Debt Piles Up for Low-Income Renters
As the end of federal and state eviction moratoriums looms, renters who fell behind on payments during the pandemic now face staggering amounts of debt. June 1, 2021, 5am PDT | Diana Ionescu |
Renters who fell behind during the pandemic face staggering debts, with many teetering on the edge of eviction, writes Stefanos Chen for the New York Times. According to a report from NYU s Furman Center that analyzed low-income New York renter households, the average rent owed by households with arrears through the year ending February 2021 jumped 66 percent. Additionally, [t]he share of households that owed more than $3,000 increased 65.5 percent, to 2,059 from 1,244; and the share of households owing $10,000 or more jumped 140 percent, to 672 from 280.
Boise Using Adaptive Reuse to Convert Offices to Affordable Housing
Under the city s Grow Our Housing program, vacant offices could see a new life as below-market rentals. February 19, 2021, 6am PST | Diana Ionescu |
Boise officials are considering buying a downtown office building and converting it into affordable housing. Jared Brey reports on the city s plan to create below-market rental housing by employing adaptive reuse to convert former office and commercial buildings to apartments.
Leon Letson, manager for the city s Grow Our Housing program, emphasized that the city is still working on the first acquisition and considering a variety of options for the future, including vacant land and existing buildings, to create more housing at less cost than new construction. The city would purchase the building for its affordable housing land trust and partner with a developer for the conversion. According to Letson, Boise s vacant offices are often ideally situated and provide