Posts

Showing posts matching the search for urban housing market

Some forced to move as Ann Arbor-area apartments transition from affordable to market rate

Image
Megan Mishler has lost her sense of security. Mishler, who has a rare genetic condition called Ehlers -Danlos Syndrome that prevents her from working, was recently forced to move from her apartment just west of Ann Arbor because her landlord is transitioning from affordable housing to market rate. Mishler is not alone; the transition will impact 144 units at the 368- unit Woodchase apartment complex at 1100 Rabbit Run Circle in Scio Township. “This has been extremely, extremely difficult. I was almost paralyzed at first,” Mishler said, referring to when she learned she would have to move. “This just added a whole other layer on top of all the other stuff that I’m already dealing with.” Mishler was told the rent for her one-bedroom apartment would jump from $770 per month to about $1,200 per month at the end of her lease term. The Woodchase apartments in Scio Township were developed in 1998. Katie McLean | The Ann Arbor News   Mishler uses the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Progr...

As housing market soars, poorest renters are priced out

Image
"); } if ($(imageDivId).length == 0) { $("#wrapper").after(contentText); } })(jQuery); BREMERTON, Wash. - Crystal Turner stood in the kitchen of her cramped apartment and stared at the cracks in the fake wood flooring beneath her feet. Surrounding her was the home she'd made for herself and her two sons in the past year, since they moved out of her Toyota Camry and into Admiral Manor, a low- rent apartment complex in west Bremerton . There was the single bedroom with two kids' beds on the floor. The living room she'd decorated with signs that said "Hope" and "Love." A dingy bathroom with a leaking toilet that had never been fixed. In this undated photo, Matthew Daigneault pushes his son Aden as he plays outside on the swings of his rental home in West Bremerton , Wash. (Larry Steagall/Kitsap Sun via AP) © 2017 Cox Media Group . Admiral Manor wasn 't the place Turner, a recovering addict, wanted to raise her boys. It was the place...

With California Lawmakers Back from Recess, Housing Crisis Is in the Crosshairs

Cross posted from our sister-site, Santa Monica Next . California state legislators are back in Sacramento after a month- long summer recess and they are looking to tackle the state’s growing housing crisis with a package of bills that could generate more than $3 billion for affordable housing as well as streamline new housing approval and construction. But lawmakers and political observers alike have noted that it won’t be an easy task to get the votes necessary to pass some of bigger-ticket legislation, like S.B. 2 and S.B. 3 , both of which have passed the State Senate but still need to get through the Assembly. And both require a two-thirds supermajority to pass. S.B. 2, introduced by State Senator Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), would place a $75 fee on real estate transactions and generate roughly $250 million a year annually. State Senator Jim Beall (D-San Jose) introduced S.B. 3, which would put a housing bond before the voters in 2018 that would generate $3 billion. “We ne...

Critical Hidden Apartments : guerrilla habitation

PUP Architects' 'Guerrilla Habitation' Criticizes the Housing Market The urban housing market around the world is in a fix, with even tiny apartments costing tenants exorbitant monthly fees , and PUP Architects' "guerrilla habitation" idea is a critique of the state of the market in London in particular. The project, which was an entry in the Antepavilion competition, places apartments in hidden locations in the urban landscape, including a false air duct on top of a preexisting apartment building . To be sure, the guerrilla habitation won 't actually be occupied by any resident. Rather, it's a criticism of current housing laws that prevent architects from building livable, affordable micro-housing. The micro-apartment built for Antepavilion is called H-VAC, as it's designed to look like the HVAC system on top of apartment buildings around the city (thus evading the regulatory gaze of city officials.)

How Can We Keep Housing Affordable? - Charlotte Magazine - September 2017

Image
As teachers, cooks, cashiers, and bus drivers are being priced out of Charlotte, one question looms: How does a growing, thriving city in modern America keep housing affordable for its working-class citizens? By RACHEL JONES Published: 2017.08.23 06:21 AM Jacqueline Ingram (middle) works full-time at the Ross Dress For Less distribution center in Rock Hill. But in this booming region, her salary isn’t enough to comfortably buy a home for her and her kids, 12-year-old Nya and five-year-old Rejonee. PHOTOS BY ANDY MCMILLAN ONE RECENT SUNDAY AFTERNOON , Jacqueline Ingram and her two daughters explore an empty four-bedroom house for sale on a Brianna Way cul-de-sac in southwest Charlotte , filling it with their dreams along the way. “This one is mine,” 12-year-old Nya says of an upstairs bedroom with a view of the Clanton Park neighborhood . “I could put my chest over there, and my table there.” As five-year-old Rejonee sprawls out on the carpet in the room across the hall, In...

MIT students press for more on-campus housing

Some graduate students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology are pushing the university to build more on-campus housing, and using MIT’s plans to build in the heart of red- hot Kendall Square as leverage. A group of grad students and Cambridge residents Monday filed a proposal with the city that would prevent MIT from developing the 14-acre site of the Volpe Transportation Center — which MIT is buying from the federal government for $750 million — until it adds up to 1,800 more dorm beds for graduate students. Advertisement The zoning petition would need approval from the Cambridge City Council , and its proponents framed it more as “the beginning of a conversation” than an outright demand. And it comes as MIT officials pledge another review of graduate student housing . It’s the latest round in a long debate over how MIT, and other Boston-area schools, should house their growing student bodies in an increasingly crowded city .Officials in Boston have been pushing colleges a...

Affordable housing in the works for East Bayside, East Deering

Image
It’s been only two months since the Portland Housing Authority opened Bayside Anchor , its first new housing development in decades. But already, the low- income housing provider is poised to file plans for two additional projects , totaling more than 155 units of housing at a time when a dearth of affordable housing in Maine’s largest city is reaching crisis levels . “This is the continuation of our effort to be a part of the solution to the affordable housing crisis in Portland,” said Jay Waterman, the housing authority ’s development director. The authority is looking to build a 55- unit apartment building at 58 Boyd St. in the city’s East Bayside neighborhood . The site is practically across the street from Bayside Anchor , a highly energy- efficient PHA apartment building at 81 Oxford St. with 45 units that opened in June. A public meeting about the East Bayside proposal has been scheduled for Monday, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., at 47 Smith St. Meanwhile, about 2 miles away, t...