The New York Times: Opportunity Zones-For Billionaires
A federal tax break intended to draw investment to lower-income areas has become one more way for the rich to avoid paying taxes.
On Our Radar
A curated collection of links to news, analysis, trends, ideas and views from elsewhere.
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service: OPINION: There’s new-found momentum for affordable homeownership in Milwaukee. Let’s not mess it up, local and state leaders.
Nationwide, 64% of Americans own their homes. In Milwaukee, merely 52% do. And the challenges are substantially greater for lower-income households and people of color. The differences are as plain as black and white – literally.
USA Today: Black households can afford just 25% of homes for sale, down from 39% in 2012
The share of African Americans who own their homes fell from 43.8% in early 2012 to 40.6% in the second quarter, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. By contrast, the white homeownership rate has edged down slightly, from 73.5% to 73.1%. In 2004, during the housing boom, nearly half of black people owned their homes.
National Mortgage News: Median sale price of Twin Cities home hits a record in October
Entry-level home buyers outnumbered sellers in the Twin Cities metro in October, boosting prices and stifling sales of houses priced at less than $300,000. For those willing to spend more than that, it was a radically different story — sales and listings of move-up properties increased double-digits.
DS News: Rising Rates for Minority Homeownership
Census Bureau’s Housing Vacancies and Homeownership Survey show minority homeownership rate rose 0.9% to 48.3% during Q3 2019.
NPR: With Rent Control Likely To Stay In D.C., Tenant Advocates Urge Stronger Protections
A packed hearing at the D.C. Council found tenant advocates calling for sweeping changes to the city’s rent control law.
WGBH: Two Pioneering Women Editors Take On Gender Inequity In The Newsroom
According to Gilger and Wallace, “When one female reporter who covered health asked for a raise, the metro editor replied, ‘Your husband is a dentist. What are you worried about?’”
THE HILL: DACA Arguments Draw Large Protests At Supreme Court
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments for three cases over the administration’s cancellation of DACA. Trump has argued that former President Obama abused his executive power in creating the program, and that ending DACA would curtail illegal immigration in the country.
Los Angeles Times: DACA Changed A Generation Of California Immigrants. These Are Some Of Their Stories
They are doctors and pharmacists, business owners and students who were brought to the United States as children, unaware that they had entered illegally or on visas that later expired. Without legal status, their hopes for the future were dim.
The New York Times: Where Civility Is A Motto, A School Integration Fight Turns Bitter
A plan to desegregate schools in a liberal Maryland suburb founded on values of tolerance has met with stiff resistance.
The New York Times: Why It Costs So Much to Build Affordable Housing
Over the past few months, Google, Facebook and Apple have pledged to invest a total of $4.5 billion in land and loans toward stimulating the production of affordable housing in California. Our article looks at how those efforts, laudable as they are, won’t amount to much unless the state enacts land-use reforms that make it easier and cheaper to build.
The Washington Post: Las Vegas Bans The Homeless From Sleeping On Some Streets. Critics Call It A ‘War On The Poor.’
Amid protests and boos, the Las Vegas City Council voted Wednesday to ban homeless people from sleeping on some city streets — a controversial measure that critics have called a “war on the poor.”
Bloomberg: America’s Largest Health Insurer Is Giving Apartments To Homeless People
“I don’t think we’ve figured any of this out,” he says. “We’re at a hopeful moment of recognizing how deep the problem is.”
The Baltimore Sun: This Tech Company Is The First To Get A Boost From Moving To A Baltimore Opportunity Zone. Are More Coming?
A College Park-based venture capital fund recently created to invest in opportunity zone businesses gave an undisclosed sum to Galen, part of about $7 million the company has raised so far from investments, subsidies and tax breaks for job creation.
The New York Times: Lawmakers Increase Criticism Of ‘Opportunity Zone’ Tax Break
Some of the loudest calls for changes in the tax incentive are coming from members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who in many cases represent poor urban areas that were supposed to see some of the biggest opportunity-zone investments.
