June 01, 2023

A new study by Chamber of Commerce found more than one-quarter of homeowners in the United States spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs. The percentage of cost-burdened homeowners declined each year between 2015 and 2019, but the pandemic erased those gains.

Eviction fillings are beginning to pile up in Los Angeles County after pandemic-era renter protections expired two months ago. But most LA renters don’t have legal representation in eviction proceedings, while 95 percent of landlords do, according to a University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) study. “Eviction court in a lot of ways is the front lines of the homelessness crisis,” said UCLA postdoctoral fellow Kyle Nelson.

Nearly 90 percent of people living on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation need housing, and at least 60 percent of homes are without water, electricity, adequate insulation, or sewage systems. Two local nonprofits have partnered to provide affordable, solar-powered homes.

A guaranteed income pilot program in Louisville, Kentucky, will give $500 a month for a year to participants who live in the historically disinvested neighborhoods of Russell, California, and Smoketown and are between age 18 and 24. Community organizers aim for the program to protect residents against displacement and reduce community violence.