housing policy
For most of this election season, we were hoping that the candidates and at least one debate question touched on something
Regardless of who wins in November, Congress and the next administration must act boldly to help the 11 million housing insecure households who pay more than half of their incomes on rent. They often face difficult choices between paying rent and buying groceries or seeing a doctor. In the worst cases, they become homeless.
The ability to find housing is critical for successful re-entry into society.
The nation needs its housing assistance programs to be as efficient and effective as possible, and this legislation -- the Housing Opportunities Through Modernization Act (HOTMA) -- would take major steps toward that goal.
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A new report is startling, but also kind of not.
With policymakers providing the needed funds, state and local housing agencies are restoring many of the housing vouchers lost to the sequestration cuts in recent years. But restoring the rest -- which the President and Congress should prioritize in their fall negotiations over a final 2016 budget -- will likely require relief from sequestration.
San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro has been nominated to be the next secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. What's to be said about this? Well, over at the Washington Post, The Fix hooks you up with "The 10 things you need to know about Julian Castro." This must be a misprint, because the article goes on to relate 10 very inessential and/or inconsequential things about Castro. For example, did you know that he has a twin brother? Or that he does not speak Spanish? Here's a hot scoop: Castro could one day be the first Hispanic president of the United States, according to this one guy who said so once, unless of course someone else becomes the first Hispanic president of the United States. The whole "who will be the first Hispanic president of the United States" thing is really sort of up in the air at the moment.
For families to have any chance of accessing the middle class, they need to start with a stable home in a strong community.
In fact, there are examples that suggest the opposite is true: Minnesota and Iowa have two of the highest home ownership
All told, about 90,000 Native families are homeless or under-housed on a given night, and Native communities nationwide face an immediate housing shortfall of 200,000 homes.