"Starving Americans to Secure Submission” open.substack.com/pub/housingi... Thanks to Abby Leibman of @mazonusa.bsky.social for an excellent article in @msmagazine.com

“The Scarlet E… this is a badge of dishonor … Makes it really hard for them to find a landlord that will allow them to move in.” www.wfyi.org/news/article... via @wfyi.bsky.social #housing+ #urbanism+ #urbanism

“The fiscal starvation of public housing led to severe maintenance problems and an inevitable decline in available units.” jacobin.com/2025/09/affo... By @franquigley.bsky.social #housing+ #urbanism+ #urbanism

The suffering we see in eviction court can be traced directly to the lack of enforceable economic rights in the US, writes @franquigley.bsky.social: www.commondreams.org/opinion/us-n...

Our Eviction Court Clients Need This Treaty #ICESCR www.commondreams.org/opinion/us-n...

#FairHousingIs... the foundation. It determines so many outcomes of your life. Our mission is to remove barriers to Hoosiers' choices of housing, but our funding is under threat, and we need your help. Learn more here: youtube.com/shorts/GljNn... #fairhousingin #fairhousing #housing #civilrights

Someone working full-time should be able to afford their bills with their paycheck.

People are homeless primarily because they can't afford housing. We know how to solve homelessness, but with deep cuts...we’re moving in the wrong direction, says BHHI Director Dr. Margot Kushel. "Taking a chainsaw to the healthcare safety net...will only add to the homeless count."

There is essentially NO evidence that rent control discourages construction. No study-NONE-has shown that rent control reduces housing supply. No study has found a causal link between rent control & reduction in construction. Studies that look at repeal of rent control don't find more construction.

If you live in Central Indiana and oppose ICE raids & concentration camps, come take action w/ us on Sunday, July 20th at 5pm. If you live in Rep. Victoria Spartz's district, the action is at her office in Noblesville. Everyone else --- come to Sen. Todd Young's office on E 96th Street. Links ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Tomorrow, as we enjoy our #July4 BBQ, remember farm workers are harvesting in sweltering in dangerous heat - while being terrorized by ICE. Today's highs are projected at: Arvin CA 105° Fresno CA 103° Coachella CA 105° Yuma AZ 105° #WeFeedYou

“Tenants are the majority in New York. Zohran Mamdani understands that and he gave us something to vote for,” @tenantbloc.bsky.social's Cea Weaver said of the candidate and expected Democratic nominee, who ran on a campaign to freeze rents for stabilized tenants. bit.ly/4kWQtXF

As many of our clinic clients can attest, well-trained, dedicated experts who answer to the people instead of some wealthy donors are the gold standard for housing inspection and code enforcement. www.commondreams.org/opinion/gove...

Thanks to @wfyi.bsky.social and Abriana Herron for a great conversation about ending homelessness and shutting down our eviction courts.

New newsletter post highlights the important work of @markpaulecon.bsky.social on building economic rights. Free speech does not put food on the table for a family of five. The right to vote is not building a roof over the heads of our clients headed to sleep in shelters, cars, or the streets.

Deepening connections between U.S. labor unions and renters has helped spur the creation of tenants unions that are winning concessions across the country, writes @franquigley.bsky.social.

“At some point in the night, the engine turned off. Her 9-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter stopped breathing and later died, apparently freezing to death.” This country is allowing young children to die in parking garages. Homelessness among families with kids under 5 has surged 39% in a year.

We recognize extortionate prices for lifesaving medicine or bottled water after a natural disaster as price gouging. Landlords want us to believe that rent hikes forcing people into homelessness are just the market at work, but that’s not true.

“What if housing were provided as a public service, like education or roads? (A)n education is something we as a society have decided is required to keep a democracy & an economy functioning. Everyone can attend a school.”Susanne Schindler of @harvard-jchs.bsky.social in @shelterforce.bsky.social

“Court watchers often know more about systemic housing issues than the elected officials they are talking to.” www.commondreams.org/opinion/go-t... By @franquigley.bsky.social #housing+ #urbanism+ #urbanism

My latest article celebrates the power of witness--often followed by impactful advocacy--of eviction court watchers: www.commondreams.org/opinion/go-t...

I am happy to announce that my new book, Lessons From Eviction Court: How We Can End Our Housing Crisis, will be published soon by @cornellupress.bsky.social Our inspiring clients teach my students and I about how we can fix our broken housing system. www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...

Fast food workers work hard. Retail workers work hard. Gig workers work hard. Everyone deserves a living wage.

The need has grown so much an Indy church on the east side had to move its monthly food giveaway to a bigger location. however, their still on a mission to serve many residents as they can. www.wrtv.com/news/local-n...

"Trump and Elon Musk are like two guys with six-shooters trying to hold a thousand people hostage. They only win if everyone thinks they are too strong to rush." www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/they-are-a...

Housing activists declared victory on Tuesday after unofficial election night totals showed nearly 58% of voters backed a new tax on big business to help build mixed-income, publicly owned housing.

The warehouse will cost $17.5 million for 90 days (even more than @lailluminator.com first reported). That's the equivalent of 1 year's rent in a 1br apartment for ~1,200 people, or 80% of the city's unhoused.

WIN! People-power thwarts Trump's order to halt billions in critical funding. He didn't back down because it was a good idea. He backed down because people pushed back on his administrative coup. This win makes it clear that Trump can lose when we fight back ✊

But that's not all! @choosedemocracy.bsky.social also highlighted some other inspiring stories getting overlooked right now...

The White House backing away from its freeze on federal grants is a flat out win. As @choosedemocracy.bsky.social wrote in its email blast today: "It doesn't mean we will win every fight. But it does mean that anyone who is telling you it's hopeless is wrong."

It's time for action and accountability! https://buff.ly/3CqbgCa

Grateful to be working with @mrwildstyle.bsky.social and Pastor David Greene and Amanda Terry and @jesseforindy.bsky.social and many, many others in the community on this important campaign. Please sign, and please share!

In a new book, the LA Tenants Union's founders challenge the often deadly societal obligation of paying rent and outline a path toward housing as a human right.

Our elected trustees' mandate is simple: to ensure township residents who face emergencies, like eviction or homelessness, get the support they need to stay safe and secure. Our coalition of service, faith-based, and legal organizations investigated, and found a system falling short:

Abolish Rent. Yes, for real. Thanks to @wagingnv.bsky.social for publishing my new review of the important book by @city.bsky.social and Leonardo Vilchis of the amazing LA Tenants Union:

This week’s newsletter post:

Wrote about tenants fighting for stronger protections and fighting price gouging in LA amid wildfires nextcity.org/urbanist-new...

My new article in Common Dreams: “A Trump-Turner housing agenda appears destined to continue the worst aspects of our nation’s approach to affordable housing: a relentless diversion to the already-wealthy of resources supposedly designated for the housing needs of the poor.”

Despite growing news fatigue, Waging Nonviolence just had its biggest year ever in terms of readership, showing the appeal of news that empowers. Here are our top stories of 2024. wagingnonviolence.org/2024/12/wagi...

The LA Tenants Union (LATU)'s response to the wildfires shows us the huge value of tenant organizing in the face of climate disasters. Networks of organized tenants are helping their neighbors, doing mutual aid, enforcing tenant protections, and demanding the policies tenants need to stay safe 🧵

"Through working with these families, I’ve been seeing an unfathomable amount of price gouging for housing." This is abhorrent, but let's be clear: it’s just a more extreme version of what we see every day in cities across the country, where landlords exploit desperate renters for maximum profit.

The good news: a growing movement of tenant unions is organizing—and striking—to build a blueprint for national change, including a regulatory agenda to protect renters. @taraghuveer.bsky.social and @ruthygourevitch.bsky.social share how in @theprospect.bsky.social. prospect.org/infrastructu...

Community Conversation about homelessness in Indianapolis January 15th -6pm - at the Ritz Lounge docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

I think a lot about how profiteering off hand sanitizer sparked outrage during the pandemic, while the hoarding and price gouging of housing—one of the most basic human necessities—is just "the market."

Our throw away culture includes people.

"If everyone was guaranteed a safe, secure house, labor power would radically increase overnight. A fixed percentage of poverty is necessary to discipline the bottom rung of labor, whose fear of homelessness is one of their biggest motivations for working a shitty, sweaty, abusive, low paying job."🔥

"Like so many other Americans, Fealey lives in his car. In eviction court, we routinely see clients who are forced to do the same. Kevin and Samantha and their infant daughter sleep in their Ford Focus, then take turns watching the baby while the other one works a shift at a fast-food restaurant."

Yes, the person making food at McDonalds full time should be able to pay for rent and groceries with their paycheck.