On Our Radar

The New York Times, September 22, 2023, Children Are The Casualties In New Yorkers’ Daily Struggle For Space In New York, intimate tragedies often provide the clearest view of our bleakest problems, the most urgent invitation to reckon with systemic failings. The case of Nicolas Feliz Dominici, almost 2, who authorities say died after exposure […]

CNBC, September 22, 2023, Biden Administration Takes Steps To Remove Medical Bills From Credit Reports The Biden administration wants to remove medical debt completely from consumer credit reports, so the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Thursday outlined its proposed rules to keep unpaid medical bills from affecting patient’s credit scores. Medical debt is the most common debt in collection. The

American Banker, September 22, 2023, Rate ‘Lock-in’ Effect Is Hurting Housing And Mortgage Markets, Powell Says Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged that the so-called “lock-in” effect has contributed to stagnation in the mortgage lending market and the nation’s broader housing woes, but he said he doesn’t regret the central bank’s monetary policy moves that played a major

The Washington Post, September 22, 2023, Biden’s New Climate Corps Will Train Thousands Of Young People President Biden announced an initiative to train more than 20,000 young people in skills crucial to combating climate change, such as installing solar panels, restoring coastal wetlands and retrofitting homes to be more energy-efficient. As part of a recruitment push,

The Washington Post, September 3, 2023, Home Insurers Cut Natural Disasters From Policies As Climate Risks Grow In the aftermath of extreme weather events, major insurers are increasingly no longer offering coverage that homeowners in areas vulnerable to those disasters need most. Major insurers say they will cut out damage caused by hurricanes, wind and

ProPublica, September 5, 2023, Erasing The “Black Spot”: How A Virginia College Expanded By Uprooting A Black Neighborhood Around 1960, in the last gasp of the Jim Crow era, the Shoe Lane community consisted of a church and about 20 Black families, including teachers, dentists, a high school principal and a NASA engineer. They owned

The Washington Post, August 30, 2023, Female Professors Sue Vassar College, Alleging Wage Discrimination Five female professors at Vassar College are suing the elite institution in Upstate New York — one of the country’s first colleges to educate women — alleging it engaged in decades of systemic wage discrimination by paying them less than their male colleagues.

FOXBusiness, August 29, 2023, US Housing Market Faces New Hurdle: Student Loan Repayments The US housing market has been over the past year walloped by high mortgage rates and a worsening inventory shortage. It may soon face another obstacle: Student loan repayments. Real estate experts are bracing for a significant blow to the market when

American Banker, August 17, 2023, In Debate Over Appraisal Bias, Rival Researchers Clash Over Key Data Conflicting findings from a pair of non-profit research groups call into question whether or not recent actions will improve financial outcomes for minority homeowners without leading to banks and other mortgage lenders taking on undue risks. The debate centers on a 2018 report

The New York Times, August 21, 2023, Supreme Court Is Asked to Hear a New Admissions Case on Race The Thomas Jefferson case arose in late 2020, after protests over the murder of George Floyd. Officials in Fairfax County, Va., concerned about the few Black and Hispanic students at Thomas Jefferson, changed admissions standards. In

Vox, August 21, 2023, How Housing Activists And Unions Found Common Ground In California Corey Smith, the new head of the YIMBY-aligned Housing Action Coalition, told Vox he thinks the leadership from The California Conference of Carpenters, and bringing in the other unions, “is perhaps the single most positive shift in California housing discourse, conversations,

APNews, August 18, 2023, In Hawaii, Concerns Over ‘Climate Gentrification’ Rise After Devastating Maui Fires More than 3,000 buildings in Lahaina were damaged by fire, smoke or both. Insured property losses alone already total some $3.2 billion, according to Karen Clark & Company, a prominent disaster and risk modeling firm. With a housing crisis that has priced out many Native

American Banker, August 14, 2023, After Merger Fails, TD Inks Smaller Community Plan In New Jersey TD Bank is committing over $2 billion to community reinvestment initiatives in New Jersey — three months after the unraveling of a larger, multistate agreement that was tied to its ill-fated acquisition of First Horizon. Under a three-year plan unveiled Monday, the Canadian-owned

The New York Times, August 11, 2023, Gen Z Can’t Afford the Rent But there’s something that many Gen Z-ers feel is not within their realm of possibility: owning a home. The rule of thumb that one’s cost of housing shouldn’t exceed 30 percent of their monthly income is becoming less realistic for many in

The Washington Post, August 12, 2023, ‘Unluckiest generation’ falters in boomer-dominated market for homes Homeownership — the main driver of wealth for most Americans — is out of reach for large swaths of the population. But the pinch is most pronounced for millennials, who are buying homes at a slower pace than those before them.