On Our Radar

Advocates for low-income housing say there has been no construction of affordable apartment buildings in Jefferson County in the last decade, a drought the County Commission took steps to end this week, more than a year after declaring an affordable housing emergency.

From the late nineteen-eighties to the present, college tuition has increased at a rate four times that of inflation, and eight times that of household income. It has been estimated that forty-five million people in the United States hold educational debt totalling roughly $1.5 trillion—more than what Americans owe on their credit cards or auto loans. Some fear that the student-debt “bubble” will be the next to burst. Wide-scale student-debt forgiveness no longer seems radical. Meanwhile, skeptics question the very purpose of college and its degree system. Maybe what pundits dismiss as the impulsive rage of young college students is actually an expression of powerlessness, as they anticipate a future defined by indebtedness.

Across Baltimore, the hottest areas tend to be the poorest and that pattern is not unusual. In dozens of major U.S. cities, low-income neighborhoods are more likely to be hotter than their wealthier counterparts, according to a joint investigation by NPR and the University of Maryland’s Howard Center for Investigative Journalism.

Finding affordable housing for average Wisconsin residents can be difficult; for ex-offenders, it’s even harder.

As the name implies, “housing first” is an approach to homeless assistance that focuses on providing permanent housing solutions to people without preconditions or requirements that mandate a person graduate through a series of service programs or prove “housing readiness” before they can access housing. The model reverses more traditional programming in that it views the client’s basic needs—such as food and a place to live—as paramount to addressing peripheral challenges such as substance abuse or finding a job.

The Supreme Court’s conservatives said gerrymandering was not a matter for courts, leaving the job of protecting democratic self-rule to state judges.

For many Americans, owning a home is out of reach. The transition is threatening the fabric of our country. We need to change course.

A new report issued Wednesday says the Washington region needs to add a whopping 374,000 housing units by 2030. Officials say that’s about 30% more than expected at present.

The Trump administration’s signature plan to lift cities and help low-income areas — has fueled a wave of developments financed by and built for the wealthiest Americans.

The analysis, released Wednesday and crafted in tandem with the Greater Washington Partnership, comes as part of a broader study of the region’s “Future Housing Needs.”

The low-cost housing prototypes are built within the City of Apán, in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico. After being constructed, the houses are now undergoing testing and evaluation to help validate the research project’s goals of equitable social housing.

The New York Times Magazine’s special issue did what we all should: demand that America keep its promises, and get history right instead of white.

Outdoor-apparel retailer Patagonia Inc. and 29 other firms challenged multinational companies in a New York Times advertisement Sunday to “walk the walk” and change their legal incorporation status if they are serious about a new way of doing business that treats all stakeholders equally.

The proposal could have far-reaching effects across the housing industry, which is fraught with a long history of segregation and discrimination that continues to this day, often in insidious ways.