February 02, 2023

The 2021 Menino Survey of Mayors found 7 in 10 mayors didn’t view zoning as a barrier to addressing homelessness, despite evidence showing the negative effect of restrictive zoning codes on housing development. It also found only 1 in 5 mayors felt they had more than “moderate” control over homelessness. “A lot of public officials are not connecting macro-level housing market conditions with homelessness rates in their cities,” says Katherine Levine Einstein, the survey’s coprincipal investigator.

The Wisconsin Governor’s Health Equity Council report encourages adding a housing benefit to Medicaid and recommends the creation of more community land trusts (CLTs), which can help residents with low incomes spend more on health by lowering housing costs. The report suggests allocating $32 million toward CLTs, which would come from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s HOME Investment Partnerships Program.

This week’s mortgage data marks the third-straight weekly decline and the lowest rate since mid-September. The rate decline could attract buyers, but affordability remains a barrier. “Even though the pace of rent and price growth is slowing, finding a deal remains an elusive quest for consumers,” wrote Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com.

More than a million students are considered homeless according to the US Department of Education’s definition, but many can’t access support because their housing situations aren’t included in other federal definitions of homelessness. “Any homelessness policy that’s based only on adults, and not taking into consideration how children experience homelessness and the harm it does, is ultimately failing the entire family,” said Barbara Duffield, executive director of Schoolhouse Connection.