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USA, Fending off the mortgage industry: Savvy activists are winning in court and on the streets, keeping people in their homes
By Valeria Fernández , ColorLines. April 13, 2009.
How one Detroit community group is saving homes and protecting human rights over the right of a corporation to make a profit.Before she was evicted from her own home, Kendra Washington took a walk around her Detroit neighborhood. She found an empty home and decided to squat with her two children. “I refused to get my kids put out on the street,” said the single mother who moved into a vacant Housing and Urban Development house.
Brasil, As armadilhas do Pacote Habitacional
Incitar a produção de moradias parece duplamente atraente em um momento de crise econômica:estimula-se a indústria, geram-se empregos e, ao combater a reprodução das favelas e periferias dopaís, enfrenta-se uma questão candente na sociedade brasileira. Será?Leia na integra o artigo de Raquel Rolnik e Kazuo Nakano, Le Monde Diplomatique Brasil, março 2009.
El Gobierno Vasco recompra la vivienda hipotecada a quien haya quedado desempleado
por Manuel 21 Enero 2009 En pleno período preelectoral, la Consejería de Vivienda del ejecutivo autonómico del País Vasco se ha decidido a dar un paso adelante para ofrecer respuestas a la situación que padecen las familias y personas más afectadas por la crisis financiera. Así, hemos podido conocer a través de las declaraciones del consejero Javier Madrazo que en apenas un par de semanas entrarán en vigor una serie de medidas sin precedentes y, tal vez, impregnadas de la audacia y el arrojo que confiere a los políticos la proximidad de una cita electoral.
USA, Decade Of Neglect Has Weakened Federal Low-Income Housing Programs
New Resources Required to Meet Growing Needs
by Douglas Rice and Barbara SardA large and growing number of low-income renters face unaffordable housing costs. Federal housing programs have proven effective in enabling millions of low-income households to obtain stable, decent housing, but a funding squeeze and various actions taken by Congress and the Bush Administration have weakened these programs considerably, just when the need is rising. This report documents that growing need, explains how federal housing programs help address it, shows how recent funding shortfalls and policy changes have hurt these programs, and outlines a series of steps to make housing more affordable for low-income families.
Maldives: climate change threatens right to housing, says UN expert
Raquel Rolnik, Special Rapporteur on adequate housing
26 February 2009 – Rising sea levels and coastal erosion, both wrought by climate change, threaten the viability of Maldives, but overcrowding and other impacts are already felt by the island nation’s 300,000 people, a United Nations independent expert cautioned today.
USA, Foreclosed owners should squat in their own homes
CNN's American Morning, Jan. 30, 2009
If you're poor and the bank is coming for your home, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur has a plan for you.Just squat, she says.
In London, the housing market crash is forcing would-be sellers to become landlords
Le Monde, 06.01.09 In January 2008, Sheila, who works as a head of marketing, put up for sale her home in Chichester, in the south of England at a price of £425,000. After "Black September" which was the height of the financial crisis, this marketing expert reduced the price to £395,000, but without success. The young English woman finally found a tenant who was prepared to pay £900 per month for the property, an amount which would cover the property's mortgage. She herself has rented a small house in a less sought-after area of this medieval town.
L.A. City Council votes to draft law barring evictions of renters of foreclosed properties
The council asks City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo to draft an ordinance that would prohibit evictions in foreclosed buildings where the city's rent-control law does not apply.
By David Zahniser
November 22, 2008
Eviction, New York’s Ground Zero
The poorest residents of the neighbourhood in which the Twin Towers stood until 2001 are afraid of losing their homes. Luxury buildings are to be constructed there.Olga Imbaquingo, New York Corresponde
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Tent city highlights US homes crisis
The population of Tent City has grown rapidly in less than a year
BBC, 14/3/08
The meltdown in the US mortgage market has led to record foreclosures and forced thousands from their homes. In few places is it worse than southern California, where the BBC's Rajesh Mirchandani reports on an extreme consequence of the downturn, but one that some observers fear could grow.