Section 8

San Francisco Apartments

Enforcing Housing Discrimination Laws Falls Largely on Tenants, Nonprofits

With few enforcement mechanisms even in cities that have bans on source-of-income discrimination on the books, it’s up to nonprofit lawyers and tenants to sue landlords for retribution.

May 31, 2023 - Next City

New York Apartments

What Is the Housing Choice Voucher Program?

Federal housing assistance vouchers subsidize the cost of rental housing, but high demand and long waiting lists mean many low-income families wait for years to access affordable housing.

March 27, 2023 - Diana Ionescu

City Apartments

Philadelphia to Add 10,000 Residents to Housing Voucher Wait List

After a decade-long delay, the city is taking new voucher applications. But for recipients, a voucher doesn’t guarantee they’ll find housing.

January 10, 2023 - WHYY

Close-up of house key on table and corner of envelope from Chicago Housing Authority

Housing Voucher Recipients Find Themselves With Fewer Options

Americans relying on federal rental assistance are struggling harder than ever to find affordable housing, braving years-long wait lists and reluctant landlords.

January 8, 2023 - Bloomberg CityLab

View of downtown Charlotte, North Carolina

Charlotte Approves Protections for Housing Voucher Recipients

The city became the first in North Carolina to enact fines for landlords who fail to rent to recipients of federal housing vouchers.

August 25, 2022 - Governing

Single-family homes in a suburb of Dallas, Texas

North Texas HOA Effectively Bans Section 8 Recipients

Housing and civil rights advocates warn that the community’s rule instituting fines on landlords who rent to housing voucher recipients will disproportionately affect Black families.

July 27, 2022 - Texas Tribune

Wichita, Kansas, USA downtown skyline at dusk.

An Uncommon Success for Housing Vouchers in Wichita

While less than a fifth of housing vouchers are utilized nationwide, Wichita has distributed around 70 percent of the vouchers allocated to the city.

April 6, 2022 - Next City

Vancouver, British Columbia

The Uphill Battle Facing Section 8 Recipients

Housing voucher recipients face a gauntlet of challenges when trying to find housing. Nonprofits are doing their best to streamline the process.

February 28, 2022 - LAist

Singapore

Does Rental Assistance Demonstration Privatize Public Housing?

How exactly does RAD work and why is there a raging debate over whether it’s putting tenants’ rights and housing affordability in peril?

February 15, 2022 - Shelterforce

Basement Apartment

How to Make Universal Vouchers Actually Work

If Congress gave the Housing Choice Voucher program enough money to serve every income-eligible applicant, what other reforms would be needed so every voucher recipient could find a decent home in a suitable area?

October 28, 2021 - Shelterforce Magazine

Housing Construction

Opinion: Biden's Housing Plan is 'Both Necessary and Excellent'

The housing programs proposed in the reconciliation bill could help millions of Americans who desperately need housing assistance and begin to mitigate the damage of a stagnant housing supply.

October 20, 2021 - The Week

Multi-Family Housing

The Problem With Housing Choice Vouchers

Even with new funding proposed in the infrastructure package, voucher recipients face severe challenges in finding landlords that will accept them.

October 11, 2021 - Time Magazine

Tour Montparnasse

How Paris Improved Sustainability and Livability In Its Public Housing

Over the last decade, the city has made massive investments in retrofitting 'social housing' with minimal disruptions and displacement of residents.

October 11, 2021 - Grist

New York City Public Housing Project

What is Public Housing?

Born out of the progressive ideals of the New Deal and a desire to improve the standard of living in poor urban neighborhoods, American public housing has taken several forms as political opinion about subsidized housing shifts.

August 30, 2021 - Diana Ionescu

Suburban multi-family

How Federal Incentives Can Increase Access for Section 8 Recipients

Landlords are the focus of a proposed bill that would provide extra perks for accepting Housing Choice vouchers.

May 28, 2021 - Bloomberg CityLab

Singapore

What Are Housing Subsidies?

Housing subsidies can work in numerous ways, all with the common cause of easing the cost burdens of housing.

May 13, 2021 - James Brasuell

The Pioneer

Iowa Makes it Easier for Landlords to Reject Housing Vouchers

The state of Iowa's Republican leadership preempted local laws that prevent landlords from rejecting housing vouchers as rent payment.

May 4, 2021 - The Hill

Tassafaronga Village Oakland California

What Is Affordable Housing?

The term affordable housing refers to housing units that cost less than a predetermined percentage of household incomes. Planners use affordable housing as a general term to describe housing that doesn't put an excessive financial burden on occupants.

January 31, 2021 - Diana Ionescu

Skid Row Los Angeles

Lack of Federal and State Subsidies Slow Homeless Housing Development in L.A.

Developments funded by Los Angeles' Proposition HHH homeless housing bond has been delayed for three key reasons.

July 10, 2020 - Los Angeles Times

Basement Apartment

Boston's Deeply Discriminatory Rental Market Ignores Black Renters

A new study documents staggering racial bais in the Boston rental market and compares the racial disparities among prospective tenants seeking housing in 2018 and 2019.

July 7, 2020 - The Boston Globe

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