June 17, 2021

The eviction moratorium is set to expire at the end of June and could affect more than 10 million Americans who are behind on rent. The pandemic exacerbated racial and ethnic inequalities, making Black renters more than twice as likely to be behind on rent than white renters. And many single-parent renters, the majority of whom are single mothers, face some of the highest hardship rates. “If I’m working from home, and I lose my home, I have nothing,” says Sabrina Floyd, a single mother.

A new Urban Institute study found that Black homeownership in Minnesota’s Twin Cities fell from 31 percent to 21 percent from 2000 to 2018. White homeownership remained at 70 percent during this period. The Twin Cities has the largest homeownership gap between Black and white residents in the nation, in large part because of gentrification and the rise of corporate-owned, single-family home rentals.

The Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians has no reservation because their land was stolen multiple times in the 1900s, but that hasn’t stopped the tribe from housing their members. The tribe purchased and remodeled an apartment building using funding from Project Homekey—a statewide effort to quickly convert properties into housing. The tribe’s Lake County project is one of three awarded to tribes in northern California during the program’s first year of funding. Other tribes are converting units to house people experiencing chronic homelessness. “When we build our own housing, when we own our own housing, when we run our own housing, we’re continuing to message that we are healing, that we are resilient,” says Colleen Echohawk, founder of the National Coalition to End Urban Indigenous Homelessness.

Charleston’s Department of Housing and Community Development is offering up to $200,000 in grants to 20 of the city’s homeowners to create small, affordable or accessory dwelling units on their properties. The city council will regulate the rental prices to ensure they’re affordable. The strategy intends to circumvent the city’s single-family zoning codes that prevent multifamily development while increasing housing stock in a city in need of 16,351 additional units.