. But she 161 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023742 has otherwise been woefully silent on Venice Dell in particular and would not comment on the latest twist in the saga of this project. Distancing herself from this debate (for whatever political reasons) instead of supporting an already approved project only makes it more difficult to build homeless housing in the face of any kind of opposition that crops up. It will be up to this City Council and the mayor to show city residents that they are serious about building affordable housing and getting homeless people off the streets. Killing the Venice Dell project says the opposite. And the possibility of an alternative lot -- which will entail feasibility studies, choosing a new developer, public hearings, Coastal Commission approval -- is no substitute for a project that is through that process and now securing the rest of its financing. City officials decry homeless people dying on the street as disgraceful. Letting a project die that would house some of them is just as disgraceful. [AK] LaFrance administration announces $5M in housing assistance for Anchorage's homeless (Alaska Public Media, AK) - full text Alaska Public Media [3/21/2025 8:04 PM, Wesley Early, 241K, AK] Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance's administration announced it will be issuing over $5 million in direct housing assistance to help address the city's homeless crisis. LaFrance made the announcement Friday at an Anchorage Coordinated Response to Homelessness summit. She said nine local organizations will be chosen by the Assembly to distribute the assistance. "Organizations will then disburse funds directly to individuals who are at risk of homelessness or who are currently experiencing homelessness," LaFrance said. "At least 150 households will be served." The funding comes from the federal Emergency Rental Assistance program and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It's part of what LaFrance describes as a bold approach to address both homelessness and the city's housing shortage. Part of that plan is an ambitious goal of building 10,000 new homes in Anchorage over 10 years. Assembly member Randy Suite, who co-chairs the Assembly's Housing and Homelessness committee, said the city has to be able to compete with the Mat-Su Borough, which has constructed considerably more homes than Anchorage in recent years. "It also takes roughly six months additional time to build a house in Anchorage, as well as cost $30,000 to $40,000 in addition," Suite said. "So the Assembly, Planning and Zoning, the administration have been working through Title 21 to make cuts on the rub points where builders come to us and point out the difficulty in the process." The city's goal to improve housing conies as federal funding has become less reliable during the second Trump presidency. LaFrance said she's hopeful that the summit will help foster public-private partnerships to offset that uncertainty. The city is also moving forward with plans to keep emergency shelter space open year round, instead of just in response to cold weather. LaFrance said the goal is to move away from a mass shelter model. "We are working towards setting up smaller, scattered site shelters that'll be more agile 162 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023743 and able to, like, ramp up with the number of beds," LaFrance said. She said her administration will soon put out a request for bids on those scattered shelter sites, and currently has no indication of where those sites would be. Fair Housing As the DOJ takes shape, housing must be front and center (HousingWire.com) full text Housinovire.com [3/21/2025 4:42 PM, Tom Giovanetti, 354K] It would not be without precedent for an incoming AG to pause and reverse litigation pursued by the previous administration. In the past few weeks, acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris has filed motions requesting the Supreme Court to hold appeals in cases regarding federal policy that is expected to change. In the case of Department of Education v. Career Colleges and Schools of Texas, Acting Solicitor General SarahHarris requested a hold in "abeyance" due to the Trump administrations likely reevaluation of student loan repayment policy. Until federal regulations and law change to match Trump's agenda, it does not make sense for the Supreme Court to rule on this case. Additionally, Harris filed a motion in Diamond Alternative Energy v. US Environmental Protection Agency, a suit centered around regulation in carbon emissions and ozone pollution, because the EPA is likely to reassess the basis and regulatory policies surrounding this case. For homeowners, one of the most dangerous political actions by the Biden administration, was their attempt to rewrite housing law. This is most clearly exemplified in the DOJ's case against Rocket Mortgage - the nation's largest mortgage lender Solidifi US, Maverick Appraisal Group, and appraiser Maksym Mykhailyna. The DOJ's lawsuit alleges racial discrimination against a Black homeowner in the appraisal process. The lawsuit argues that Rocket should have intervened and done more to correct the allegedly biased appraisal. Rocket hit back, arguing that it was blocked from getting involved by federal law - specifically, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protect Act. Dodd Frank was intended to keep appraisers independent from mortgage lenders to protect the integrity of the housing market and avoid inflating housing costs. This was passed to protect American homeowners and prevent future housing bubbles in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. By contradicting this legal precedent and insinuating the connection between appraisers and mortgage lenders, Biden's activist lawyers in the DOJ prioritized political motives instead of making homeownership more affordable by supporting homebuilders and others seeking to boost the country's housing supply. If the Trump administration wants to continue to meet the needs of the American voters and make housing more affordable, reversing this action is critical. In his inaugural address, President Trump said that he "will direct all members of [his] cabinet to marshal the vast powers at their disposal to defeat what was record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices." This includes housing costs. Housing 163 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023744 affordability harmed millions of Americans under the Biden administration and could only be made worse by the unlawful action brought on by Biden's bureaucracy in the waning days of his presidency. The American people voted for change, and the current Trump administration is working its way through all corners of American life to evoke that change. As his administration continues to take shape, the housing industry - something that affects all Americansmust be front and center. [MA] Anti-discrimination housing orgs sue to `quite literally keep the lights on' (CommonWealth Beacon News, MA) - full text CommonWealth Beacon News [3/21/2025 9:45 AM, Jennifer Smith, 54K, MA] When the nondescript email landed in Maureen St. Cyr's inbox, she didn't know it would be taking of more than half her housing nonprofit's funding with it. Included was a simple letter attachment, immediately terminating $212,500 left in a congressionally-approved $425,000 federal grant that funded the Holyoke-based Massachusetts Fair Housing Center's enforcement and outreach activities to address discriminatory housing practices. It also made it clear that the next year's $425,000 grant was cut. Later in the day, a subcontracted education and outreach grant took another $19,000 off the table. It was February 27, and the fair housing nonprofit world was suddenly in triage mode. "The amount that we lost overnight was 52 percent of our annual budget," said St. Cyr, executive director of the Holyoke nonprofit, focused but harried after almost a month of scrambling. "So we've had to take some pretty drastic immediate steps to ensure the continuation of service for our current clients, including closing our new intake so that new people who are reaching out to us for legal assistance or advice know we aren't able to serve them at this time.". The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, directed its slash-and-burn approach toward the federal Department Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in February, terminating at least 78 grants across 66 institutions in 33 states, amounting to tens of millions of dollars according to court filings. A termination notice sent to each program cut the grants off immediately and midstream, at the direction of the president and DOGE -- the brainchild of Elon Musk, the world's richest man. The groups targeted were nonprofit fair housing organizations, the "backbone" of anti-discrimination Fair Housing Law enforcement within their regions, according to a class action lawsuit brought by groups in Massachusetts, Ohio, Idaho, and Texas. These organizations offer services like eviction defense, housing search assistance, systemic investigations of housing discrimination, and education and outreach about fair housing rights and obligations. Pulling grants out from under them, they say, will be devastating. "These awards are necessary to keep employees paid and clients served," the group wrote in its emergency motion. Often, they wrote, the awards "are needed to quite literally keep the lights on.". The rationale for the cuts offered in each case? Only that the grant "no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities.". In a press release one week before the termination letters arrived, HUD Secretary Scott Turner said the agency was reviewing $260 million in contracts and has slashed $4 million in contracts promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. "DEI is dead at HUD," wrote Turner, the president's lone Black cabinet pick and executive director of the White House 164 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023745 Opportunity and Revitalization Council during the last Trump administration. The Massachusetts Fair Housing Center, the Intermountain Fair Housing Council in Idaho, the San Antonio Fair Housing Council in Texas, and the Housing Research & Advocacy Center in Ohio, are all suing HUD and DOGE. They are seeking a temporary restraining order to stop the grant cuts. A hearing is scheduled for the afternoon of March 25 in federal court in Massachusetts to hear arguments to certify the class of plaintiffs -- the impacted fair housing groups -- and the temporary restraining order. The government has until the close of business Friday to submit any opposition, according to the court calendar. The Fair Housing Initiatives Program was initially a Reagan-era pilot that has since become a core funding source for the many nonprofits that make sure the 1968 Fair Housing Act's purposes are fulfilled. The program offers an array of funding options, including grants to investigate and enforce the Fair Housing Act, to carry out education and outreach activities, and to develop new fair housing enforcement organizations and develop or expand existing organizations. While the Massachusetts attorney general's office and the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination enforce state antidiscrimination law, which covers even more protected classes than the federal Fair Housing Act, it is the nonprofit system that bears the day-to-day weight of ensuring fair housing practices. Writing in support of the group's class action and temporary restraining order motion, Lisa Rice, president and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance nonprofit, explained that the funding program, "like the Fair Housing Act itself, represents a congressional response to and remedy for the many years during which the federal government itself engaged in discriminatory practices that denied people fair housing opportunities and contributed to the residential segregation that remains prevalent today.". HUD has awarded more than $30 million in Fair Housing Initiatives Program grants in each of the last two fiscal years, Rice wrote. The affected groups reported 37 education and outreach grants cut, all for $75,000 or $125,000 annually; seven organization expansion or formation grants cut, all for $260,000; and 34 of the investigation and enforcement grants cut, all for $425,000 annually except for the National Fair Housing Alliance award, which was $400,000. If these abrupt terminations are not halted, Rice wrote, it will do "immediate, devastating, and irreparable harm to each and every one of the entities in question.". Organizations in Massachusetts are either directly reeling from cuts or fearing future plug-pulling. The Fair Housing Alliance of Massachusetts includes Community Legal Aid, Suffolk University's Housing Discrimination Testing Project, SouthCoast Fair Housing Center, and the Massachusetts Fair Housing Center. The Massachusetts Fair Housing Center has been in its Holyoke building for over 30 years, St. Cyr said, but they will need to move to fully remote work without funding to cover the lease. They immediately reduced new programming, stopped their lead paint testing, and cut off an investigation into potentially discriminatory eviction screening policies in the region. Even after cutting off all expenses that are not "absolutely necessary," the center will still face a $186,000 deficit, St. Cyr wrote in her filing, requiring half the staff to be slashed. They will not be able to keep up with their current caseload of over 50 clients in direct 165 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023746 advocacy, which includes taking about five new cases per week, let alone their usual work in community outreach. The Holyoke center's grants have been pulled entirely, but the Suffolk University center is between grants with two grant applications stalled and their future sustainability in limbo. "I think if we, as a state, lose two of the four agencies that provide this important work in the middle of a housing crisis, that will have an impact on our ability to address this housing crisis as a state," St. Cyr said. She emphasized repeatedly that Massachusetts has been committed to fair housing goals and should step in to fill some of the funding gaps if at all feasible. The recent state Affordable Homes Act, passed last year with the possibility of a second Trump administration looming but no specific sign that these cuts were on the table, featured anti-discrimination housing priorities including a new Office of Fair Housing. Whitney Demetrius, previously the director of fair housing and municipal engagement at Citizens' Housing & Planning Association, this month took on the role as head of the new state fair housing office. "Our office is keenly aware of what's happening in terms of the uncertainty, and really trying to think strategically and creatively around prioritizing funding needs, identifying what those key priorities are, and how we support organizations who are doing this great work on the ground," Demetrius said. The office will coordinate with regional fair housing organizations and state agencies to create policies to support fair housing law and combat housing discrimination. It will also oversee a fair housing trust fund, with money directed by the Legislature and other grants or private contributions, to support eliminating housing discrimination. "We're thinking about this as a holistic approach," Demetrius said. "What do we stand to lose if these organizations can't continue to do their work? Because residents are affected right now, especially where those organizations are turning folks away. They're not taking on new intakes, they're not doing additional trainings. That affects and hurts Massachusetts residents in a tangible way.". Just two months into the new Trump administration, Massachusetts is working to chart a sustainable path through an environment now littered with federal funding threats. The fair housing organizations hope their work stays on the state's priority list. "At the end of the day, we can build all the affordable housing that we want to," St. Cyr said. "We can give out all the housing vouchers that we want to. But if people can't use that voucher because of discrimination, and if people can't access an apartment because of discrimination, we haven't solved the problem. And so we're hoping that that the important piece that we fill in this puzzle of ensuring access to housing opportunity in Massachusetts does not fall to the wayside in this calculation.". [NJ] N.J. apartment complex discriminated against low-income residents, state alleges (New Jersey Online, NJ) - full text New Jersey Online [3/22/2025 7:15 AM, Nicolas Fernandes, 7874K, NJ] The state Attorney General's office has accused an apartment complex in Middlesex County of discriminating against recipients of government assistance. The Attorney General's Division on Civil Rights filed a finding of probable cause against Highland Living LLC and its listing agent, the agency said in a statement on Friday. Authorities allege that the apartment complex, located in the borough of Highland Park, violated the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination by requiring unlawful minimum 166 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023747 income requirements. The complex currently requires a monthly income requirement of double the rent price. This requirement makes it impossible for a recipient of Section 8 benefits to qualify for housing, according to investigators with the Division of Civil Rights. "New Jersey's strong civil rights laws protect every resident's right to obtain safe, affordable housing without facing discrimination. Now more than ever, it's imperative that we hold firm on our commitment to safeguard that right," New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said. "The enforcement actions announced today reflect our continued commitment to ensuring that no one is denied the chance to obtain an affordable place to live because of unlawful housing discrimination," he added. Further investigation into the complex found that all Section 8 recipients who applied for housing between 2022 and 2024 were denied, officials said. A spokesperson for Highland Living could not immediately be reached for comment Friday. The case is now in the conciliation phase, in which Highland Living and its listing agent have an opportunity to negotiate a voluntary resolution with the state. [PA] Sharon focusing on education in 2025-2029 fair housing plan (WKBN 27 First News, OH) - full text WKBN 27 First News [3/21/2025 1:54 PM, Erin Yudt, 529K, OH] VIDEO. The City of Sharon is looking for feedback on its new proposal for its 2025-2029 Fair Housing Plan. The new proposal is designed to act as a planning tool, providing the city with the necessary framework to strategically "affirmatively further fair housing" over the next five years. Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG) Manager Suzanne Kepple said the new plan is not much different from the 2020-2024 plan and one of the number-one goals is improving public education on fair housing. "There's an issue of awareness of fair housing laws locally, at the state level and federally," Kepple said. "What could actually be a fair housing complaint and what resources are available to them.". Promote and enforce rehabilitation of rental housing to become decent, safe, and sound housing. Promote and encourage neighborhood investment and revitalization with programs and community participation. Modify housing units and public accommodations to accommodate persons with disabilities to be decent, safe, and sound as well as affordable. Promote and encourage renters to buy a home instead of continuing to rent. Grow the staff in the Community and Economic Development, Code, and Fire Departments. "Older individuals, as they age, you want them to age in place or age in their home, so if they need like a chair lift or a ramp, our program and other programs can do that," Kepple said. "They can stay in their home, and they don't have to go to a nursing home or assisted living facility.". The city is an entitlement community under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG), allocating funding for various projects such as street paving, roof, heating, and cooling repairs, and demolishing vacant and unsafe homes. "We have two programs: a roof repair program which includes like downspouts, gutters and soffit," Kepple said. "And then minor repairs, so if your furnace, breaks down or a front porch repair.". 167 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023748 Kepple said in the last five to six years, the city has torn down over 400 properties, turning some lots into community gardens and art installations -- something they hope to grow in this proposal. A public hearing will be held on Wednesday, April 9 at 5:30 p.m. in the city council chambers at the Sharon Municipal Building. The complete plan can be viewed below. To speak at the meeting or request accommodations, call 724-983-3231. [VA] Virginia Landlord Ordered to Pay Record $750K in Racial Discrimination Eviction Case (Washington Informer, DC) - full text Washington Informer [3/21/2025 2:17 PM, Stacy M. Brown, 40K, DC] A Virginia jury has delivered a $750,000 verdict against a landlord who evicted two families from her Smith Mountain Lake property after discovering one of the tenants was Black, state officials announced. The ruling is the largest fair housing jury award ever obtained by the Virginia Office of the Attorney General. The previous record was a $200,000 judgment in a 2011 sexual harassment case. Attorney General Jason Miyares confirmed the verdict against Regina Turner, the owner of Lazy Cove Campground in Penhook. Court filings suggested that Turner had leased lots on her lakefront property to families for years. But when a white couple invited their friends -- an interracial married couple with a young child -- to rent the adjacent lot, the situation turned into a case of racial discrimination. The white wife successfully negotiated a lease with Turner. But once Turner saw that the woman's husband was Black, the state argued, she moved quickly to evict both families, stating she would not have agreed to the rental had she known. "These families experienced blatant discrimination, and Virginia will not stand for it," Miyares said. "The people of Franklin County have spoken: Smith Mountain Lake is for everyone." The jury took less than two hours to reach its decision, awarding $100,000 each to both families for emotional distress and financial losses. The panel awarded another $550,000 in punitive damages to hold Turner accountable for her conduct and to send a message to others who may attempt similar acts. Senior Assistant Attorney General Todd M. Shockley prosecuted the case, with support from Assistant Attorneys General Joel B. Taubman and Brittany Sadler Berky and Civil Rights Unit Section Chief Christine Lambrou Johnson. "It was like a sigh of relief, but at the same time, I'm still angry because we never should have had to go through this," said Damien Smith, among those evicted. "It was 2020 at the time, and somehow, we're still getting judged by the color of our skin versus the kind of person we are." [VA] Racial Discrimination Costs Virginia Campground Landlord $750K (93.1 WZAK, OH) - full text 93.1 WZAK [3/21/2025 4:03 PM, William E. Ketchum III, 22K, OH] The white landlord of a campground in Virginia has been found guilty of racial discrimination and ordered to pay $750,000 to two families in what is "the largest fair housing jury verdict obtained by the Office of the Attorney General to date," according to a statement from the Attorney General's office. The Washington Post reports that the case stemmed from a camping trip that friends Amanda Mills and Angela Smith planned to take with their families in 2020. Smith is a white woman, and her husband Damien 168 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023749 Smith is Black. Together, they have an 8-year-old son. After the two families arrived at Lazy Cove Campground in Penhook, Virginia, Mills received a startling phone call from landlord Regina Turner. "You didn't tell me that your friend's husband is Black," Turner said to Mills, according to a complaint filed with the Virginia Fair Housing Board. "Had I known I wouldn't have rented the lot to them. I saw the son, but I figured everyone makes a mistake.". Turner also voiced her racist views to Mills' mother, openly admitting to discrimination against Black people. "I feel like [your daughter] should have known that no Blacks are allowed in my Campground because she hasn't seen any Blacks in my Campground," Turner said, according to the complaint. "When you get a Black person in the park, then you're going to end up with a lot more to come in.". Turner also allegedly told a different tenant on the campground that she wanted to wait until the lease ended to kick them out, to avoid legal consequences. "I can't make them move now because if I give both of them moving notices now, they could take my park from me. I'm smart, you know, and I've got to use my head," she said, according to court documents reported on by NBC News. After learning of Damien Smith's race, Turner made plans to expel their family from the campground. Turner said she planned to evict the Smiths, the complaint states, then later said she would allow them and Mills to stay temporarily to avoid trouble but planned to refuse to renew their leases. When the two families tried to leave, they said, Turner refused to offer a prorated refund for the remainder of their leases or allow them to sell their campers on-site, both things they say she had permitted previous tenants to do. The families decided to file their complaint with the Virginia Fair Housing Board after learning Turner had referred to the Smiths' biracial son as a "mistake." NBC reports that the Virginia Attorney General's Office and the Virginia Fair Housing Board's civil lawsuit against Turner included one count of refusing to rent and two counts of discrimination. "As a Black man, I knew at some point in his life we were going to have the conversation, but we figured it was going to be when he was much older," Damien Smith told the Washington Post. "But at 8 years old, it was tough; it was a hard pill for me to swallow. Sadly, he's got to learn these things.". Turner said her deceased husband used to discriminate against Black renters, but insisted she had welcomed "all kinds of people" since he died in 2009. She did admit to calling Mills about Smith's husband, claiming that she felt "betrayed" after seeing that he was Black. Turner also said that she didn't evict the two families and that they left the campground on their own volition. The jury didn't believe her though. After deliberating for only two hours, they awarded each couple $100,000. An additional $550,000 was awarded in punitive damages. "Housing discrimination--and discrimination of any kind--will not be tolerated in Virginia," said Attorney General Jason Miyares in a statement. "We are pleased by the jury's verdict, and I'm immensely proud of my Civil Rights Unit. The people of Franklin County have spoken: Smith Mountain Lake is for everyone.". 169 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023750 [VA] Penhook landlord ordered to pay $750,000 for racial discrimination (Roanoke Times, VA) - full text Roanoke Times [3/20/2025 3:27 PM, Jason Dunovant, 168K, VA] Two families evicted from a Franklin County property due to racial discrimination were awarded $750,000 in a recent jury verdict against the landlord. Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced his Office of Civil Rights won the historic verdict against Regina Turner, owner of Lazy Cove Campground in Penhook, who evicted two families after learning one of the family members was Black. The $750,000 verdict marks the largest fair housing jury verdict obtained by the Office of the Attorney General to date. "Housing discrimination --and discrimination of any kind -- will not be tolerated in Virginia," said Attorney General Jason Miyares in a news release Thursday. "We are pleased by the jury's verdict, and I'm immensely proud of my Civil Rights Unit. The people of Franklin County have spoken: Smith Mountain Lake is for everyone." According to the release, Turner had rented lots to families for decades at Lazy Cove Campground. A couple who had a camper on one of the campground's lakefront lots encouraged their friends an interracial married couple with a young son to lease a neighboring spot. The wife, who is white, negotiated the lease with Turner. Later, when Turner learned the wife's husband was Black, she "immediately" took steps to evict both families, openly stating she would not have rented to them had she known, according to the release. In a trial that took the jury less than two hours to deliberate, both families were awarded $100,000 for their losses as well as the humiliation and emotional toll they endured. The jury awarded an additional $550,000 in punitive damages to punish Turner's "egregious actions and serve as a deterrent against future discrimination," the release said. Turner is now legally required to pay the judgement to the affected families. Federal Housing Administration and Multifamily Housing Trump administration lifts FHA appraisal bias protections (Inman) - full text Inman [3/21/2025 5:41 PM, Matt Carter, 98K] The Trump administration has quietly informed FHA lenders that they'll no longer be required to follow procedures enacted last year to better protect borrowers against discriminatory appraisals -- a move that could also have repercussions for lenders who do business with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The appraisal review procedures, which took effect on Sept. 2, had required lenders making loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to keep a sharper lookout for appraisal bias, and to have a process for helping borrowers who suspected they'd been victims of appraisal bias ask for a "reconsideration of value.". The procedures, announced by the Department of Housing and Urban Development last May, echoed the terms of a settlement of a high-profile appraisal bias case brought by a Baltimore couple who claimed their home was undervalued by more than $250,000 because they were Black. In that case, loanDepot agreed to perform internal reviews of appraisals to detect signs of discrimination and follow more than a dozen policies when borrowers request a reconsideration of value or "ROV." HUD rescinded the strengthened appraisal review requirements in a March 19 letter to FHA lenders. Unlike similar actions taken in recent weeks, the Trump administration did not publicize the recission of the FHA lender requirements in a press release or on social media. HUD did not respond to 170 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023751 Inman's requests for comment on the rationale for rescinding the appraisal review procedures. The FHA appraisal review requirements were an outgrowth of a Biden administration initiative to root out appraisal bias known as Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE). PAVE identified a lack of "consistent, industrywide policies and guidelines related to the ROV [reconsideration of value] process as an obstacle to borrowers accessing an ROV when warranted," HUD said in issuing the requirements last year. As one of the authors of Project 2025, Ben Carson -- the Secretary of Housing during the first Trump administration -- last year called for the next president to "immediately end . . . (PAVE) policies and reverse any Biden administration actions that threaten to undermine the integrity of real estate appraisals." The Secretary of Housing for Trump's second administration, Scott Turner, has called Carson a "mentor and friend." "Thank you, Dr. Carson for charting a course at HUD to revitalize America -- I intend to carry that vision forward & get it done for all Americans," Turner said in a Feb. 26 post on the social media platform X. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have not responded to Inman's request for comment on whether the mortgage giants will follow HUD's lead in relaxing appraisal review requirements. Their federal regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), declined to comment. In a Jan. 20 executive order, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," President Trump ordered the "termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and `diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility' (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear." The FHFA's new director, Bill Pulte, has appointed himself as the chairman Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's boards and declared that "DEI is dead" at the mortgage giants. "They are safe and sound businesses, but we are going to make them safer and stronger." In a 2021 study, researchers at Freddie Mac said they had confirmed the existence of an "appraisal gap" for homeowners in predominantly Latino and Black neighborhoods, where appraisals are more likely to come in below the contract price than in majoritywhite census tracts. The Biden administration launched the interagency PAVE initiative to combat bias in home appraisals on June 1, 2021 -- the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre -- as part of efforts to build Black wealth and narrow the racial wealth gap. First proposed in a January 2023 draft, the FHA's update to appraisal reviews was revised by HUD to incorporate lender feedback before being published in May. But HUD's rules prompted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to adopt similar requirements without providing public notice or an opportunity to comment, Rocket Mortgage alleged in a Dec. 4 lawsuit against HUD. That lawsuit was part of Rocket's response to a Department of Justice lawsuit alleging that a Denver woman was unable to refinance her mortgage at a lower rate after an appraiser undervalued her home because she was Black. In that case, attorneys for Rocket Mortgage said they weren't liable because Rocket had ordered the appraisal through a third-party appraisal manager, Solidifi. Lenders have said in the past that they're reluctant to challenge appraisals for fear of violating federal and state requirements designed to protect appraisers from coercion. FHA's new appraisal review 171 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023752 procedures had clarified that lenders had a duty to make sure their underwriters were trained to identify appraisal deficiencies, including prohibited discriminatory practices, through an appraisal review process. When problems were detected, lenders were required to fix them by requesting a general correction or explanation from the appraiser, requesting a reconsideration of value, or obtaining a second appraisal. But attorneys for Rocket complained that the procedures were vague and that contradictory laws requiring lenders to honor the independent judgment of the appraiser put Rocket Mortgage "between the proverbial 'rock and a hard place.- "HUD has a policy of holding lenders responsible for appraiser bias or discrimination when lenders fail to Temediate deficiencies' relating to perceived appraiser bias or discrimination," Rocket's attorneys said in their complaint. "HUD has not, however, explained under what circumstances an allegation of appraiser bias or discrimination purportedly requires a lender to engage in 'remediation,' or what such 'remediation' should look like." Last month the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, under new leadership, dropped a lawsuit that had alleged Rocket Mortgage's sister company, Rocket Homes, was favoring real estate agents who steered clients to the lender. But the Department of Justice has yet to drop its appraisal bias suit against Rocket Mortgage, and in recent weeks, HUD has continued to defend itself against Rocket Mortgage's countersuit. In a March 4 motion to dismiss Rocket's case, attorneys for HUD said the lawsuit "represents little more than an attempt to forestall the [Department of Justice's] enforcement suit through another avenue." Under longstanding HUD regulations, lenders are liable under the Truth in Lending Act if they know or should know that an appraisal "improperly takes into consideration race," lawyers for HUD said. HUD in July announced an agreement with The Appraisal Foundation, an organization that sets standards and qualifications for real estate appraisers, that's intended to bring more Black people and other people of color into the profession. The Appraisal Institute, a professional association of real estate appraisers, has participated in an Appraiser Diversity Initiative with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the National Urban League, and offers scholarships, workshops and other resources to those interested in becoming appraisers. What FHA's dropping of appraisal rule means for lenders (National Mortgage News) - full text National Mortgage News [3/21/2025 8:00 AM, Brad Finkelstein, 28K] The Trump Administration has withdrawn the reconsideration of value process implemented at the Federal Housing Administration by the Biden Administration in response to appraisal bias findings, effective immediately. Mortgagee letter 2025-08 cites Pres. Trump's executive orders signed on Jan. 20 that reverses policies in areas like the housing market. "As part of this ongoing effort, FHA is focused on eliminating policies that have created barriers, increased regulatory and financial burdens, and deepened disparities in lending practices," the mortgagee letter said. "Rescinding the policy announced in these MLs is a step in aligning with the Administration's broader goal to reduce unnecessary regulatory burden and foster longterm economic stability for all Americans." 172 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023753 Besides changes made in the mortgagee letter for the reconsideration of value policy, it also reverses revisions made in a 2021 rule titled Appraisal Fair Housing Compliance and Updated General Appraiser Requirements. The requirements were proposed by the Biden Administration following the Interagency Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE) report. In August 2024, a two-month implementation delay was put into place. Why was the policy created? The now-rescinded rule was designed to encourage lenders to establish an appeals process for consumers, explained Bill Garber, director of communications at the Appraisal Institute. While the specifics varied across agencies, such as the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, it represented an effort to bring greater consistency to the system. "With FHA, at least, it's reverted back to prior policy, which FHA was unique in that it was the only agency that really had anything in place about reconsideration of value," Garber said. That is why the Community Home Lenders of America, which represents independent mortgage bankers, thought this rule was redundant and didn't serve a purpose. "CHLA is supportive of this elimination of unnecessary FHA Reconsideration of Value appraisal requirements, which were overly cumbersome and not necessary since mechanisms already exist to address appraisal undervaluations," Scott Olson, executive director of the group, said. The practical effect for FHA lenders, Garber said, is less prescription in the protocols when it comes to these appeals. Appraisers did benefit by having some standardization in place, but the policy does live on, he said. Flexibility can also be good for the mortgage industry to have in this area. Garber noted that a key concern for the appraisal industry is how fair housing complaints against practitioners are being addressed at the HUD level. "We've been seeking some resolution and some due process on the fair housing matters before HUD," which has not resolved these issues. Going forward, the Appraisal Institute is looking for HUD to provide some clarity and resolution on those cases; Garber estimated more than 150 complaints from consumers were still pending at HUD. But lenders cannot outright dismiss the fair housing aspect of the appraisal process even as this rule goes away. That is because the Fair Housing Act still applies here, said Jay Wright, a partner at the law firm of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings. "Lenders still need to be on the lookout for potential appraiser bias," Wright said. "They still maintain the ability to request their own reconsiderations of value if the lender thinks that there's something off. The rescission "doesn't change the fact that lenders cannot discriminate in lending," Wright said. This change hurts all borrowers, no matter what their race or gender is, said Mike Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending. "This step not only sets back fair lending and preventing discrimination, it takes away an important right for all home buyers," Calhoun said. This rule was one that made the 173 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023754 system fairer, less discriminatory, more transparent and made it work better for all home purchasers. Among the findings of PAVE was a substantial amount of racial discrimination existed in home appraisals. Last July, HUD settled a fair housing complaint against The Appraisal Foundation, with part of the agreement going towards creating a more diverse pool of valuation professionals. But the findings also noted that regardless of the borrower's race or gender, a wide range of errors were found in appraisals, Calhoun said, and this rule gave everyone the right to question the results or ask for a reappraisal, not just the lender. Are other agencies going to follow suit? "So our hope would be, this is a temporary setback, but it is a setback, and it's a setback that really hurts everyone," Calhoun said. "The whole market works better when there are more accurate, fairer appraisals." In July 2024, the Mortgage Bankers Association sent a letter to both FHFA and HUD supporting a delay in implementation, but also speaking favorably about the reconsideration of value process. But it also noted the difficulty certain lenders, primarily smaller ones, were having in adjusting systems to meet the new guidelines. It is hard to tell what the other agencies will do, but given the overall trend in the Trump Administration, they too will likely withdraw their reconsideration of value rules. Calhoun pointed out that after the inauguration, all references to the PAVE group and appraisals were scrubbed from government websites. National Mortgage News reached out to the FHFA and the OCC regarding the future of their reconsideration of value policies. The FHFA had no comment. An OCC spokesperson said the agency declines to comment. Wright noted that this was a signature interagency focus of the Biden Administration. But among the first things HUD Secretary Scott Turner did was to withdraw the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule. It is fair to say, Wright continued, that this issue is not a priority for the Trump Administration. So Wright wouldn't be surprised if the other agencies acted similarly. FHA late payments drive increase in delinquent inventory (National Mortgage News) - full text National Mortgage News [3/21/2025 1:16 PM, Brad Finkelstein, 28K] Federal Housing Administration-insured loans are starting to be a problem area for mortgage lenders, and that might be making its way into the broader economy, ICE Mortgage Technology said. Its First Look report for February noted that for the ninth consecutive month, the share of loans of all types late on their payments increased by 19 basis points to 3.53%. That is an increase of 5 basis points from January. But the rate is still lower than where it was prior to the pandemic. By the end of the month, 1.91 million properties had mortgages past due by 30 days or more but had not yet entered foreclosure. That is 28,000 higher than for January and a 174 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023755 131,000 gain over February 2024. Even though the FHA program makes up less than 15% of all active mortgages, these loans were 90% of the year-over-year increase. The rise in FHA delinquencies is unsurprising, given that the program primarily serves borrowers with lower credit scores and smaller down payments, said Andy Walden, head of mortgage and housing market research at Intercontinental Exchange. "Then when you look at what's been happening in recent years with the rise in interest rates and the pressure that's putting on, from an affordability standpoint, you've seen [debt-to-income ratios] considerably rise among those FHA originations as well," he explained. "Couple both of those things together, along with some of the pressures at the low end of the credit and income spectrum and the broader economy and you start to see delinquency rates rise on those FHA loans." FHA borrowers, on average, have a 70point lower credit score than the market at large. Delinquency rates on these loans have been rising for the past two years and are now surpassing the previously declining rates of conforming and portfolio mortgages, Walden added. Add in rising unemployment rates, to approximately 4.1% from a bottom of 3.4%, showing a shift in the broader U.S. economy that is also contributing to the rise in delinquencies, he said. Mortgage performance remains strong historically, but recent trends indicate a shift. "We've always known that FHA was going to be the early mover," said Walden. "We're starting to see that early mover move and starting to catch some eyes." But, the performance of these loans is still much stronger than it was during the Great Financial Crisis. It is starting to catch the industry's attention. "It's a broad upward trend in a still strongly performing market," Walden said. "From a performance standpoint, the question is, where does it go from here, and if we do start to see more pressure on the broader economy?". While rising values have mitigated problems for distressed homeowners, many recent vintage loans, originations, starting in 2022, have those higher DTIs, meaning a distressed borrower has less cushion. The Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund should be able to handle a rise in foreclosures of FHA loans as its capital ratio as of the end of the federal fiscal year was a rather healthy 11.11%. An additional 211,000 properties are in the foreclosure pre-sale inventory, an increase of 4,000 from one month earlier, but 1,000 fewer compared with the prior year. Foreclosure starts increased almost 35% compared with the same month in 2024, which ICE attributed to an increase in Veterans Affairs-guaranteed mortgage activity following a year-long moratorium ended. But foreclosure starts were 17% lower compared with January. The VA delinquency rate did rise by 19 basis points, or close to 5%, year-over-year, Walden pointed out. But that was still much better than the 112 basis point gain in FHA late payments. Prepayment speeds dropped, a consequence of the higher mortgage rates during the month and a seasonal dip in home sales, ICE said. The 46 basis point rate, the lowest in a year, was 5.1% less than January but 8.7% higher versus February 2024. 175 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023756 FHA loans dominate delinquencies in ICE's `first look' report (HousingWire.com) full text HousinqWire.com [3/21/2025 11:15 AM, Sarah Wolak. 354K] The national delinquency rate edged up 5 basis points (bps) to 3.53% in February, which marked a month-over-month change of 1.45% and a year-over-year change of 5.69%. That's according to Intercontinental Exchange's (ICE) first look for its February 2025 month-end mortgage performance statistics. Today's first look at the data revealed that FHA mortgages accounted for 90% of the 131,000 year-over-year rise in the number of delinquencies, despite making up less than 15% of all active mortgages. Due to the debilitating wildfires in Los Angeles earlier this year, ICE says 4,100 homeowners in Los Angeles are now past due on their mortgages, up from 700 in January, with daily performance data suggesting that number could edge higher in March. Foreclosure starts (-17%) eased in February as the U.S. saw 33,000 foreclosure starts, but are up from the same time last year as VA foreclosure activity resumed. Starts saw a year-over-year change of 34.53%. The total U.S. foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate was 0.39% during February, a month-over-month change of 2.16% and a year-over-year change of -1.99%. Prepayment activity (SMM) fell to 0.46% in February, the lowest level in a year, on higher rates and a seasonal dip in home sales. Month-over-month, SMM saw a change of -5.09% and year-over-year, a change of 8.71%. Foreclosure sales were 5,600 during February, which is a month-over-month change of -11.40% and a year-over-year change of -7.03%. A total of 1,913,000 properties were 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure, a month-over-month change of 28,000 and a year-over-year change of 131,000. However, 2,123,000 properties are 30 or more days past due or in foreclosure, a month-overmonth change of 32,000 and a year-over-year change of 130,000. The number of properties that are 90 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure measured at 528,000, a month-over-month change of -12,000, and a year-over-year change of 69,000. A more in-depth review of this data will be released on April 7 in ICE's Mortgage Monitor report. Public and Indian Housing [NY] Rent voucher "lifeline" is virtual dead end (Real Deal, NY) - full text Real Deal [3/21/2025 7:00 AM, Erik Engquist, 1053K] For one glorious week last June, the city opened a rent-voucher portal that had been closed for 15 years. Through the magic door rushed 600,000 New Yorkers applying for Section 8, which comes from the federal government and is distributed by the New York City Housing Authority. NYCHA gets the money from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and forwards it to landlords. But first, it has to award Housing Choice Vouchers to tenants. From those applicants, NYCHA selected 200,000 by lottery. Cue the politicians. 176 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023757 Mayor Eric Adams, in a press release, touted the "much-needed relief to families searching for affordable housing." And then-Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer said it "will be a lifeline to 200,000 New Yorkers who need affordable housing." These statements were a stretch, to say the least. No, 200,000 New Yorkers did not get a lifeline. They got on a waiting list to get a lifeline. And the lifeline has no apartment on the other end of it. Tenants have 180 days to find a unit eligible for the voucher and a willing landlord -- not easy in a city with a 1.4 percent vacancy rate. Now, the punchline: Nine months after the application window closed, NYCHA has worked its way through 12,000 applications and only 318 have succeeded. In a city with nearly 6 million renters, 318 is the statistical equivalent of zero. The numbers are mind-boggling. Only 1 of every 45 tenants handed a voucher has rented an apartment with it. At its current pace, NYCHA will take nine more years to get through the 188,000 people on the waitlist. Last time it took 15 years. What are the lessons here? Besides not trusting quotes from politicians, that is. One takeaway is that the ongoing battles over vouchers are a sideshow if the programs don't get people into apartments and money in landlords' pockets. The City Council is fighting the Adams administration for more CityPHEPS vouchers, and New York City landlord and tenant groups are doing the same in Albany for state vouchers. More efficiency should be at least as high of a priority. The New York Apartment Association has made this point often, but the process remains tedious, overly bureaucratic and often arbitrary. A tenant could beat the deadline, only to have an inspector reject the apartment for some picayune reason. Hello, homeless shelter. An even more overlooked lesson is that the vacancy rate is too low for vouchers to achieve their potential. City lawmakers have not done enough to increase the supply of multifamily housing, and state legislators have done virtually nothing. A final point: State law should be changed to allow the full value of vouchers to be used at rent-stabilized apartments. Right now, the "legal rent" is the maximum the landlord can receive, even if the voucher is worth more. This means, for Section 8, New York is leaving federal money on the table, even as our politicians complain about Congress and the Trump administration cutting Medicaid and other funding (this $80 million, for example). Tenants with Housing Choice Vouchers don't make much money. The income threshold for an individual is $54,350 a year and $69,900 for a family of three. Letting them use their vouchers in full would give them a huge advantage over non-voucher holders (who are typically wealthier) in securing rent-stabilized units, which are about half of all rental units in the city. For probably the only time in their lives, they could actually outbid rich people. This would make rent stabilization more like an affordable housing program, boost revenue at buildings that desperately need it for operating expenses and repairs and steer higher earners into market-rate units, where they belong. Some groups purportedly advocating for tenants oppose any change to this rule. They don't want landlords to get more money. There is no obvious policy rationale except to force more buildings into foreclosure. [NY] Syracuse Housing Authority says it's aiding in relocations due to 1-81 project (Watertown - Spectrum News, NY) - full text Watertown - Spectrum News [3/21/2025 8:53 AM, Staff, 889K, NY] Members of the Syracuse Housing Authority say they are well on their way to getting 177 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023758 people affected by the 1-81 project relocated. Spectrum News 1 learned during a regular authority meeting that the authority is using public housing's existing vouchers for residents who are ready to move. Right now, the group is mostly focused on people at McKinney Manor, but other people around the 1-81 viaduct have the ability to come to the SHA with plans on if they will stay throughout the construction or relocate. "We have those meetings, and we'll get those numbers and will help those families out in the process as well," said Housing Authority Executive Director William Simmons. People facing relocation at Lattimer Terrace tell Spectrum News 1 that they have been struggling to find new housing. [NY] NYCHA's Mitchel Houses celebrates 667 days without gun violence (News 12 Bronx, NY) News 12 Bronx [3/22/2025 6:17 PM, Jodi-Juliana Powell, 236K, NY] VIDEO. A celebration Saturday marked 667 days since NYCHA's Mitchel Houses fell victim to gun violence. Residents say it is all due to the work of the Bronx Community Justice Center. During the almost two-year span, the group has hosted programs to bring together the community and allow young people to stay active. A resident of Mitchel houses since the 1960s and says the programs have made her community a much safer place than when she was growing up there. [VA] NACA partners with RRHA to help public housing residents achieve homeownership (WRIC TV, VA) - full text WRIC TV [3/21/2025 7:48 PM, Deniel Dookan, 898K, VA] VIDEO. On Friday, March 21, hundreds of Richmond residents began taking the next steps toward owning a home. The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority (RRHA) joined forces with The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA) to offer resources that'll help renters become homeowners. Through their partnership, they brought the Achieve the Dream event to Richmond. The event is designed to make homeownership accessible for families in public housing. The free three-day event is being held at Virginia Union University's Living and Learning Center. The event breaks down the home-buying process into several steps that can be completed within a matter of hours. RRHA public housing residents and housing choice voucher participants have the opportunity to first attend a homebuyer workshop where they'll learn about NACA's homeownership programs and resources. Families can also take advantage of a one-on-one session with Housing and Urban Development (HUD) certified counselors. The final step is meeting with a NACA mortgage specialist. RRHA's CEO, Steven Nesmith says this event is a step toward tackling the affordable housing crisis, by freeing up space on the waitlist which opened last week. "Right now, we have thousands of folks on our public housing waitlist who are just begging to come into public housing," Nesmith said. "If we can graduate public housing residents onto self-sufficiency and maybe homeownership, that opens up the safety net to bring those off the waiting list into public housing.". This homeownership event will run through Sunday, March 23, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Walk-ins are welcome, but attendees are also encouraged to RSVP with NACA to secure a spot. 178 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023759 [VA] `Ultimate goal' of Achieve the Dream event is to help people become home owners (WTVR-TV, VA) - full text WTVR-Tv [3/22/2025 12:48 AM, Joi Fultz, 681K, VA] VIDEO. The dream of owning a home drove dozens of people to Virginia Union University on Friday morning for the Achieve the Dream Home Ownership event. "We're opening this opportunity for all public housing residents, the first of its kind in any public housing authority in the United States," said a representative from the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA), the nation's largest HUD-approved nonprofit focused on home ownership. The nonprofit allows qualified applicants access to a mortgage with no down payment, no closing costs, no fees, no mortgage insurance and a below-market fixed rate. The event, co-hosted by the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority, invited public housing residents, Section 8 voucher holders, and first-time home buyers to begin the process of purchasing a home. Attendees started the day with a workshop and then they were paired with a NACA counselor who guided them through each step of the home buying process. Calvin, a participant who purchased a home through the program, shared his experience, saying, "I recently went through the NACA program, and I'm proud to say I'm a homeowner." "There are many more people like us, literally struggling day by day, month to month, trying to make ends meet. For the higher-ups to reach out to us and say, 'Hey, we want to help you,' that's big. It's big to me," Lakeithsha Franklin, a Henrico mother, said. Although not everyone left Friday's session approved and ready to begin their home search, attendees did receive specific instructions on how to make their home-buying dreams a reality. "I want to have that legacy for my kids. I own my own home; I can give it to my kids, my kids' kids. It's going to pass down, so that's the ultimate goal right there," Franklin said. This three-day event will continue Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. [SC] Bailey: `Strictly confidential' report shows the hard math of new housing (Charleston Post and Courier, SC) - full text Charleston Post and Courier [3/23/2025 12:15 PM, Steve Bailey, 1023K, SC] Nobody said it's going to be easy. And the Charleston Housing Authority's announcement last week that it's pulling the plug on plans to level one of its FDR-era housing projects on Meeting Street and replace it with hundreds of mixed-income apartments couldn't be a more on-point example of how hard it's going to be to build affordable housing in this town. Having the land -- or the "dirt" in industry jargon -- helps. But in the end it's all about the money, and that's gotten much, much more challenging. Forget about it if President Donald Trump recklessly induces a recession. Nine years ago, I wrote that the housing authority should "take a wrecking ball" to most of its antiquated one- and two-story housing projects and replace them with higher, denser mixed-income developments like Boston and other cities were doing. Don Cameron, who then ran the housing authority, heard me out, but politely concluded it wasn't "appropriate" for Charleston. To be fair, Cameron called me back four years later -- this was 2020 -- and said he had changed his mind. That the authority was, in fact, going to embark on a sweeping remaking of Charleston's public housing, starting with a small building on Huger Street. We're still waiting as the authority sat, through a historic 179 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023760 housing boom, on its most important asset: acres of valuable but under-utilized dirt. The world didn't stand still. There was a pandemic. Interest rates rose, construction costs soared and with them the risks of new construction, both commercial and residential. Investors sought safety in T-bills and other high-yield assets. Cranes are down across the country; see the sad, empty lots in Midtown. "Investors are on the sidelines for development right now because they can get higher returns from less risky investments at the moment," a top local real estate executive told me last week. "This will remain the same until the macroeconomic conditions change. Given the volatility of all economic factors now, this could be tomorrow or 10 years out." In this uncertain environment, Charleston Mayor William Cogswell has set an ambitious goal of creating 3,500 affordable housing units and catalyzing $800 million in new investment over the next five years. And Cogswell, a developer by trade, has been assembling land from his grand second-floor office at City Hall. He wants to buy six acres on Morrison Drive from the county and possibly dissolve a two-decades-old partnership with the Medical University of South Carolina and go it alone in developing the vast wasteland at the WestEdge site on the peninsula. He's been a busy if mostly under-the-radar mayor. When he arrived at 80 Broad St. last year. Cogswell recruited hometown giant Greystar, America's largest apartment owner, to analyze the costs of building affordable housing. The numbers weren't encouraging. In a detailed, 37-page study marked "strictly confidential," Greystar examined building housing in an urban setting versus the suburbs - WestEdge vs. West Ashley. WestEdge, in particular, was a money pit. Greystar priced out 333 one- and two-bedroom affordable apartments in a five-story building on Fishburne Street. It estimated the project would cost about $127 million and didn't spare the city subsidies, throwing in everything from free land to no property taxes to tax-increment financing. More than $48 million in public subsidies - or 38% of the total cost. And still, the project didn't come close to providing the returns investors would expect to finance it, Greystar said. This is the unforgiving math of affordable housing today. So where's the money to come from? Cogswell, who spent six years in the Legislature, sees the lion's share of the city's investment, $300 million, coming from a new half-cent sales tax. That would require a new state law to allow sales-tax money to be spent on housing, no easy lift. Very best case, the sales tax would go in late 2026 to the voters, who may or may not approve it. (See last November for what could possibly go wrong.) The sales-tax funding would accumulate over 25 years. To move quickly, as Cogswell has suggested, Charleston County would have to bond the new revenue stream, which comes with its own costs in interest payments and investment banking fees. It's a long way from here to there. Bottom line: Yes, we need dirt to build housing. But as both the housing authority with its acres of under-utilized land and the Greystar report show, the money is the far harder part. [KY] LMPD: Possible human remains found at Dosker Manor (Louisville CourierJournal, KY) Louisville Courier-Journal [3/22/2025 5:24 PM, Amanda Hancock, 1707K, KY] Louisville police are investigating a death after possible human remains were discovered at Dosker Manor early Saturday morning. 180 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023761 First Division officers responded to the public housing complex at 413 E. Muhammad Ali Blvd. at 7:30 a.m. Saturday after getting a report about workers finding what appeared to be human remains, according to a news release from the Louisville Metro Police Department. The remains were transported to the Medical Examiner's Office. LMPD's Homicide Unit is conducting a death investigation. Police are awaiting further testing for cause of death and gender, among other details, prior to releasing more information, the release said. [KY] 25 residents, 4 firefighters hospitalized after New Albany fire (Wave 3, KY) full text Wave 3 [3/23/2025 4:22 PM, Derek Brightwell, 373K, KY] A fire in an apartment building in New Albany Saturday resulted in several residents being taken to the hospital, the New Albany Housing Authority said in a Facebook post. City of New Albany Fire Department Deputy Chief Tim Kron said 25 people were rescued from the building and taken to various emergency rooms. Two of them are in critical condition. Kron also confirmed four firefighters were transported with various injuries, with one still in the hospital in stable condition. In total, about 60 apartments were impacted with their residents being displaced. The reports of the fire came in around 7:15 p.m. and firefighters were on the scene within three minutes of the call. [KY] Several residents of New Albany apartment building hospitalized after fire breaks out (WDRB, Louisville, KY) WDRB [3/22/2025 8:06 PM, Staff, 730K, KY] Several residents of an apartment building in New Albany, Indiana, were hospitalized after a fire broke out Saturday evening. The fire took place at Parkview Tower and smoke damage can be seen on the side of the building. The New Albany Housing Authority said several residents had non-life threatening injuries. It's unknown at this time how the fire started. [Editorial note: consult source link for video] [KY] Several taken to hospital after New Albany fire (Wave 3, Louisville, KY) Wave 3 [3/22/2025 9:22 PM, Derek Brightwell, 373K, KY] A fire in an apartment building in New Albany Saturday resulted in several residents being taken to the hospital, the New Albany Housing Authority said in a Facebook post. City of New Albany Fire Department Deputy Chief Tim Kron said 25 people were rescued from the building and taken to various emergency rooms. Two of them are in critical condition. Kron also confirmed four firefighters were transported with various injuries, with one still in the hospital in stable condition. In total, about 60 apartments were impacted with their residents being displaced. The reports of the fire came in around 7:15 p.m. and firefighters were on the scene within three minutes of the call. [AL] `Unfit for human habitation': Entire Alabama apartment complex condemned, residents given 45 days to leave (WRBL, Columbus, AL) - full text WRBL [3/21/2025 5:57 PM, Nick Bentley, 52868K, AL] Residents of the Edmond Estates apartment complex in Phenix City woke up to notices 181 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023762 of their buildings being condemned. The notice from Phenix City Code Enforcement posted across all the building numbers inside the complex read, "The structure is unfit for human habitation." A small group of tenants gathered in the breezeway of building N. One resident opened their home to WRBL. These images come from inside their apartment. The apartment itself needed extensive repairs. Both bathroom sinks had piping issues, with the master bedroom sink emptying directly into a mop bucket. Ceiling damage in the bathroom was so bad roof beams could be seen through the holes. The residents spoke about other issues including air conditioning and heating issues throughout all of the units. Roads throughout the complex had potholes and other road hazards. The Edmond Estates leasing office was closed and locked. The number listed on the google search page for the complex does not connect to anyone. Attempting to access the website gives an error message. Edmond Estates is a low income housing complex which is subsidized by the Housing and Urban Development Division of the federal government. It is managed by the Phenix City Housing Authority. WRBL attempted to reach the Phenix City Housing authority, however the phone line for tenants was disconnected. WRBL has reached out to code enforcement for more details and will update this article when they are available. Occupants have only 45 days to vacate their homes. [Editorial note: consult source link for video] [OH] Next Step Up provides emergency housing in Medina County (Cleveland.com, OH) - full text Cleveland.com [3/22/2025 12:28 AM, Staff, 4698K, OH] After years of planning, Medina County's first emergency housing shelter is now a reality. Skip Sipos, executive director of the Medina Metropolitan Housing Authority, said the shelter known as Next Step Up is up and running at the former MMHA administrative offices on Walter Road. "Our daily census hovers around 20, a combination of men, women and so far two minor children, and staff is adjusting to the rhythms associated with shelter operations," Sipos said. "We've had a few successes and anticipate more. We've had some sad situations as well.". The facility, which is the first ever homeless shelter in the county, provides 27 beds for men, women and children in need of emergency housing. The building is also pet friendly and clients have access to support services provided through a network of local agencies. The MMHA has reported receiving an average of 58 calls each month from those experiencing a housing crisis, so elected officials, social service agencies, local businesses and other organizations came together to make the shelter a reality. The 2023 Class of Leadership Medina County lent its support by creating and implementing a marketing plan to increase community support and awareness. Next Step Up will soon accept financial contributions to assist in shelter operations and will also publish a wish list of items needed. [IL] National Public Housing Museum announces Grand Opening Plans in Chicago (Chicago Crusader, IL) - full text Chicago Crusader [3/21/2025 8:12 PM, Staff, 24K, IL] On March 19, 2025, the National Public Housing Museum announced plans for its grand 182 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023763 opening weekend, set for April 4-6, 2025. The opening marks the completion of an expansive adaptive reuse project of the last remaining building of the Jane Addams Homes at 919 S. Ada Street on Chicago's near west side. Founded by public housing residents, the Museum is the first institution of its kind dedicated to interpreting the histories and policies that have shaped the experience of public housing across the United States. Following an invitation-only ribbon-cutting ceremony and reception the morning of April 4, 2025, the Museum will welcome the public in to experience exhibits rooted in personal objects and stories from people who call public housing home, including restored apartments from different generations of Jane Addams Homes residents. Throughout Opening Weekend, the Museum offers a variety of special programs to mark the occasion. Admission is free and open to the public, but advance registration is encouraged (and required where noted). Be among the first to experience the National Public Housing Museum and explore the story of public housing in America. General admission to the Museum is free, but reservations are encouraged all weekend long: Friday, April 4, 2-6 pm, Saturday, April 5, 10 am--5 pm, and Sunday, April 6, 10 am-5 pm. Experience the texture of public housing throughout time by visiting three recreated historic apartments showcasing different families' experiences at different moments in public housing history between 1938 and 1975. The intimate individual, family and community stories become the lens to understand large national public housing policies and their impact. The Historic Apartments can only be experienced through a guided tour led by one of our educators. Space is limited; advance reservations are encouraged. Tickets: $25 adults, $15 seniors, students, and youth; free for Members. As you explore the Museum, drop by our new program and community spaces to enjoy talks, receptions, workshops, and more. Browse the full schedule of Grand Opening Weekend happenings and make reservations for tours and other experiences at nphm.org/event/grand-opening-weekend. Friday, April 4, 2025, 2:30-3:30 PM. Power of Place: Meet and Greet. Our opening reception celebrates those who helped to preserve and interpret our largest artifact, the last remaining building of the historic Jane Addams Homes, and our three restored apartments, which invite visitors to experience public housing through intimate individual, family, and celebrating ABLA community stories. 5-6 PM Welcome Home Happy Hour: Dance Party w/ DJ Spinderella. Join our joyous, multigenerational, community of current and former public housing residents, staff, board members, neighbors, artists, musicians and more, on the dance floor for a high-energy celebration of our momentous opening day! Featuring sounds from DJ Spinderella, guest curator of the REC Room, a museum exhibit that celebrates the cultural impact, and diverse history, of public housing artists and musicians. Advance registration required for the dance party, as space is limited. Saturday, April 5, 2025, 11 AM-12 PM. Demand the Impossible: Arts, Culture, & Public Policy. Connect with past Artists as Instigators Tonika Lewis Johnson, William Estrada, and Marisa Moran Jahn, along with other creative organizers who inspire our action-oriented Demand the Impossible Advocacy Space, which leverages the power of arts, culture, and storytelling to impact 183 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023764 public policy and create more justice for our communities. 12:30-1:30 PM. Public Housing Stories, Objects, & Style as Resistance. From sofa fabrics wrapped in plastic, to family heirlooms, photos, and stories, this special reception pays tribute to our exhibits and spaces such as Feeling at Home, History Lessons, Good Times, and our Dr. Timuel Black Jr. Recording Studio, each of which highlight how public housing residents across the nation leverage the power of storytelling and self-expression to resist erasure and spread joy. 3-4:30 PM. Posters for the People: Screen printing with William Estrada. Drop by the Living Room to make art with William Estrada, a past Artist as Instigator and founder of the Radical Printshop, and learn about the important history of the Works Progress Administration, which employed thousands of artists, many of whom were tasked with creating promotional posters for the programs and social values of the New Deal. And don't forget to grab your free poster! Sunday, April 6,2025, 1-2 PM. Community, Cooperation, and Resident Empowerment. Connect with members of Corner Store Co-op, Taylor Street Farms, Section 3 businesses, vendors and other local and community partners engaged with our Empowerment Hub programs, which promote solidarity, cooperation, and community wealth-building through initiatives led by, and in partnership with public housing residents and communities. 2:30-4 PM. Black and Indigenous Love & Solidarity Workshop: Kitihawa and Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Make a poster, and share your own personal love story (or moment of solidarity) as part of this all-ages hands-on workshop led by teaching artist duo, Monica RickertBolter and Joel Rickert. Inspired by Kitihawa and Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, the interethnic couple who helped to establish the first permanent settlement in Zhegagoynak (the land that we now call Chicago), this workshop extends the exhibit Still Here: Histories of Displacement, and marks the beginning of the Museum's ongoing work with regional Indigenous communities and public housing residents to co-create our land acknowledgement. The National Public Housing Museum opens April 4,2025 at 919 S. Ada Street in Chicago. General admission is free and open to all. Historic Apartment Tours can only be experienced through a guided tour led by a Museum educator, with a limited number of tickets available each day ($25 adults, $15 seniors, students, and youth 6-18 years of age; free for Members). The Museum will be open Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 10 a.m. -- 5 p.m., with Extended Hours on Thursdays until 8 p.m. [CO] Housing Matters - APCHA clarifies the narrative with myth-busting (Aspen Daily News, CO) - full text Aspen Daily News [3/21/2025 5:00 AM, Matthew Gillen, 35K, CO] We've been doing a lot of public outreach and listening at the Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority recently. In November and December, we hosted focus groups with retirees to discuss how they view APCHA and program improvements. In December and January, we surveyed Pitkin County residents and hosted two in-person community forums. The survey and the community forums are part of gathering information for the five-year update to the APCHA strategic plan. 184 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023765 APCHA is jointly funded by Pitkin County and the city of Aspen, and as part of the agreement the strategic plan is updated every five years. The APCHA Board of Directors, which set APCHA policy and regulations, was fully briefed on all feedback gathered from our public outreach. All this chatting with the community did bring up a few things that I'm happy to correct: "You shouldn't be able to move into APCHA housing and then immediately retire.". Several focus group and forum attendees brought up the issue of fairness -- even if you can retire in APCHA housing and not work. Should this apply to people who haven't worked in Pitkin County recently? Fortunately, the APCHA board has given this a lot of thought. APCHA regulations do allow residents to retire and continue to live in APCHA housing. That reflects the board's commitment to a human- and community-focused program. However, prior to retirement you must have lived in APCHA housing for at least four years and have worked in Pitkin County for at least 10 years to retire in APCHA housing. "You should be able to rent out a spare room" and "consider methods to attract seasonal workers to live in spare rooms in APCHA units.". We agree. If you own an APCHA property you can rent out a room. The roommate must be qualified through APCHA (to check that work requirements are fulfilled) and the rent paid must conform with the APCHA rates (to protect the renter). Full details are in the APCHA regulations or you may contact us by calling 970-920-5050 or at apcha.org. We've been working on this "rightsizing" for several years now. We do have a pilot program in place that has had limited success and we're exploring new ways to incentivize this program. "HOA relations and property management issues abound. APCHA should get involved.". APCHA does not have the authority to tell homeowner associations what to do. They are organizations that manage a community of properties and enforce rules for those properties and residents. HOAs are responsible for maintaining common areas and amenities and resolving disputes between neighbors. APCHA is developing and deepening its relationships with HOAs to help and assist. Last year we paid for capital reserve assessments for several dozen HOAs; we are paying for an HOA specialist lawyer to come for "lunch and learn" sessions; and we are developing forums for HOA members to meet and get to know each other and share ideas. There were some strong views on this. However, we are not the people to talk to. APCHA does not build homes. They are built or acquired by the city or the county and APCHA handles qualifications and compliance. If you want to comment on the project, please contact your elected officials. There are really only three basic rules: 1. Work 1,500 hours a year in Pitkin County. 2. Don't own another property in the ownership exclusion zone. 3. Live in the home There are more technical details that you can find in our regulations on apcha.org, and if you 185 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023766 are an owner, please check your deed restriction. "City and county employees get special treatment in APCHA housing.". No, they don't. City and county employees do not get any special advantages in the APCHA program. Both the city and the county do have their own housing incentives and programs for their employees which are not part of APCHA, so it can get a little confusing. Generally, we only contact homeowners if there is a problem that we'd like to solve or gain more information. In our public duty as stewards of taxpayer money, APCHA staff will generally only contact homeowners if there is a problem we'd like to address or to gain more information on a compliance issue. We have a robust investigation program to keep folks honest. All the compliance hearings are open to the public. But as a public good, funded by taxpayer money, APCHA compliance is everybody's responsibility. Anyone can report issues or register a concern anonymously through the APCHA website at apcha.org. There is one. If a resident is not satisfied with the results of an APCHA compliance action they can request a hearing with the APCHA hearing officer. The hearing officer is a neutral party hired by the APCHA board and is not a member of APCHA staff. Full details are in the APCHA regulations. "A regional, valleywide approach is needed on the part of APCHA.". That's a bit out of our lane, as our name indicates we serve residents of Pitkin County only. But there are other organizations working on regional housing issues, like the recently established West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition, of which both Pitkin County and the city of Aspen are members. Learn more about it here: wmrhousing.org/about. "You shouldn't be able to work remotely for a company anywhere in the world while living in APCHA housing.". You can't work remotely in APCHA housing for a company that has nothing to do with Aspen or Pitkin County. APCHA housing is for people who are physically required to be in Pitkin County. A basic requirement is that you work 1,500 hours per year in Pitkin County. That generally means working for an organization located in Pitkin County unless you are self-employed. Contact APCHA if you have questions. [NV] A heartbreaking eviction: Tribal elder and granddaughter forced out after tragic loss (KOLO TV Reno, NV) - full text KOLO TV Reno [3/22/2025 12:39 AM, Taylor Burke, 386K, NV] A distressing eviction is unfolding at a local tribal community in Wadsworth, Nevada, where 73-year-old Lester James and his 6-year-old granddaughter are being forced out of the home they've lived in for decades. The eviction has sparked outrage among supporters who call the decision cruel and insensitive, especially after the unimaginable tragedy the family has endured. However, the Tribal Housing Authority insists the eviction was years in the making due to long-term noncompliance. For Lester James, his home isn't just a place to live--it's where he built a life with his wife, son, and daughter before everything changed. "We have my granddaughter, and she's doing the same thing--just catching the bus out there, and it reminds me of how I raised my children here," James said. 186 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023767 At 1 p.m. Friday afternoon, Lester and his granddaughter were evicted by the Tribal Housing Authority despite his efforts to meet their demands. The home, which had once been surrounded by animals, needed extensive repairs. James says he did everything they asked--rehoming his livestock, fixing up the yard, even moving into an apartment while major renovations were done. But despite his hard work, it wasn't enough. "They just don't care about grieving," James lamented. The eviction process began two years ago when the housing authority cited long-term noncompliance. That same year, James lost his daughter in a car accident. Then, in April of last year, another tragic crash took the lives of his wife and 12-year-old son, leaving his granddaughter as the only survivor. "People talk about miracles. My granddaughter is a true miracle because that was such a horrific wreck," James said, reflecting on the tragedy. Melody, Lester's daughter, says it's hard enough to leave the home where their family has lived for 25 years. But, what makes it worse is that it was the last place her mother and younger brother called home. "Since I lost my mom, I've been staying in her room. Knowing where she laid her head brings a lot of comfort to me," shared Melody. Inside the house, the weight of the loss is everywhere. Lester's 12-year-old son's bedroom had remained untouched for nearly a year until the family was forced to pack up for the eviction. Despite the heartbreaking circumstances, the family has found small ways to honor his memory. As Lester packed up what was left of his home, he pulled back his jacket to reveal a Mario T-shirt-his son Raymond's favorite. It was a small but powerful reminder of the family he lost and the memories the eviction could never erase. In response to the eviction, the Tribal Housing Authority insists that by the time Lester had completed the required repairs, the court order for eviction was already in motion. Tribal Chairman Steve Wadsworth acknowledged the sadness and resentment in the community, but emphasized that the tribe could only do so much. Despite the differences in perspectives, the James family, along with their friends and neighbors, are simply asking for one thing: compassion. "The old Indians used to watch out for each other," James remarked, referencing the traditional values of support and community that are at the heart of tribal life. It's this sense of compassion that James and his family hope will prevail, as they struggle to navigate this latest hardship in the wake of their devastating losses. The eviction has left the community questioning whether there's room for more understanding, especially in times of such profound grief. Supporters add the focus should be on helping the family heal, not adding to their burdens. [AZ] `It's barely tenable now' - Tucson House residents concerned for their living conditions (KGUN 9, AZ) - full text KGUN 9 [3/22/2025 10:29 PM, Tina Giuliano, 218K, AZ] VIDEO. In the 1960s, Tucson House was luxury apartments. And in the 1970s, the City of Tucson took it over and transformed it into public housing. For the last few years, the city has been working on a $188 million renovation plan. In previous KGUN9 reporting from 2023, the city was planning on beginning construction in late 2024 or early 2025. Now, construction is set to begin in July of 2025, according to the City of Tucson's Housing and Community Development Deputy Director Johanna Hernandez. The project is set to take 30 months, completing one floor at a time. "This is a big complex project with a lot 187 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023768 of funding sources, so part of that delay is getting all of that lined up," she said. "We've only formally pushed it back like once." But the delay and current conditions inside Tucson House concerns residents like Wendy Kaplan. She moved in during 2019 after being on the housing list for four years. "I'm too embarrassed and humiliated to bring people into this building," she said. "I'm petrified of parasites and it's a real problem in this building." She said from cockroaches and rodents to mold and unclean carpets, it's difficult to live at Tucson House. She said over the years, it's become worse. So she brought out her own carpet cleaner and air purifier. "Why are tax payer dollars going toward cleaning the carpets when there's no such thing going on," Kaplan said. "This building has had water leaks all the time in the walls and halls. Like mold is a problem that we deal with." Jason Thorpe, a deputy director for City of Tucson Housing and Community Development, said the city does test for mold often and when issues are identified. "We're looking for things like mold, challenges like that and addressing those," he said. Kaplan said she's worried about the living conditions now and during construction. "How tenable is that going to be with all that going on when it's barely tenable now," she said. "There's people here that should be able to live out their lives and not degraded in this way." [CA] Funds in Emergency Housing Voucher Program running low (KESQ, CA) KESQ [3/22/2025 1:30 AM, Shay Lawson, 232K, CA] The federal Emergency Housing Voucher Program is running out of money. The five billion dollar pandemic era funding could impact over 60,000 renters, including renters in the Coachella Valley. Right now, the County of Riverside is assisting 300 households - 58 of those households in the Coachella Valley - for at least two more years. However, these numbers will stand, as officials at the Riverside County Housing Authority say that the Authority is not accepting any new referrals or participants for issuance of emergency housing vouchers. Experts warn that if the money ends, it could lead to a sharp rise in homelessness. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] [AK] Kodiak Island Housing Authority secures grant funds, self-help housing project moves forward (KMXT-FM, Kodiak, AK) - full text KMXT-FM [3/21/2025 12:36 PM, Davis Hovey, 6K, AK] A self-help housing project in Kodiak is one step closer to reality after the City Council passed a resolution to sell 6 acres of land near the municipal airport to the project. The council had committed to selling that land last fall, but was waiting on the project's partners to secure the money for purchasing the property before transferring it. The council on March 13 authorized the city manager to negotiate the sale of four lots on Selief Lane to Kodiak Island Housing Authority for $500,000, well below its market value. Final details and terms still must be worked out. But last year, the council discussed a sale price of roughly $1 million, which is its assessed value, and then crediting half that sale price back to the housing authority. 188 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023769 The housing authority has up to five years to help local applicants construct 10 homes on the four lots of land which is listed as Lakeside Block 1, lots 2-5. Otherwise, unused land will be returned to the City. Housing authority executive director Mindy Pruitt told the council on March 13 that the organization plans to potentially divide that up into 20 lots. Koniag Inc. is one of the project partners. In a joint press release, the Alaska Native corporation says under this public-private partnership, families will work together to build each other's homes in Kodiak. It says their sweat equity will help, "change the outmigration tide." This model of self-help housing has been used by RurAL CAP to build over a hundred new homes, predominantly in Soldotna and around the Kenai Peninsula. This would be the first time the project will be done in a rural Alaska community off the road system, according to the press release. RurAL CAP and the Kodiak Island Housing Authority are taking applications for owner-builders. Each family will have to commit to 35 hours a week of labor and obtain a specific construction-permanent mortgage loan under the USDA's Rural Development 502 direct loan program. $1 million in grant money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to RurAL CAP will pay for the project. RurAL CAP's Mi'Shell French told the council the money was delayed by President Donald Trump's executive orders to freeze federal funding. Community Planning and Development [PA] Community-Led Efforts to Combat Gentrification in Philadelphia's University City (Planetizen) - full text Planetizen [3/21/2025 8:00 AM, Taiwo Adepetun, 149K] In the heart of Philadelphia, University City stands as a beacon of educational excellence and urban development, known for its prestigious institutions like the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University. However, this reputation comes at a cost. The rapid gentrification of University City poses significant threats to the longstanding, historically Black communities that have resided in the area for generations. Amidst towering highrises and burgeoning research centers, a grassroots movement is rising to combat displacement and advocate for affordable housing, led by the residents of University City Townhomes. Over the past two decades, University City has transformed dramatically. The area has seen a surge in real estate development, with rental prices skyrocketing by over 30 percent between 2010 and 2020, according to a report by the Philadelphia Housing Authority. The influx of affluent residents and the expansion of university facilities have led to the displacement of low-income families, exacerbating the housing crisis in the city. A 2021 study highlighted that nearly 60 percent of Black residents in the area faced housing instability, a stark contrast to the growing wealth surrounding them. The University City Townhomes, a 180-unit complex that has provided affordable housing since the 1970s, is emblematic of the struggle faced by many low-income residents. As redevelopment plans loom, long-time residents like Rasheda Alexander have become vocal advocates for their community, sharing their stories of resilience in the face of adversity. "This is not just about losing our homes; it's about losing our community," she explains, emphasizing the emotional toll of gentrification on families. 189 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023770 The narrative of resistance is not one of isolation; rather, it is a collective effort. Residents of University City Townhomes have formed coalitions, partnering with local activists, university students, and community organizations to fight against displacement. The formation of the University City Coalition for Affordable Housing (UCCAH) has been pivotal in mobilizing support and raising awareness about the plight of low-income families. Through protests, community meetings, and social media campaigns, these grassroots activists are amplifying their voices. They have successfully organized events to educate fellow residents about their rights and the implications of gentrification. For instance, a recent town hall meeting attracted over 200 attendees, showcasing the community's commitment to preserving their homes and heritage. "We are not against development; we are against development that displaces us," states coalition leader Mariah Johnson. Local institutions, particularly universities, play a critical role in shaping the urban landscape. The University of Pennsylvania, with its substantial financial resources and influence, has been at the forefront of discussions about gentrification. Yet, its expansion has often come at the expense of surrounding communities. Efforts to engage with local residents have been met with mixed responses, as many feel that their concerns have been sidelined in favor of profit-driven development. In response to growing pressure, the university has established initiatives aimed at promoting community engagement. However, activists argue that real change requires more than just dialogue; it necessitates accountability. "We need the university to invest in our community, not just in their buildings," asserts Alexander. The fight against gentrification extends beyond grassroots activism; it involves going through complex legal and political landscapes. Residents of University City Townhomes are currently facing eviction notices, prompting legal battles that could determine their fate. Local attorneys and housing advocates have stepped in to provide legal assistance, helping residents understand their rights and options. Moreover, the political arena is witnessing increasing advocacy for equitable housing policies. City Council members have begun to address the housing crisis, with proposals aimed at increasing funding for affordable housing development and enforcing stricter regulations on landlords. Yet many residents remain skeptical of political promises, fearing that without sustained pressure, officials will continue to overlook their needs. Gentrification in University City is deeply intertwined with issues of race and economic inequality. The historical context of systemic racism in housing policies has contributed to the vulnerability of Black residents in the area. As gentrification accelerates, it is crucial to recognize the racial dynamics at play. According to a 2020 report by the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, Black families are disproportionately affected by displacement, with eviction rates for Black tenants being three times higher than their white counterparts. This stark reality underscores the urgent need for urban planners to integrate racial equity into their frameworks. The community-led efforts in University City serve as a vital case study for urban planners and policymakers. They highlight the importance of inclusive and participatory planning processes that prioritize the voices of existing residents. As cities across the nation grapple with similar challenges, the lessons learned from University City can inform strategies for fostering equitable development. 190 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023771 Key recommendations for urban planners include: Community Engagement: Prioritize meaningful engagement with residents throughout the planning process. This can involve regular town hall meetings, surveys, and participatory design workshops that empower residents to shape the future of their neighborhoods. Affordable Housing Policies: Advocate for policies that promote the development of affordable housing units and protect existing ones. This includes inclusionary zoning, rent control measures, and financial incentives for developers who commit to maintaining affordable units. Accountability of Institutions: Hold local institutions accountable for their impact on surrounding communities. This can involve establishing community benefit agreements that ensure universities and large developers contribute to local housing and infrastructure improvements. Data-Driven Decision Making: Utilize data and research to inform planning decisions. Understanding the demographics, housing trends, and economic conditions of neighborhoods can help planners make informed choices that benefit all residents. The struggle for affordable housing in University City exemplifies the complex dynamics of gentrification, community resilience, and the urgent need for equitable urban planning. By amplifying the voices of residents, engaging with local institutions, and advocating for inclusive policies, the community is demonstrating that it is possible to challenge the status quo and fight for a just future. As urban planners and advocates reflect on the lessons from University City, it is crucial to recognize the human element in planning processes. The fight against gentrification is not just about buildings and policies; it is about people, their stories, and their right to a home. In a time when discussions about housing equity are more critical than ever, University City's narrative serves as both a cautionary tale and a call to action, urging planners to prioritize the needs and voices of existing residents in their work. [PA] Philly Land Bank brokers deal with Sheriff's Office to resume land purchases (Philadelphia Inquirer, PA) - full text Philadelphia Inquirer [3/22/2025 4:42 PM, Ryan W. Briggs and William Bender, 2629K, PA] Philadelphia's Land Bank may soon be able to actually buy land once again. For years, the quasi-governmental agency has been unable to perform one of its core functions -- acquiring tax-delinquent lots from sheriff sale for redevelopment. First, sales were suspended due to COVID-19; then came an opaque dispute involving the Land Bank, Sheriff Rochelle Bilal, and a private company she contracted to hold online auctions. Less than two weeks after an Inquirer report on those issues, the Land Bank convened an unusual Saturday meeting where officials unveiled a one-year memorandum of understanding they said would resolve the long-standing dispute. The MOU, which broadly outlines how the private company and the Land Bank will cooperate on land sales, passed unanimously. "It was in everyone's interest. . .. We had been negotiating this for some time and we wanted it done," said Land Bank director Angel Rodriguez, explaining the convening of an emergency session. "And I think [Mayor Cherelle L. Parker's administration] wished for this to be executed.". During hearings last fall, officials indicated the obstacle was related to Bid4Assets -- the online auction company contracted by the sheriff to hold tax sales -- recognizing the Land Bank's ability to exercise a "priority bid" power to preempt bidding wars with private buyers, as well as its exemption from certain fees. The MOU 191 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023772 extensively details how the Land Bank will be able to utilize those priority bid powers, its ability to request the postponement of sales for parcels of interest, fee exemptions, and how Bid4Assets will handle the aforementioned on its online bidding platform. The impasse has had far-reaching consequences. The lack of purchasing power had made it impossible for the Land Bank to assemble lots for affordable housing development or to steer vacant land to community garden groups -- instead of being sold off to the highest bidder -- which were key goals when the agency was created more than a decade ago. "The acquisition of properties is a central part of the mission of the Land Bank," board chair Herb Wetzel said Saturday. The obstruction of those purchases left numerous vacant lots eyed by the Land Bank effectively in limbo, while about $5 million in funding for land acquisition sat in escrow. It also rankled some elected officials. When a U.S. Supreme Court case in Minnesota imperiled the powers of agencies like the Land Bank to acquire properties, Councilmembers Jamie Gauthier and Kendra Brooks and members of Parker's administration worked on a bill last spring to codify that ability. Yet the roadblock with the sheriff's office meant the legislation has had little impact thus far. Bilal did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement, Gauthier praised the Saturday vote and thanked Parker, Council President Kenyatta Johnson, and City Solicitor Renee Garcia for brokering the deal. "For the first time since before the COVID19 pandemic began, the Land Bank can now perform its crucial duty of acquiring land for community-owned and community-minded development," she said. Brooks also hailed the agreement. "I'm glad to see the Land Bank moving forward on this to get our city one step closer to preserving community gardens," she said. "Community gardeners -- and all Philadelphians -- deserve a clear, transparent process for determining the future of abandoned properties in our neighborhoods.". Board members gave only general descriptions of what had caused the delays. "This agreement is really logistical," said board member Rebecca Lopez Kriss. "The big things were things like, `What are our fees? What is the process going to be? What does that look like?". The terms of the MOU will extend for one year, at which point the agencies will need approval from City Council for a multiyear agreement. The MOU could mark one problem resolved for the sheriff, who has presided over a barrage of bureaucratic mishaps that have elicited calls for the office to be abolished. For instance, even after it resumed sheriff sales, the office has struggled to process deeds for winning bidders -- with some facing delays of nearly a year. Notably, the MOU agreed to Saturday contains a provision allowing the Land Bank to record deeds of sale on its own. "Some of the terms of the MOU put control on the filing of deeds on the Land Bank staff," Rodriguez said in response to a question about those chronic processing delays. [PA] Opinion: Federal aid cuts will put Lehigh Valley residents at risk of hunger, homelessness (Morning Call, PA) - full text 192 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023773 Morning Call [3/23/2025 7:30 AM, J Marc Rittle, 465K, PA] Let me say something that you wouldn't expect from every nonprofit director: We need to trim the fat in Washington. That's right, I said it. There is no punchline, I believe this is true. At the same time, the government holds written promises with the people we serve. I believe we as a nation should keep those promises. First some history: When emergency food and shelter organizations formed in the 1970s and 1980s, including New Bethany in 1985, our aim was to fill a gap the government wasn't providing. There were people hungry and homeless who needed help. We started soup kitchens, opened our churches, synagogues and community centers for shelter. Government contracts at the time were unheard of, outside of public housing authorities and disaster relief. If the problem was that the federal government didn't want to build its own capacity (costly and bureaucratic) to help those in need, the solution eventually became to ask nonprofits to do it instead. No better example of this leniency on food and shelter organizations is stated better than the recent COVID-19 pandemic relief in the United States. While it cost money, a lot less of it was spent by contracting the work. Government cuts costs by leveraging the existing infrastructure of social service organizations. By and large, nonprofits have been happy with this relationship. Until now. When the president, via executive order, called a 90-day pause on all federal funding in January, one of my grants -- aptly named Rapid Rehousing -- was immediately impacted. Work performed over the past quarter, including the dollars used to provide rent assistance, would go unpaid. My organization was out that money entirely, never to be refunded. If, that is, the pause became a permanent stoppage. In a single day, I was faced with telling families they could no longer move into their apartment because I can no longer sign the check for their first and last month's rent. We are creating a new class of homelessness in the process. Thankfully, the pause was unpaused within 24 hours, dollars flowed again and the crisis seemed to have been averted. I would be relieved if not for a brand new fear that this could happen at any time. This isn't a broken, perhaps subjective, social contract. This is a real, written agreement with expectations and accountability measures. It turns out, this wasn't our only source of federal funds. The very next day we received notice that an entirely different grant, one that pays farmers to send food directly to our pantry, was permanently canceled, nationwide. This was a $1 billion opportunity for farmers to be paid for their seconds, food that was still good but would not sell. To be clear, nonprofits would never see actual money from this grant. We just receive the food and pass it on to people in the neighborhood. This material loss of fresh food means we're not out of the woods, not yet. If all direct and indirect lines of federal funds were discontinued, about a third of our organization would disappear. Half a million dollars for supported housing would go away, from financial assistance to eviction prevention to residential services. We would physically have to close our family transitional building. Section 8 vouchers would no longer be paid for any of our 27 eligible units, including our Wyandotte Apartments on Bethlehem's South Side. About 80,000 pounds of food, fourfifths of our supply, would be at risk of loss from our Choice Food Pantry, causing 2,500 people annually, in Bethlehem alone, to have to look elsewhere for supplemental groceries. No matter what, we own our buildings and have a vibrant community of local volunteers and donors. We will never close our doors. Our Southside Drop-in Center is privately 193 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023774 funded and serves 160 meals daily. This will continue. But feeding people a lunch, with no social assistance or opportunity to change, is a Band-Aid solution. We cannot help people find the resources they need if our capacity to house, heal and help has been stripped away. Nonprofits like New Bethany have been forced to play out this what if scenario, just to be fully prepared. It probably won't all happen, but some of it could. I have heard the argument that the current radical changes are a short-term pain that will be worth a long-term gain. If this is true, my request to our leaders is to please not cancel or pause our current written contracts in the meantime. Once an organization signs an agreement, we start the program, hire staff and get to the work of helping our neighbors. The least our society can do is to finish what we started. Don't our neighbors deserve our hope and support? [GA] Sandy Springs uses Nixon-era funding program for sidewalks (AppenMedia.com, GA) - full text AppenMedia.com [3/21/2025 1:45 PM, Hayden Sumlin, 30K, GA] The city of Sandy Springs Community Development and Public Works departments work in tandem to deliver CDBG-funded sidewalk projects. The Nixon administration created the Community Development Block Grant program in 1974 to meet three objectives, benefit residents of distressed neighborhoods who are primarily low- and moderateincome, eliminate slums or blight and meet urgent community needs. Each year, Sandy Springs uses its annual allocation of federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to advance the Roswell Road (Ga. 9) Multiyear Sidewalk Project. The projects aim to improve pedestrian accessibility, which is the more important for lowto moderate-income residents who are more likely to walk or use public transportation. The CDBG Consolidated Plan, first developed in 2008, is a dynamic five-year blueprint currently focused on the competition of Roswell Road Multiyear Sidewalk Project before moving onto work along Hope Road in the city's North End. There are three projects currently in the concept and design phase along Northwood and Long Island drives south of 1-285 and Hope Road between Dunwoody Place and Roswell Road. Along Northwood Drive at Roswell Road, the city is proposing 675 feet of a 6-foot-wide sidewalk with two signalized mid-block crossings and pedestrian lighting. The cost estimate is around $400,000. Because the surrounding neighborhood is a primarily Hispanic community, the city works with the Community Assistance Center to provide project updates and materials in Spanish, Assistant Communications Director Dan Coffer said. At Long Island Drive and Roswell Road, a $50,000 project calls for a sidewalk connection to existing ones along the state route. A project manager in the Sandy Springs Public Works Department said the city's Community Development Department works to identify qualifying census tracts, needed projects and secure loans to accompany federal grants. Once the project is ready, he said the Public Works Department takes over delivery. Sandy Springs owes $1.88 million over the next six years to repay its loan advance, valued at $2.9 million. The city says Section 108 Loan funds allow it to accelerate project construction without significant financial impact. Sandy Springs received $418,619 in 2024 through its CDBG allocation. Staff is anticipating receiving notice from HUD regarding the 2025 allocation by April. 194 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023775 After a March 18 public hearing on the 2025 action plan, it is set to come back for City Council adoption May 6. The plan through this fall is to advance the design phase of all three projects to right-of-way acquisition, if needed. The segments off Roswell Road are anticipated for construction in 2026. Along Hope Road, there are plans for two sidewalk segments on both ends of the street at Roswell Road and Dunwoody Place to be completed in 2027. [IN] Elkhart County Council mulls over lead paint funding (Goshen News, IN) - full text Goshen News [3/21/2025 11:30 AM, Dani Messick, 23K, IN] The Elkhart County Council was torn on whether or not to approve a new XRF handheld device to detect lead paint. The request to approve a transfer from the Epidemiology & Lab fund for the device costing around $94,000 and replacement of some computers was approved, but after a lengthy discussion. According to Elkhart County Health Officer Melanie Sizemore, while the department only tests about 25 homes per year now, there was a time not too long ago when they tested around 200 homes per year for lead paint thanks to a Department of Housing and Urban Development grant that allowed for additional testing. In addition, the department already has three XFR detectors, but two of them are old enough that soon they'll be unable to be refurbished. A service on the XFR device costs around $15,000 each time, Sizemore said, and the other device is already obsolete. Elkhart County Council President Tom Stump asked why then, the department might need an additional detector. "This particular grant requires certain things and one of the things we can use it on is lead testing," Sizemore explained. Testing supplies are free from the state lab, but the device is not free, and the device helps to determine where specifically high lead results in children are coming from. Stump asked if other contractors provide that service, and Sizemore said they do, but she was unsure of the cost, since the health department provides it for free. Elkhart County Councilman Adam Bujalski said in investment real estate, his clients pay $1,000 to $2,000 for a third-party lead paint analysis. Stump suggested it might be cheaper with only 25 houses, to outsource the lead scanning. "If the county wants to pay for it out of the general fund, that's a different thing, but you may end up with far more than 25 (homes)," Sizemore said, noting that the grants typically do not allow for payment to outside contractors because employees of the department are trained to do the work. Other uses of the grant could be equipment such as computers and tablets for environmental health, but Sizemore said a lot of those things have already been replaced. "(The money) would just sit if we didn't use it," she said. Sizemore also noted that the categorization of an elevated blood level in children went down from 5 micrograms per deciliter to 3.5 micrograms per deciliter and said it will increase the number of children categorically with elevated blood levels and the number of households in need of support. Stump said he felt like the council was lacking information. Graham pointed out that lead-based paint in homes became illegal after 1978 and said as the number of homes with paint goes down, the requirement for elevated levels gets stricter. "It's a big issue, lead-based paint," he said. Elkhart County Attorney Steve Olsen said Elkhart County Health Department Manager Karla Kreczmer said at the Elkhart County Health Board 195 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023776 meeting that she expects testing to increase as a result of the new legal requirement at the state level and currently around 600 students are being tested per year based on the age of their homes. The council approved about $109,000 for the device and the computers through roll call vote. Stump did not vote in favor. Elkhart County Councilman Randy Yohn was not present, but other councilmen voted in favor. The Elkhart County Jail is preparing to receive a new kitchen floor. The Elkhart County Council approved an appropriation from the LIT Special Purpose Fund at $600,000 for the project. Elkhart County Administrator Jeff Taylor said the Elkhart County Commissioners will receive the bids on Monday but the money needed to be approved early so the project could begin as soon as possible. The floor was replaced 20 years ago. Elkhart County Commissioner and former sheriff Brad Rogers said that technology has come a long way and while it may be necessary to replace the floor every 20 years regardless, the type of flooring used this next time should hold up better. "We put tile in that was grouted, and through inmate workers' abuse, normal wear and tear, the tiles would break, the grounding would get dislodged, " he said. "And then you had issues like food and water and it just continued to be a problem. What we're going to be putting in then is going to be technologically far better and hopefully will last a generation.". Two Elkhart County residents addressed the council to discuss solutions for potential property tax cut legislation at the statehouse. Cindy Hajicek and Pam Keiser proposed cutting "nonessential spending" instead. "Essential services have been very broad depending on which entity is talking about it whether it's a mayor or where or whatever," Hajicek said. "Plowing, road maintenance, public safety, those are the things that are being talked about.". Hajicek suggested that residents may not have to choose between tax hikes and essential services. She acknowledged that nonessential spending might not be under the council's purview but said the council has ways of cutting back their spending safely as well. Hajicek specifically mentioned as an example the $2.3 million that the county contributed for the pedestrian bridge over C.R. 17. "That $2.3 million is the same amount of money that a median Elkhart County family would earn in 35 years," she said. "And you spent it on a nonessential bridge, and now in the same conversation you're suggesting that the families of Elkhart County have to choose between higher taxes and or more potholes. I'm asking you to use your voice and your vote to eliminate nonessential spending.". Hajicek asserted that the measure to cut that type of spending would foster prosperity. "I don't think the average taxpayer has any idea where their money is going," Keiser said. "We should look at other funds such as Economic Development and determine which serves residents of Elkhart County best.". Kaiser said when tasked by the council with looking at the budget, she was curious about Economic Development, so she explored it and noticed that in 2023, the most recent Gateway information that includes the budget and actual spending, their budget was about $2.5 million, but about $10 million was spent. A second entry showed over $21 million more. According to Clark in February, the original proposal for Senate Bill 1 would have reduced the countywide budget by about $40 million and posited that the county budget 196 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023777 "wasn't much more.". "If our 2025 budget is 'not much more' than $40 million, then how could we have spent $31 million just in Economic Development in 2023?" Kaiser questioned. Kaiser said the funds spent according to Gateway was almost $750 million. "From what I see, we should look at other funds, such as Economic Development, and determine which programs serve the taxpayer best," she said. She also requested to review questions regarding the county's funding with someone who could better help her understand. Councilor Adam Bujalski said a lot of the funds that the county receives are allocated for use by the state. "We would love to be able to take a fund from here, and use it here, if we have excess - state tells us we can't," he said. "There's a lot of other issues that come down from this. ... We are hamstrung on a lot of these funds and how they can be spent and what they can be spent on and if we can transfer them out or not.". Commissioner Rogers presented a 40-year service award to Councilor David Hess. The council approved $60,000 from the General Fund to complete scanning all Planning and Development files into one cohesive software program. The council approved $140,500 from the General Fund to expand the ServiceNow platform the county already uses for IT to include Buildings & Grounds; and to migrate email addresses to migrate the Highway Department to elkhartcounty.com. Currently the department uses elkcohighway.org. They also approved the annual subscription for licensing for software to backup the two main servers in two separate locations in case of an emergency at a cost of $16,000 from the General Fund. The council approved a transfer of Major Moves funds at $1,030,437.75 to the Economic Development Income Tax fund. Highway Department Manager Kyle Wagner said the money is what remained in interest in the account from the end of 2024. The money will go toward road paving, chip and seal and construction. The money, in the EDIT fund, was also appropriated for use. They also approved $750,000 from the Local Road & Street fund and $1 million from the Motor Vehicle Highway fund for the same. The council denied a $9,000 request from the clerk's office from the Clerk Perpetuation Fund. The denial was due to a lack of representative in attendance from the clerk's office. The council called the lack of attendance from the department an ongoing issue and agreed that if no one could attend, the department lead should talk to the council at a finance meeting or let one of them know so they could discuss the topic with better information. The council approved two unclaimed refunds from Community Corrections to be sent down to Indiana Unclaimed. The council approved a total of $100,000 from Community Corrections to upgrade digital radios, speaker microphones, and body cams for field officers, custody officers and inhouse chargers. Elkhart County Community Corrections Executive Director Helen Calvin said all are obsolete and some do not work at all. The replacements also offer cloud storage. The council approved $200,000 from the Local Road & Street fund for the highway department to supplement the professional services account that pays snow plowing and mowing contractors. Wagner said due to an increase in snowfall events, more invoices 197 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023778 were submitted during the 2024 season. He said the 2025 budgeted amount will increase so it doesn't happen again. The council appropriated the final payment for the Westlake Sewer Project in Middlebury from the Middlebury Southeast Tax Increment Finance District. Planning & Development Director Mae Kratzer said the money was actually fully appropriated last year but they only received half of it. A water main relocation project on Warren Street was funded at $69,000 from the Middlebury East TIF. The funds are for design only and the relocation is part of a long-term project, part of the highway department's five-year plan. Elkhart County Treasurer Cindy Chadwell told the council that during the 2024 fall settlement there was an error made and money was taken from the wrong account. The council approved $5,400 from the Settlement Economic Development fund. A portion of property tax payments was also inadvertently dropped into the sheriff's department fund and also moved back to the correct account. Money from the annual STOP grant for the Prosecuting Attorney's Office was also approved at $30,332. The Health Department was approved appropriations for the Dental Program Income at $40,000 to replace an X-ray machine and an autoclave and also to send four employees to a pediatric conference in December; and $109,296 leftover from a grant in the Cares Epidemiology & Lab fund for an XRF handheld device to detect lead paint and for replacing computers. The council approved the annual STAR Grant from the sheriff's office for $70,272. For 2025 the Elkhart County Drug Free Partnership grant will have $17,500 to offset overtime in alcohol and drug-related traffic crashes; $26,575 for equipment purchases including a new K-9 and equipment and training; and $26,197 funds granted that weren't used in 2023 and 2024 grant cycle. The Elkhart County Judiciary received the new Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiatives Performance Based Grant at $38,000. Elkhart County Court Administrator Ross Maxwell explained that the one-time performance-based grant will be used to help start up the Future Ready program at Boys & Girls Club, serving over 200 youth during the calendar year, at $30,000. The remaining funds will go to a second K-9 trauma service dog for kids with special needs for the Elkhart County Juvenile Detention Center. The puppy is currently in training and will serve at the juvenile detention center, court hearings, juvenile probation and CHINS cases where children could benefit. The council approved $7.5 million from a Community Foundation grant to establish the Lilly Gift VIII CFEC Health Grant Fund. The fund will help to improve the infant and maternal mortality rate over five years by hiring social workers to help people through pregnancy, at about $800,000 per year. The council also approved the establishment of the HPAI Avian Influenza Grant Fund. The council approved interlocal agreements with Bristol, Elkhart, Goshen, Middlebury, Nappanee and Wakarusa for animal control services. Ginnie Mae 198 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023779 Ginnie Mae MBS issuance drops for third straight month (National Mortgage News) - full text National Mortgage News [3/21/2025 1:57 PM, Spencer Lee, 28K] Monthly volume for new issuances of Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities declined for the third straight month after reaching a two-year peak last fall. The guarantor of government-backed loans reported $33.8 billion in MBS issued in February, off from $39.4 billion a month earlier. On a year over year basis, though, volume increased from $30.8 billion in February 2024. Last November, the dollar total of Ginnie Mae's issuances hit a more-than-two-year high when it reached $49.4 billion. The pooling and securitization of loans included transactions from more than 101,000 homeowners, including 45,000 first-time buyers. Thus far this year, over 100,000 loans for first-time home buyers have been pooled and securitized in issuances, Ginnie Mae said. Included in February's numbers was $470 million worth of Home Equity Conversion Mortgages after Ginnie Mae finalized policies surrounding reverse-mortgage buyout relief that had broad industry backing at the end of last year. The reverse loans are issued by the Federal Housing Administration, but February issuance volume was at its lowest since last summer. In total, Ginnie Mae's MBS portfolio outstanding increased to $2.73 trillion in February, with net growth of $11.7 billion over the month. Recent servicing data showed certain segments of borrowers of government-backed loans encountering elevated distress this year. Mortgage rates fell throughout February amid ongoing economic uncertainty in the first weeks of the new Trump administration. The decline in rates led to a brief surge in refinance transactions during the month, with their share at almost 44% of all originations in the last week of February, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The recent pullback in issuances occurs at the same time the Federal Reserve started its latest round of interest rate cuts, which have been reduced 75 basis points since November. The central bank, though, paused the pace of reductions in its two 2025 meetings thus far. In a press conference following the Federal Open Market Committee's most recent gathering this week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell also signaled he wanted the bank to continue shedding the amount of mortgage-backed securities on its balance sheet. Monthly runoff of MBS is currently capped at a pace of $35 million per month. In new commentary also published this week by Morningstar DBRS, total deal pricings of all residential mortgage-backed securities surpassed $9 billion in the first few weeks of March, according to data from Finsight. The number comprised a range of residential loan types, including non-QM, investor and closed-end seconds. Among MBS deals to come this month is a $392.9 million transaction from Rocket Mortgage, which will sell to investors through eight tranches of notes. Ginnie Loans Push Servicing Volume Up in 2024 (Inside Mortgage Finance) Inside Mortgage Finance [3/21/2025 11:58 AM, Brandon Ivey, 5K] The volume of single-family mortgage servicing tied to Ginnie Mae rose 7.3% on an 199 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023780 annual basis to $2.541 trillion as of the end of 2024, according to a new analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. Ginnie accounted for 17.7% of total single-family servicing outstanding at the end of 2024, compared with 17.0% at the end of 2023. At the end of 2024, 68.2% of single-family mortgage servicing was for loans in mortgage-backed securities, up slightly from a 68.0% share as of the end of 2023. Nonbanks continue to increase their share of the servicing market. Among the top 10 firms in terms of owned servicing, three -- all depository institutions -- reduced their portfolios in 2024. Affordable Housing How recent Trump policies could make housing more inaccessible (WBUR, Boston, MA) - full text WBUR [3/20/2025 8:00 PM, Staff, 887K, MA] AUDIO. Housing was one of the top issues for voters last election cycle, especially for younger Millennials and Generation Z. Yet recent Trump administration policies -- including gutting the Department of Housing and Urban Development and imposing tariffs on some construction materials -- may make housing less affordable. Martha Galvez, executive director of the Housing Solutions Lab at the NYU Furman Center, joins Here & Now's Scott Tong for more on her expectations around the issue. [MA] If you've ever wondered if you can afford the rent for affordable housing projects in the Berkshires, this guide is for you (Berkshire Eagle, MA) - full text Berkshire Eagle [3/24/2025 5:09 AM, Claire O.Callahan, 170K] Earlier this week, I found myself at the hospital. An employee there had emailed me that she had a housing story to share. I met her in the waiting room minutes after she emerged from a grueling shift in the emergency room. We sat down in an empty conference room and the employee, who is a longtime Berkshire resident and single mom, shared the details of her desperate search for an affordable apartment for herself and her young son. During our conversation, she mentioned to me that keeping tabs on affordable apartment buildings currently in development in the Berkshires was overwhelming. "I'm like who do I talk to? Do they take dogs? What am I looking at for rent? When are they opening? Because I have a timeline. That's something I wish there was more clarity on," she said. That stuck with me. While there are people building to meet the housing needs of Berkshire residents, there isn't one point person or one place people can go to get a list of affordable housing options, fair housing and eviction support, fuel assistance and other resources. In the absence of a centralized network, I thought it was time for another series (you may be familiar with my housing Q&A series with housing local experts). This series of articles will collect available housing resources into one place, and I will keep tabs on the status of those resources as housing developments progress and funding status changes. To begin, what affordable rental developments are underway in the Berkshires? When will they be complete and who qualifies? While you read, feel free to refer to huduser.gov to determine what percent of the area median income you make. You'll also find a breakdown of area median income levels at the end of this article. 200 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023781 Terrace 592, formerly White Terrace, is in the final stages of construction, and will be ready for move-in by mid to late-April. Hearthway, which manages the property for Regan Development, is currently qualifying people who were selected during the February lottery and assigning them units. People who did not make the deadline for the lottery can still apply and will be added to the waitlist. Terrace 592 adds 41 affordable units to the city's rental market. Seven of those units are set aside for tenants referred through the state departments of Mental Health and Developmental Services. Of the remaining 34 apartments, nine are rent assisted and 25 are rent restricted, meaning that they're rented at a rate below the city's fair market rent. For a one bedroom, that's $1,088 a month. For a two bedroom, it's $1,317. To qualify for the rent assisted units, people must earn a household income at or under 30 percent of the area median income. People who qualify and move into those units will pay no more than 30 percent of their income on rent. The 25 rent restricted apartments will rent to people with incomes at or below 60 percent AMI. Hearthway and Larkin Development's Eagle Mill project will add 100 affordable apartments to Lee's housing stock in two phases. Construction on the 56 units included in Phase 1 is set to wrap up this December. Applications for those units will open sometime in the fall and the lottery process will be held in November, if all goes to plan. The earliest move-in date would be Dec. 1, said Hearthway CEO Eileen Peltier. The 56 units will be a combination of one, two and three-bedroom apartments, and rent at an affordable rate determined by residents' household incomes. Twenty of the 56 apartments will be rented to households earning up to 80 percent of the area median income and 28 will be rented to households earning up to 60 percent AMI. Rents have yet to be determined, but cannot exceed 40 percent of the residents' household income. Eight of the apartments will be rent assisted and rented to households earning up to 30 percent AMI. Phase 2 of the project is waiting on funding from the state. If it is awarded the requested funding, construction on the 44 units will begin next year with an expected completion date of summer 2027. By September, Lenox will be home to 65 new affordable and "workforce" housing units. The 13 townhome-style buildings will make up a mixed-income housing complex adjacent to the Courtyard by Marriott hotel on Route 7/20, opposite Lenox Commons. Applications for the 65 units will likely open later this spring, and people would move in some time during the fall, if all goes according to plan. Rents will be determined once HUD releases fair market rents for fiscal year 2026. The 65 one, two and three-bedroom apartments will rent at various income levels. Nine will rent to households making up to 30 percent of AMI, 15 will rent to households making up to 60 percent AMI and 41 will rent to households making up to 120 percent AMI. Applicants will be selected through a lottery, which will offer a 70 percent preference for Berkshire County locals. Construction at Cassilis Farm is slated to begin this spring, which would position future renters to move in around this time next year. The primary estate on the farm will soon house 11 apartments, ranging in size from one to three-bedrooms. Income qualifications and rents are yet to be determined. The initial lease up will be by lottery with local New Marlborough employees and residents receiving preference. It will be about six to 12 months before the Community Development Corp. of South Berkshire starts construction on the Plain Road project, which is currently in the design 201 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023782 phase. The two pre-fabricated duplexes will be completed within six months of construction starting, said President Jim Harwood. Each duplex, each featuring two units, will sell for about $600,000. To qualify to purchase them, people must have a yearly household income of between 100 and 120 percent AMI. Once they're purchased the property, the new owners will rent the second unit in their duplex to a renter who makes between 80 and 100 percent AMI. The model is designed to provide affordable units to renters, and a supplemental income that can help people afford homeownership. Pittsfield, Lee and Lenox: 30 percent AMI = $23,650 for an individual, $27,000 for a twoperson household and $33,750 for a family of four. 50 percent AMI = $39,400 for an individual, $45,000 for a two-person household and $56,250 for a family of four. 80 percent AMI = $68,000 for an individual, $72,000 for a two-person household and $90,000 for a family of four. New Marlborough and Egremont: 30 percent AMI = $23,000 for an individual, $26,300 for a two-person household and $32,850 for a family of four. 50 percent AMI = $38,350 for an individual, $43,800 for a two-person household and $54,750 for a family of four. 80 percent AMI = $61,350 for an individual, $70,100 for a two-person household and $87,600 for a family of four. [NY] $3.7 million going to Dryden for affordable housing project (WYXL 97.3 Lite Rock, Ithaca, NY) - full text WYXL 97.3 Lite Rock [3/21/2025 5:46 AM, Joe Salzone, 1K, NY] Dryden is receiving financial support from Albany. The town is getting $3.7 million for the Freese Road Apartments, a new housing project. Funding was announced Wednesday by New York's Department of Homes and Community Renewal. Officials say the project will include 53 mixed income units close to a TCAT stop. Also this week, HCR announced $7.1 million to support construction of the Meadow on Seneca in Ithaca. [NY] Pass Albany's Faith-Based Affordable Housing Act (New York Daily News, NY) - full text New York Daily News [3/21/2025 5:00 AM, Kathryn Wylde, 3253K, NY] New York has a critical housing shortage, which the state government can help address -- at no cost to the taxpayer -- by passing the Faith-Based Affordable Housing Act. This legislation would provide a fast track for religious institutions to build housing on their own land, bypassing local zoning restrictions so long as developments fit the context of the surrounding community. This legislation would permit religious organizations to develop mixed income and 100% affordable housing, with or without government subsidies. At a moment when it appears that there will be cutbacks in federal funding for housing, New York must tap every resource we can muster to address our housing crisis. Many religious organizations have parking lots, empty buildings, and land that is underutilized. While they may be willing to redevelop these properties for a community purpose, the high cost and complexity of the land use process required to turn these sites into affordable housing will often exceed their resources. The intention of this act is 202 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023783 to simplify, accelerate, and reduce the cost of development when the objective is to produce badly needed housing units. It is estimated that the act could allow upward of 60,000 new homes to be produced across the state. This would result in thousands of new jobs and, ultimately, put property that has been historically tax-exempt back on the tax rolls. In the 1980s, faith-based organizations were prime movers in rebuilding New York City's burned-out neighborhoods. Tens of thousands of affordable homes and apartments were built in less than a decade under the auspices of Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement, the Malcolm Shabazz Mosque, Abyssinian Development Corp., East Brooklyn and South Bronx Churches, Catholic Charities, ODA of Williamsburg, Allen AME Cathedral in Queens, and many more. During the height of that urban crisis, religious institutions leveraged their property and community credibility to participate in the largest affordable housing development initiative in the nation's history. They led the renaissance of New York City neighborhoods. Today, across New York State, this model can be replicated if the tools are put in place to allow it to happen. Passage of the Faith-Based Affordable Housing Act is important not only to New York City but also to its suburbs and upstate communities, where exclusionary zoning has driven up the cost of homes and limited housing options for both young people and retirees. New Yorkers overwhelmingly support this solution. Polling from Global Strategy Group shows that 75% of residents -- across party lines and geographic regions - favor the Faith-Based Affordable Housing Act. The real threat to community character isn't new housing -- it's losing neighbors who can no longer afford to stay and 72% report having friends or family forced to leave the state due to high housing costs. For those concerned about neighborhood changes, the bill includes important safeguards on height and density to ensure new homes blend seamlessly with existing communities. Religious institutions, with their deep local roots and community trust, are uniquely positioned to create housing that respects neighborhood character while addressing urgent needs. The spirit of this legislation compliments the important action the City Council recently took to pass the "City of Yes for Housing Opportunity," which updated the city's zoning code and removed obsolete restrictions on residential development. It is also consistent with the focus of the Charter Revision Commission which is currently considering possible amendments to the New York City Charter that would help to streamline development in a city where time, and the associated carrying costs and risks, are the biggest contributor to the high costs of building new housing. This legislation is important to the state's overall economy, since the lack of affordable housing is making it more difficult for employers to recruit and retain talent. While the Long Island and northern suburbs were once a safety valve for city workers looking for 203 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023784 affordable housing, the price and availability of affordable units now forecloses that option. The housing shortage is the primary factor making New York the state with the greatest population loss, costing New York congressional seats as well as economic losses. As we demonstrated in the 1980s, local religious institutions hold the trust of their communities. They can generate grass roots, self-help initiatives that leverage public and private resources far better than government or private developers can do on their own. New York's housing crisis demands immediate action, and the Faith-Based Affordable Housing Act is an easy win. Gov. Hochul and legislative leaders should prioritize passing this bill to unlock housing and keep New York's economy strong. Wylde is the president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City. [NJ] Hoboken Approved 25-Story Affordable Housing Building: What's Next? (Hoboken Patch, NJ) - full text Hoboken Patch [3/21/2025 6;58 AM, Caren Lissner, 10723K, NJ] Hoboken's City Council voted 5-3 on Wednesday night to move forward on the Garage B Redevelopment plan, which will include a 25-story building containing workforce and affordable housing. The proposed building at Second and Hudson streets would rise on the current site of municipal Garage B. The city's Planning Board had voted Monday that the project does not conform to the city's master plan. But several council members said there was a pressing need for reasonably priced housing in the city. And few available properties remain. The City Council voted 5-3 in favor of the project. Councilman Jim Doyle, Councilman Paul Presinzano, and Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher voted no. "The city will now work to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) to qualified developers for concept plans that align with the redevelopment plan," city spokesperson Marilyn Baer told Patch on Thursday. "Once a conditional redeveloper is selected, multiple studies, as required in the redevelopment plan, will need to be prepared before a redevelopment agreement is finalized." She said there will likely be several public sessions to discuss the project as it moves forward. The city anticipates several future public engagement sessions will be held throughout this process. The city had explained, in an earlier announcement, "Garage B is a 40-year-old municipal parking garage in substantial need of repair ... The plan seeks to transform the property to a transit-oriented, mixed-used site to include a new state-of-the-art municipal parking garage, active ground-floor retail, and residential housing." [PA] Officials cut ribbon on new affordable housing complex in Allentown (WFMZTV Online, PA) - full text 204 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023785 WFMZ-TV Online [3/21/2025 4:26 PM, Grace Griffaton, 919K, PA] 1528 West in Allentown is open for tenants, and there are more than 230 applicants clamoring to call 49 apartments home. With rents ranging from more than $300 to $1,000 with water, sewer and trash included, according to its website, you can see why. Zillow says the average rent in Allentown is about five times that, or $1,600. "The conversation across the country is that we're in a housing supply crisis and an affordability crisis," said HDC MidAtlantic President and CEO Dana Hanchin. Advocates say this is especially true for underserved populations. That's why this community is meant for them. "We had a conversation about the Eastern Pennsylvania Down Syndrome Center about the need they have, young adults living with intellectual disabilities," explained Hanchin. Its grand opening took place on World Down Syndrome Day. "I want to share something deeply personal. I have a 16-year-old son, Jesse, who has Down Syndrome," said HDC Senior VP of Real Estate Development Kim Krauter. "As a parent, I can't help but dream of the future where there are opportunities like this for him." There are 35 one-bed and 14 two-bedroom apartments. However, they're only eligible to people like Jesse, people over 55, and there are income limits. It's restricted to households whose income doesn't exceed 60% of the median income. Applications are still open and are being processed as they are received. [Editorial note: consult source link for video] [GA] Affordable Housing in Bulloch County: A Growing Concern for Local Residents (Grice Connect, GA) - full text Grice Connect [3/23/2025 12:16 PM, Zamaria Ball, 65K, GA] Affordable housing continues to be a significant challenge for many families and individuals in Bulloch County. With the rising cost of living, particularly in housing, many local residents are finding themselves spending a larger portion of their income on rent, often to the detriment of other basic needs. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), affordable housing is defined as spending no more than 30% of a household's gross income on housing costs, including rent and utilities. Unfortunately, for many families in Bulloch County, this standard is becoming increasingly difficult to meet. Affordable Housing Bulloch County Data. United for Alice. As of 2022, the average cost of rent and utilities for a single adult in Bulloch County is $629. While this may seem manageable for some, the reality is that a large portion of the population is struggling to stay within this limit. In fact, 47.2% of households in Bulloch County are spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs, pushing many families into financial instability. This growing housing burden has significant implications for residents and the community at large. Families that are forced to allocate a larger portion of their income toward rent often face difficult trade-offs. Many may delay essential healthcare, sacrifice 205 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023786 other household necessities, or go into debt to make ends meet. Additionally, the lack of affordable housing puts pressure on the local economy. Businesses face challenges when workers are unable to find affordable housing, which can lead to increased turnover rates, absenteeism, and difficulty in attracting employees to the area. Household Survival Budget, Bulloch County, 2022. United for Alice Data. The growing concern over affordable housing in Bulloch County has led to a call for action. Solutions are needed to ensure that more residents have access to stable and affordable living situations. This includes expanding the availability of affordable rental units, increasing support for low-income households, and finding innovative solutions to reduce the cost of housing. To make progress, community leaders, developers, and local organizations must work together to explore new avenues for affordable housing. This could include exploring tax incentives for developers to build affordable units, improving housing assistance programs, and advocating for better wages to allow residents to more easily afford the rising costs of living. By addressing these issues, Bulloch County can work toward a more sustainable future, where all residents have access to safe and affordable housing--one of the foundational pillars of financial stability. [OH] $400 million affordable housing project coming to 3 locations in Columbus (WBNS-10TV, Columbus, OH) - full text WBNS-10TV [3/21/2025 11:55 PM, Carly D'Eon, 884K, OH] VIDEO. A $400 million affordable housing project is getting underway in Columbus with some help from Franklin County. The Franklin County Board of Commissioners is contributing $37.5 million of those dollars to help make it happen. The project is set to bring in more than 1,200 affordable housing units to the city. "Everyone knows that we are in a housing crisis, that we don't have enough affordable housing units," said Erica Crawley, president of the Franklin County Board of Commissioners. Crawley said the board is doing their part to crack down on a crisis plaguing the city of Columbus: a lack of affordable housing options. They're investing in Nuveen, a real estate investing company, which is planning a $400 million project at three locations in the city. "I don't think the county has had a housing project or projects come online of almost 1,300 units at the same time ever before," Crawley said. Two of the three projects involve bringing pre-existing properties back up to livable conditions. "Latitude Five25 or the former Sawyer Towers is one of the projects. Then we have Wedgewood," Crawley said. Latitude Five25 shut down on Christmas Day in 2022 when the buildings were evacuated due to a pipe burst causing extensive damage. The Wedgewood Apartments in the Hilltop are more commonly known for issues with crime and poor living conditions. Now both properties are set for a revamp. Crawley said Nuveen asked them which areas they should focus on, and they suggested those properties. "There is a need for someone to come in and bring those units back online," Crawley said. The third property is located along Norton Road, where they'll be 206 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023787 starting from scratch on an empty plot of land. Crawley said they're hoping to make these properties "deeply affordable," meaning 30-60% of the average median income. "Teachers, we're talking about firefighters, we're talking about police officers, those who make low to medium wage jobs," Crawley said. Nuveen is based in Chicago, but Crawley said they're a social impact investing company looking to make a difference in the community. Although they come from out of state, she said they're hiring at the local level. "Their developers and contractors and subcontractors are right here in Franklin County. They're like, we want to be embedded in this community and the best way to be embedded is to hire right from local talent," Crawley said. As they wait for more funding to come through for the project from the city and state, Crawley said they're still in the design phase of the process. [OH] New report: 2 full-time minimum wage jobs not enough for fair housing in Columbus (NBC4 Columbus, OH) - full text NBC4 Columbus [3/21/2025 7:00 AM, Katie Millard, 1151K, OH] The National Low Income Housing Coalition released its annual report last week, and data shows fair housing is difficult to achieve in Columbus. According to the report, Columbus residents would have to work 2.5 full-time minimum wage jobs in order to afford the average fair market rent in the city, much more than the state average. At large, Ohio residents need to work 1.6 full-time minimum wage jobs -- 64 hours a week -- to afford a one-bedroom home in the state. The nonprofit looked at average fair market rent, a federally calculated rate based on locational rent averages that is used in housing voucher programs. In the Columbus metropolitan area, the rate for a onebedroom unit varies by zip code, ranging from $960 in to $1,790 per month. This data includes zip codes across seven central Ohio counties, with lower averages in more rural counties farther from the city. To afford fair market rent and utilities without paying more than 30% of their income -- the typical standard for how much of a paycheck should go to housing -- Columbus area residents would need to make $25.04 an hour, or just over $52,000 per year. Ohio's minimum wage is $10.70 per hour for nontipped employees, just 43% of the necessary salary to afford housing in Columbus. Although 32% of extremely low-income renter households are actively working, the largest percentage share, many others are unable to work. Extremely low-income renter households also include disabled, senior or singleadult caregiver homes unable to work many typical labor jobs, as well as full-time students. Although citizens are most likely affected by the gap between income and rent, there are limited options for residents to fix the larger project. The report asks Congress and the General Assembly to bridge the gap between incomes and rent. Among these recommendations are establishing rental assistance programs and offering tax credits. Lawmakers tell NBC4 they are working hard to address housing concerns, and lowincome housing opportunities are receiving state and city support. However, the housing crisis continues, and the report said it will likely persist until the gap between average income and average rent is remedied. See previous coverage on the housing shortage in the video player above. 207 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023788 [Editorial note: consult video at source link] [IL] Edward Keegan: An example of sophisticated affordable housing in Logan Square (Chicago Tribune, IL) - full text Chicago Tribune [3/23/2025 6:00 AM, Edward Keegan, 5269K, IL] The new 89-unit Encuentro Square affordable housing development in Logan Square is a smart addition to Chicago's architecture with a compelling design that's simple and straightforward, but layered with just enough detail to keep things interesting. It's located just north of The 606's western end. When the popular elevated trail opened a decade ago, there wasn't a lot there at its western terminus. The McCormick YMCA opened its doors just north of the trail in 2018, but while its facilities serve its neighbors well, its architectural design is desultory at best. Encuentro Square changes that calculus. The two-building complex was designed by locally based Canopy / architecture + design, which has been practicing since 2009 and is best known for its work in the affordable housing market and what Canopy principal and founder Jaime Torres Carmona dubs the "social impact space." The project's name is Spanish for "to gather," "to connect," "to engage" -- which describes how the project aspires to relate to its Logan Square neighborhood. The $67.5 million development currently consists of two buildings: There's a four-story L-shaped structure at the corner of West Cortland Street and North Hamlin Avenue and a six-story canted structure at the corner of West Cortland and North Ridgeway Avenue. The two buildings provide 89 affordable apartments that are available to families and individuals with incomes at or below 60% of the area's median income. And 55 of the units can be rented with Chicago Housing Authority vouchers. The property had long been home to a single-story manufacturing facility. It was acquired by the Trust for Public Land in 2014 while The 606 was still under construction and sold to the city of Chicago in 2019. The city demolished the old building in 2021 and remediated the land before donating it to the current development. The complex is set back at Hamlin and Cortland to provide a small public plaza at the four-story building's entrance. The six-story building is entered off Hamlin where the south end of the building steps away from the sidewalk to help diminish its 200-foot length and better define the complex's private interior courtyard. Both entrances open to the courtyard, and ground level interior spaces are devoted to various amenities for the residents. A new public park space will eventually be located south of the next phase's single structure, adjacent to The 606's terminus. The buildings display a sophisticated use of very ordinary materials, an attribute it shares with many of Chicago's best buildings. Much of the complex is clad in a white, horizontally corrugated metal siding. It's not the most obvious choice for an apartment building. Rather, it's a straightforward inexpensive "industrial" material that reminds us of the site's more workaday past. But in Canopy's capable hands, the expression is clean, 208 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023789 sleek and modern. At four and six stories, the buildings are a bit larger than most of their immediate neighbors, but they don't feel hulking nor do they overwhelm. In order to create a sense of welcome to the neighborhood, the architects developed the six-story facade facing Cortland as a feature wall. The designers drew inspiration from the monarch butterfly, "a symbol for culture, resiliency and community," Carmona said. But rather than apply a mural to the building, the architects chose to express the butterfly abstractly as architectural metaphor. This can be seen in the undulating movement of colored metal panels across the facades. They begin just four panels high about halfway down on Ridgeway, rise to two stories tall at the corner before soaring to the upper floors as the building's mass turns into the new midblock courtyard. And the monarch butterfly informed the complex's palette as well: a combination of reds, oranges, browns and charcoal. The western half of the four-story building eschews the white corrugated cladding in favor of flat gray panels with gray corrugate insets. The gray structure has a hint of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, although its celebration of the building's gridded frame is far more playful than the master could have tolerated. The design of the windows is notable. Like most apartment buildings, each floor's apartment layout is identical. But the designers shift the location of windows within the same interior spaces to create a more varied expression on the facades. Most windows are placed within boldly orange-hued aluminum "portals" that give the exteriors a sense of depth and texture. In particular, the windows really pop from the facades at the building's curved corners. They produce an element of domesticity that's often lacking in contemporary residential construction. And their placement is neither ordinary nor dull. The east building is more than 200 feet in length, and the designers wanted to suppress the mass a bit. "As a really long apartment building, we wanted to slow down the length of the building," Carmona said. "Using those portals allows there to be this sense of rhythm, but the sense of slow." One interior note that's readily seen from the outside are the expressed elevator lobbies in the taller building. They each have floor-to-ceiling glass facing the courtyard with super-graphics calling out each floor that are visible from a block away. These lobbies provide intimately scaled social spaces for the residents while also creating a bold presence on the exterior. Residents just recently started moving into their new apartments at the complex. And Encuentro Square is not yet done. There are plans for a third building that will stretch between Hamlin and Ridgeway that will more fully enclose the complex's courtyard. Given the continuing need for affordable housing -- and the high level of design they've already achieved here -- this is new development that should happen as soon as possible. Encuentro Square is a very sophisticated example of contemporary multifamily housing. That it's 100% affordable housing is particularly noteworthy; many -- even most -- new "luxury" apartments throughout the city don't do design this well. If every new building in Chicago achieved this level of design, we'd be much the better for it. 209 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023790 Edward Keegan writes, broadcasts and teaches on architectural subjects. Keegan's biweekly architecture column is supported by a grant from former Tribune critic Blair Kamin, as administered by the not-for-profit Journalism Funding Partners. The Tribune maintains editorial control over assignments and content. [MN] Bloomington's ordinance requiring affordable housing in multi-unit developments has brought mixed results (Minneapolis Star Tribune, MN) - full text Minneapolis Star Tribune [3/21/2025 12:00 PM, Katy Read, 3572K, MN] Bloomington has one of the strongest affordable housing statutes in the state, and it's working -- to a point. Housing is considered affordable if its cost represents 30% or less of the area median income, which in the Twin Cities is calculated at $124,000 for a family of four. Bloomington is exceeding goals for those at the higher end of the affordable housing scale. But like cities throughout the metro area, Bloomington still falls far short of supplying enough homes for the city's lowest-income residents, according to the Metropolitan Council, which has set goals for all cities in the metro based on projected need. "Bloomington has one of the most flexible and incentive-based inclusionary zoning policies that we have seen in the metro area, and it's because of that they got the results they've achieved," said Cecil Smith, CEO of Minnesota Multi Housing Association. Six years ago, Bloomington's City Council passed an ordinance requiring developers of new housing to designate a percentage for lower-income residents. Bloomington's ordinance uses an approach generally called inclusionary zoning, requiring developers to include affordable homes in new construction. In Bloomington, new developments of 20 or more homes must include at least 9% at affordable rates. Alternatively, developers can contribute land or money to an affordable-housing trust fund in lieu of building the units themselves. Subsidies from the fund support other construction of affordable homes. In exchange for complying with the requirement, developers can choose from various incentives -- including reduced parking space requirements, alternative exterior building materials and various public financing options -- to help trim their building costs. Although several other cities have since passed similar laws with differing structures, Bloomington's is one of the most specific and detailed, said John Schadl of the Metropolitan Council. That's why experts call it one of the strongest in the state. Since 2021, Bloomington has been working toward a goal the Metropolitan Council has given the city for construction of new affordable housing units by 2030. Altogether, the goal is to create 842 new homes, of which 743 have been built. Except almost all of those new homes are for those in the higher end of qualified incomes, which represents less than half of the council's total goal. The city has fallen far short of the council's goal for homes at the lowest price level. "Bloomington has definitely made an effort to take a bite out of the need," said Kim Berggren, the city's community development director. "It's a heavy lift, and there's a long way to go for Bloomington and the rest of the region to close the gap between the need and the availability." The goal in Bloomington in the lower end of the income scale is 445 homes by 2030. So far, the city has produced 40. Income at that level -- 30% of median income -- is just over $37,000 for a family of four. At that level, rents considered 210 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023791 affordable range from $650 to about $1,100. Many experts, developers and affordablehousing advocates say more public funding is needed to make the construction of homes at the "deeply affordable" level financially feasible. Cities across the metro are facing the same problem, said Sarah Berke, the Met Council's senior manager for housing and livable communities. In fact, a 2024 council report showed most cities produced no deeply affordable homes in the previous three years. "We're doing a great job of meeting the need at higher levels," Berke said. But "the region is not on track to meet the need" for lower-rent homes. The barriers to building deeply affordable housing include cost and regulations, she said. Currently, 27% of households in the metro area are paying more than 30% of their income for housing, she said. In Bloomington and elsewhere, building homes priced low enough for people at the lowest income levels is not financially feasible without sufficient public funding, said Smith, whose Multi Housing Association represents those who build and manage complexes. "The profound struggle to afford safe and attainable housing is tragically real for far too many Minnesotans," said Dan Collison, a former pastor and civic leader who has worked on affordable-housing projects in the Twin Cities. "Those who face extreme poverty and homelessness should be everybody's concern," he said. "The profound struggle to afford safe and attainable housing is tragically real for far too many Minnesotans." However, as senior director of business development and public affairs for Minneapolis-based Sherman Associates, Collison said it has become even more challenging to develop affordable housing. Financial obstacles include dwindling public resources in forms such as grants and rent assistance, higher interest rates, and higher costs for property operations and insurance. President Donald Trump's tariff plans could add even more costs by disrupting supply chains, he said. Collison said more financial incentives need to be in place because of the associated risks. "The key to policy success is always maintaining requirements and incentives," Collison said. "If this gets out of balance, development will stall out." Communities select their own mix of tools, requirements and incentives to encourage construction of affordable housing. The Legislature is also considering several bills with bipartisan backing intended to increase the supply. Nicholas Julian, director of land use for the National Association of Home Builders, agreed that revenue from affordable homes can't cover the cost of building them, at least at deeply affordable levels. In addition to rising costs for land, materials and labor, developers also pay fees to local government, Julian said, primarily for new schools, road construction and other infrastructure needed to serve more residents. "I think right now, the private builder industry and the public mayors and city council officials are on the same team," Julian said. Affordable rent also doesn't cover the costs of operating the housing once it's built, such as insurance, security and building maintenance, Smith said. "If we're going to have this as part of our housing stock into the future, we're going to have to think about not just construction subsidies to create it but also operating subsidies," he said. 211 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023792 Another way to help lessen the problem would be changing zoning laws to allow more densely spaced homes, Julian said. Called "upzoning," it means allowing smaller lawns and construction of multi-family units in areas previously limited to single-family houses. But residents often oppose those strategies. "Upzoning is framed, a lot of times, as like the city is destroying the character of your neighborhood and destroying single-family zoning," Julian said. But upzoning still permits single-family houses, albeit interspersed with multi-unit dwellings, a pattern that was once common in residential areas, he said. Ed Goetz, a professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Minnesota, agreed on the value of upzoning, saying the current situation "calls for an all-hands-ondeck" response to housing shortages, both affordable and market-rate. "The diagnosis there is that we have simply too much land that is set aside for very low-density housing," he said. Berke sees cause for optimism, in Bloomington and other communities. "It's really not hopeless, because although we're not meeting our needs, we've gotten better at doing this over the years," she said. "Cities are adopting better policies, like inclusionary zoning, to support affordability, and also just making it easier to build housing of different types in a more market-responsive way." [TX] Preserving Houston's `Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing' (Planetizen) full text Planetizen [3/21/2025 10:00 AM, Diana lonescu, 149K] An analysis from the Kinder Institute for Urban Research emphasizes the importance of "naturally occurring affordable housing," or NOAH. in Houston, which make up 85 percent of Houston's regional housing stock. NOAH is defined as "low-cost rental housing . . . offered by the private market [that] does not receive federal housing subsidies" but serves households that would qualify for assistance. More than half of these properties in the Houston area are in "average or worse condition" and require maintenance or renovations, which could result in increased rent costs. "Additionally, rising property values in central Harris County and Houston make NOAH properties subject to gentrification, especially in neighborhoods that offer a wealth of amenities." According to the analysis, NOAH is currently the primary source of housing stock for lowincome Houston households, but its nebulous status and tendency to appear and disappear with market trends make it difficult to identify and preserve. The authors suggest using Houston's tax increment reinvestment zones (TIRZs) to preserve NOAH by helping to fund repairs and maintenance. "TIRZ programs, a form of value capture to encourage investment in distressed neighborhoods, often devote about 25%-30% of their funds toward affordable housing construction or renovation." [UT] SLC puts another $11.5M into affordable housing. Here's where the money is going. (Salt Lake Tribune, UT) - full text 212 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023793 Salt Lake Tribune [3/22/2025 8:00 AM, Tony Semerad, 1560K, UT] It may be acting under a new name these days, but Salt Lake City's redevelopment arm keeps pushing millions of dollars toward support for affordable housing. Under the umbrella of its former Redevelopment Agency -- now called the Community Reinvestment Agency, or CRA -- the city has approved spending more than $11.5 million this year in subsidizing affordable rentals, encouraging new accessory dwellings to be built and boosting homeownership for those at more moderate incomes. After a series of votes at City Hall on Tuesday, some $5.3 million of that cash will fund lowinterest loans to a new round of four affordable apartment projects, promising as many as 482 new dwellings between them. The spending is part of a program the city has offered since 2018. It's meant to provide so-called gap funding for certain housing projects that already have significant financing from other sources, in an attempt to improve affordability as Utah's capital continues to cope with a dire shortage of homes accessible to those making typical wages. This year, that will include $1 million toward ongoing work by the development arm of the city's Housing Authority to turn the former Public Safety Building, at 315 E. 200 South, into a multi-building residential and community hub with a total of 244 homes, to be known as The Grove. That $1 million will fuel a 56-unit piece of The Grove as part of preserving and converting what's also called the historic Northwest Pipeline Building to new uses. This phase of the project will center on two- and three-bedroom dwellings, city documents indicate, with some of those available for purchase by folks earning between 41% and 80% of the area's median incomes. Other affordable projects getting city loans from that $5.3 million are: The Gregory, located at 738 W. South Temple. This one is getting $2 million in city funds and will have up to 187 units, with 53 of them having two bedrooms or more. The Hive on 11th, at 1116 Richards Street. It will receive $1.54 million, and plans there call for 169 dwellings, 116 of them one-bedroom and the rest two or more. 1300 South Apartments, 30 W. 1300 South. That's getting $750,000 in city money and is planned for 70 units, 46 of them two bedrooms or more. An additional project, called Flats at Folsom, at 16 S. 800 West, applied for city funds but was denied, partly because its plans only call for studio and one-bedroom units. The City Council, in its role overseeing the GRA, is also dedicating another $2.9 million of that $11.5 million total to help homeowners finance the construction of new add-on dwellings such as mother-in-law apartments and backyard cottages. This is a part of wider policy move to incentivize more so-called missing middle housing across the city as stocks of available land in the city dwindle. The hope is to foster infill development in existing neighborhoods with smaller and more affordable home types and designs. The funds for accessory dwellings, to be overseen by the nonprofit Community Development Corp. of Utah, will be split between two geographic areas, with $1.9 million intended to subsidize add-on homes around portions of the 9 Line Trail, with the rest for similar work within city limits anywhere west of Interstate 15. Under the Community Development Corp. of Utah's approved proposal, that program would likely offer subsidized loans of up to $200,000, benefiting between 15 and 20 accessory dwellings. In the city's quest to boost construction of more housing suitable for families, officials are putting $3.3 million toward loans for helping construction of affordable homes to be made 213 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023794 available for purchase, in hopes of giving some owners with more modest incomes the ability to build wealth over time. For this initiative, the focus is on units with three or more bedrooms. The funds for wealth-building opportunities are to be split between two nonprofits, according to the council's latest actions. An arm of the city's Housing Authority will get $1.25 million for a rent-to-own program that will be part of the Northwest Pipeline Building project. The other $2 million will go toward a down-payment assistance program, to be run by Community Development Corp. of Utah. [AZ] 368 affordable housing units now in Glendale (Glendale Star, AZ) - full text Glendale Star [3/23/2025 3:00 AM, Staff, 9K, AZ] Maricopa County recently celebrated the grand opening of Centerline on Glendale, an innovative 368-unit affordable housing community located just west of downtown Glendale that will also serve as the launch pad for Local First Arizona's Glendale Community Kitchen. "Too many West Valley families are struggling to make ends meet and are forced to make difficult decisions to afford rent and keep their fridge stocked," said Supervisor Steve Gallardo, District 5. "This project is proof that affordable housing developments do more than just provide housing -- they build stronger communities where families can access essential amenities and collaboratively build a foundation to thrive." Centerline on Glendale is a model for community-based economic growth. The new Local First Arizona Glendale Community Kitchen provides an on-site commercial kitchen to serve entrepreneurs running small food-based businesses in the West Valley. Residents will also have access to a splash pad, dog park, business incubation space, fitness and recreation center, 13-acre walking path, electric vehicle charging stations and on-site wraparound supportive services. Centerline will provide high-quality, affordable housing to individuals, families with children, seniors, veterans, formerly homeless individuals and households with special needs. All units have been designed with accessibility in mind and can accommodate residents with physical disabilities or sensory impairments. The one-, two- and threebedroom apartments will have rents ranging from $476 to $2,054 and be available to households earning between 0-80% of the countywide Area Median Income (AMl). Maricopa County invested $6 million of Affordable Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to support the development of Centerline on Glendale, which is Arizona's first affordable housing community to be financed using state low-income housing tax credits. The project is the result of an intergovernmental collaboration between the County, the City of Glendale, the Arizona Department of Housing and other state agencies. [OR] These major affordable housing projects are coming to Eugene. Here is how to learn more (Register-Guard, OR) - full text Register-Guard [3/22/2025 4:01 PM, Hannarose McGuinness, 272K, OR] Advances in the development of Affordable Housing units around Eugene are happening 214 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023795 as the Affordable Housing Trust Fund opens public comments for this year's three proposals and one gap funding request. This year, the AHTF has just over $700,000 to disperse to projects developing Affordable Housing in Eugene. Here's a look at each of these housing projects and how you can share your input through public comment. Floral Hill by DevNW Developer DevNW is proposing Floral Hill, a 36-unit subdivision planned on 3.9 acres of land in southeast Eugene on Floral Hill Drive. The subdivision would provide affordable homes in a variety of housing types, such as townhomes and detached homes. By Implementing a Community Land Trust model where the developer owns the land but residents can own their homes, the project could provide easier access to ownership for households earning up to 80% of the Area Median Income. DevNW's proposed project, Floral Hill, intends to provide 36 affordable home units with 100 bedrooms total. The developer's funding proposal includes a map of the proposed project, located in Eugene's Laurel Hill Valley neighborhood. Park Run by Community Development Partners Park Run is a complex proposed by Community Development Partners aimed at serving households earning 30% to 60% of the AMI. The proposal includes the development of a four-story building at 132 and 158 S. Garden Way. The development plans to offer 158 housing units with a variety of one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans. River Road Apartments by Cascade Housing Association River Road Apartments, proposed by Cascade Housing Association, aims to develop 47 housing units affordable to households earning up to 60% AMI. The complex would be developed at 621 River Road and plans include three, three-story buildings. Units would be one-, two- and three-bedroom units with an additional manager unit. The Lucy by Cornerstone Community Housing The Lucy is a project from Cornerstone Community Housing that was awarded Affordable Housing Trust Funds in 2024 and is requesting additional gap funding. The project intends to construct 36 new rental units on Hunsaker Lane. The project design includes three, three-story buildings with 12 units each in addition to a community building and 59 parking spaces. Floor plans include one-, two- and three-bedroom units to serve households earning between 50% and 60% AMI. An aerial diagram shows the design concept for Cornerstone Community Housing's proposed project, The Lucy. This project intends to provide 36 newly constructed affordable rental units, totaling 75 bedrooms across one-, two- and three-bedroom units. In 2024, The Lucy was awarded $428,273. The developer is requesting an additional $310,094 in this round of Requests for Proposals. The total project cost is $15,384,254 Public comment now open Public comments regarding these projects can be submitted through April. Comments can be emailed to Housing Tools Analyst Laura Hammond at LHammond@eugeneor.gov or can be shared during public comment portions of upcoming AHTF Evaluation 215 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023796 Sub-Committee meetings. The full AHTF Committee plans to make funding recommendations to staff on May 8 at a 12:15 p.m. meeting. The May meeting will also provide public comment time. Following committee recommendations, the Eugene City Council is scheduled to make final funding decisions in June. [OR] Salem City Council eyes purchase of vacant land for affordable housing (Statesman Journal, OR) - full text Statesman Journal [3/23/2025 4:08 AM, Whitney Woodworth, 346K, OR] The Salem City Council will vote on ratifying a sale agreement to purchase property on Market Street NE with plans to turn the vacant land into affordable housing. The property at 2445 Market St. NE was once a neighborhood blight. The abandoned house was even nominated for a story on "Salem's worst eyesore properties." In 2016, a reader wrote to the Statesman Journal detailing how the house had deteriorated over the course of 10 years after it caught fire. At the time, nine complaints had been lodged against the house. It was plastered with notices and remained on the city's list of derelict buildings for more than a year. Eventually, the property was purchased by Scymanky Rentals in 2023 for $650,000 and the crumbling house was demolished the following year. City officials are now seeking to purchase the property and build affordable housing using federal funds. The contract for the .94-acre patch of land between Evergreen Avenue and 23rd Street in north Salem is listed at $750,000. In a report to the council, city staff said the Urban Development Department seeks to acquire the property to facilitate the construction of affordable housing units to serve low-income individuals and families in need of stable and accessible living conditions. "The acquisition and subsequent development by Salem Housing Authority aligns with the City's broader housing goals, which include expanding affordable housing options, addressing housing shortages, and promoting equitable community growth," staff said. Securing the site would allow the city to leverage federal Community Development Block Grant funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. [Editorial note: consult source link for video] [OR] Editorial: In a hole on housing, Oregon just keeps digging (Oregonian, OR) full text Oregonian [3/23/2025 7:00 AM, Staff, 3861K, OR] Oregon's first-in-the-nation statewide rent control legislation didn't chase away new housing construction after the Legislature adopted the controversial policy in 2019. But one of the biggest worries for rent-control skeptics has always been if lawmakers would leave well enough alone. 216 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023797 The worry is merited. The law started off with a cap on annual rent increases of 7% plus inflation for buildings 15 years or older. But amid spiking inflation, legislators in 2023 added a proviso that such an increase could not exceed 10%. The backsliding appears to continue this session. House Bill 3O54 would allow rent increases no greater than inflation for those living in manufactured home parks while Senate Bill 722 - largely aimed at banning algorithm-based pricing software by rental companies - includes a provision to remove the rent cap exemption for buildings older than seven years old. Although both stem from good intentions, these short-term BandAids carry negative long-term consequences - most notably, a message that the developers and investors needed to reverse the state's housing deficit should just steer clear of Oregon. To be fair, legislators are understandably trying to respond to the urgent needs of constituents, many of whom are already struggling to make rent. HB 3054 addresses a particularly vulnerable group - people who own their manufactured homes, but pay rent to the owner of the manufactured home community where they live. They don't have the option of easily picking up and moving when faced with the large rent hikes that corporate owners regularly pass along, said Rep. Pam Marsh, DSouthern Jackson County, one of the bill's chief sponsors. And manufactured homes provide a vital source of affordable housing in a state that needs every bit it can get. But clamping down on allowable rent also squeezes the mom-and-pop operations that have long tried to keep increases down but are facing soaring insurance, utility charges, maintenance costs and property tax expenses. The likely result? Many have testified that they may end up selling to those same corporate operators or to developers eager for the underlying land - but not the manufactured homes. SB 722 is less targeted and could ultimately have a broader, negative impact on Oregon's housing market if it goes through unamended. Currently, Oregon exempts new apartment buildings less than 15 years old from the statewide rent cap, giving investors more confidence about taking on the financial risk of new construction. The bill calls for slashing that exemption period to only seven years - a cut that could dramatically change the value of a building and, with it, the financial calculus for investors and developers. However, rather than tailor solutions to the problems - perhaps by increasing funding for targeted rent assistance - both bills double down on a law that has received little analysis of its impact on Oregonians. The rent stabilization law, Senate Bill 608, was the first statewide rent control legislation in the country. While outside economists have looked at overall trends, the state has commissioned no review of its effects, the governor's spokeswoman acknowledged. Such a new approach to addressing our years-old housing crisis should merit far more curiosity and scrutiny than it has. Anecdotally, however, Oregonians have shared stories of rent hikes that now routinely match the cap, Marsh said. It's as if the cap has simply become the default - a relatively unsurprising reaction in a market where the state controls the price someone can set, regardless of any change in underlying costs. Both Marsh and Sen. Chris Gorsek, D-Gresham and a chief sponsor of SB 722, told the 217 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023798 editorial board they are considering amendments to their bills to address concerns. Marsh is looking at exempting smaller manufactured home communities in an effort to direct the restrictions to larger corporate owners. Gorsek's bill has two amendments under consideration - one that shortens the exemption period to buildings 10 years and older and a second that drops any change to the exemption. Legislators would be wise to adopt the latter option immediately. But even if that occurs, legislators must acknowledge that they are broadcasting that Oregon is an unreliable place to do business as its lawmakers don't grasp or don't care about the financial considerations that go into making long-term multimillion-dollar investments. Instead, hasty legislation and the lack of any state analysis of how rent stabilization has affected rents reinforces a sense that Oregon governs by feel. No rent cap, no matter how low, will add the hundreds of thousands of new housing units needed over the next decade. State and local government, despite devoting hundreds of millions of dollars in the past few years to affordable housing construction, can barely make a dent in the hundreds of thousands of units that Oregon must add in the next decade. Instead, legislators' reflex is to continually clamp down on what rent stabilization allows. So far, based on comparisons to Washington state, Oregon's existing 10% cap appears not to have chased away development, economist Mike Wilkerson said. But shifts on that front could easily change the equation. "This slippery slope is what will actually make investors leery," he said, adding that they will do "what every rational person is going to do - assume that's going to continue." Oregon's elected leaders should recognize that tighter rent stabilization provisions won't lead Oregon out of our housing deficit. It will only dig the hole deeper. [CA] Officials Consider $9.4 Million Loan For Affordable Housing In Point Reyes Station (SFGate, CA) - full text SFGate [3/23/2025 3:00 AM, Staff, 12335K, CA] Nonprofit developers behind a new affordable housing project in Point Reyes Station may soon receive a $9.4 million financial boost from the County of Mahn, officials announced. The Marin County Supervisors is set to vote on Mar. 25 to approve the loan to support the transformation of the former U.S. Coast Guard housing complex into 54 affordable homes, a press release on Friday noted. Eden Housing and the Community Land Trust of West Marin (CLAM) are leading the $55.4 million project, which will provide housing for low-income households earning between 30% and 60% of the area median income, officials said. The site, located at 100 Commodore Webster Drive. has been vacant since 2014. The property includes 36 townhomes and a 24-room barracks that will be remodeled to offer rental units ranging from one to four bedrooms, officials said. The housing will serve seniors, families, and local workers, including agricultural workers, addressing a severe shortage of workforce housing in West Marin. 218 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023799 [Editorial note: consult source link for video] Headlines The Washington Post (3/22/2025 6:00 AM) Migrant rights agencies closing Judge scolds government over removal of migrants Youngkin's effort to hire hits road bumps Musk's ties to China complicate his DOGE role Brazil's nationalist flight of fancy? D.C. police chief was a central player in a tumultuous period (3/23/2025 6:00 AM) Arrested at an ICE check-in, then gone without a trace Family secrets unmasked in JFK files shock and excite As tensions rise on a melting map, Greenland's world stature grows IRS on verge of migrant data deal Trump memo seen as threat to law firms (3/24/2025 6:00 AM) Citing Trump's example, autocrats roll back rights Constituents hunt for answers from GOP congressman Israel plans for widened Gaza war A Chinatown mainstay may be on its last legs Meta's scramble to silence tell-all raises its sales volume Europe reevaluates U.S. arms dependence The New York Times (3/22/2025 6:00 AM) Columbia Agrees to Trump's Demands After Federal Funds Are Stripped As Trump Broadens Crackdown, Focus Expands to Legal Immigrants and Tourists Trump Rejects Idea That Musk Should Have Access to Top-Secret China War Plans Heathrow Rumbles Back to Life After Substation Fire Shut Down Airport Sudan's Military Retakes Presidential Palace in Devastated Capital Overtime Pay for 9 Extra Months in Space? Nope. (3/23/2025 6:00 AM) How a Major Democratic Law Firm Ended Up Bowing to Trump Wealth and Warfare Empower a Rwanda-Backed Militant Group in Congo The Scammer's Manual: How to Launder Money and Get Away With It Were the Kennedy Files a Bust? Not So Fast, Historians Say. Elon Musk Gets Ready to Enter the Restaurant Business George Foreman, Boxing Champion and Grilling Magnate, Dies at 76 (3/24/2025 6:00 AM) Trump and DOGE Propel V.A. Mental Health System Into Turmoil With New Decree, Trump Seeks to Cow the Legal Profession Keir Starmer on Putin, Trump and Europe's Challenge: 'We've Known This Moment Was Coming' 219 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023800 Migrants Deported to Panama Ask: 'Where Am I Going to Go?' Doctors Told Him He Was Going to Die. Then A.I. Saved His Life. The Wall Street Journal (3/22/2025 and 3/23/2025 6:00 AM) Boeing Wins Next-Generation Jet Fighter Contract Columbia Yields to Trump in Battle Over Federal Funding 'Keep Moving to Survive': Ukrainians Recount Perilous Retreat From Russian Territory The Warship That Shows Why the U.S. Navy Is Falling Behind China Under Attack, Paper Straw Fans Fight Back (3/24/2025 6:00 AM) White House Narrows April 2 Tariffs Investors Who Were All In on U.S. Stocks Are Starting to Look Elsewhere Canada's Mark Carney Calls a Snap Election The Longevity Business Is Booming--and Its Scientists Are Clashing Netanyahu and Top Aides Think Israel Must Beat Hamas on the Battlefield ABC News (3/24/2025 6:00 AM) Border czar says Trump administration won't defy judge's order on deportation flights South Korea's acting president thanks court for restoring his powers and says he'll attend to the most urgent matters Somali militants kill 6 Kenyan police reservists and ransack their border camp CBS News (3/24/2025 6:00 AM) Second lady Usha Vance to visit Greenland Trump is targeting illegal immigration at the U.S.-Canada border. Here's how some migrants cross there. Expelled South African ambassador says he will wear U.S. sanction as "badge of dignity" CNN (3/24/2025 6:00 AM) South Korea fights deadly wildfires in southeast as thousands evacuate First deportation flight lands in Venezuela from US, after countries agree to resume repatriations Greenland's prime minister slams 'highly aggressive' visit by US officials, including second lady Usha Vance Fox News (3/24/2025 6:00 AM) Locals beat tourist for scaling sacred temple, call for 'sacrifice' as security tries to protect him 220 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023801 New Canadian prime minister calls snap election to respond to Trump Turkey 'ails Istanbul mayor before trial, protests rage throughout city NBC News (3/24/2025 6:00 AM) Trump targets lawyers who he says file 'frivolous' lawsuits against his administration South Korean court reinstates impeached PM Han Duck-soo as acting president Ukraine and U.S. teams hold talks in Saudi Arabia; U.S. envoy hopeful of ending war Washington Schedule President The White House (3/24/2025 6:00 AM) 2:00 PM The President and the Governor of Louisiana deliver remarks 3:00 PM The President participates in a Greek Independence Day Celebration Vice President The White House (3/24/2025 6:00 AM) See source link. Schedule not yet available. Senate Senate (3/24/2025 6:00 AM) 3:00 p.m.: Convene and proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the nomination of John Phelan, of Florida, to be Secretary of the Navy. House of Representatives House of Representatives (3/24/2025 6:00 AM) 3:00 PM I 360 Canon HOB Hearing: Closing the Data Gap: Improving Interoperability Between VA and Community Providers Host: Committee on Veterans' Affairs I Subcommittee on Technology Modernization 4:00 PM I H-313 CAPITOL Business Meeting: H.R. 1048 - Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions Act; H.J. Res. 24 - Providing for 221 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023802 congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5 United States Code of the rule submitted by the Department of Energy relating to "Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Walk-In Coolers and Walk-In Freezers".; H.J. Res. 75 - Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5 United States Code of the rule submit Host: Committee on Rules {End of Report} 222 OMBA401FY25609ALitigation_000000206 Sierra Club v. OMB, Case No. 25-cv- 05732-LJC OMB 2025-825 SC_EVERSPLIT0023803