Congress passed a bipartisan housing law. Now the hard part begins. The biggest barriers to building homes aren't in Washington, they're local. ROAD creates powerful incentives, but whether it delivers housing depends on whether local governments choose to say "yes." www.pew.org/en/research-...

The Success of the New Federal Housing Law Now Rests on States and Localities

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, enacted on July 11, represents the first comprehensive federal law in decades designed to increase homebuilding. The bipartisan package contains more than 50 prov...

pew.org

From our friends at the NAACP. time.com/article/2026...

The Next Fight for Fair Housing Is Online

“The growing acceptance of private listing networks by powerful real estate interests signals a shift in how the market operates,” warns Derrick Johnson.

time.com

Indeed. This is scary.

Shelterforce@shelterforce.bsky.social · 10h ago

People who cannot afford housing do not stop needing it. They may become homeless, double up, couch-surf, or remain with family. Why is HUD studying ways to “moderate demand”? Read: bit.ly/4yOybzq #HousingPolicy #AffordableHousing #HUD

#FactOfTheWeek: Federal Government Typically Spends At Least 12 Times More Money on Defense Than on Housing

#Baltimore #Maryland

Development incentives (i.e subsidies) like PortCovington TIF are not entitlements. So why are Mayor Scott & City Council Pres Cohen acting like aOZ Bank & its successors are entitled to remaining $400 of PortCovington TIF & to do whatever they want w/ the land? share.google/YY4uL0ROn32m...

New NIOSH research shows rates of incurable Black Lung disease among coal miners in Central Appalachia are higher than they’ve been in 40 years. “These guys are being treated like disposable widgets, not human beings. … We're watching them die right before our eyes." www.npr.org/2026/08/05/n...

Black lung rates in Appalachia are high as the 1970s, with thousands of miners sick

Rates are now the highest they've been in nearly 50 years among veteran coal miners. Mining experts blame toxic silica dust, now more common in mines.

npr.org

A new GAO report confirms a defining feature of the low-wage economy: Millions of people work yet still rely on Medicaid and SNAP to get by. The companies include Amazon, Walmart, Dollar Tree and other Big Biz, which have received billions in public subsidies. goodjobsfirst.org/corporate-su...

This.

Phil Snider@philsnider.bsky.social · yesterday

If the Orioles under Mike Elias knew how to develop talent as opposed to just acquiring talent then O’s fans might cope a little bit better with yesterday’s gut punch. But prospects under Elias fail to develop and they plateau quickly, and fans have to settle for mediocrity at best. #FireElias

Baltimore, remember Mayor’s promise 2+ years ago of Comprehensive Housing Plan? Still waiting. Meanwhile, our neighbor Philly has ambitious plans to build or acquire several thousand subsidized homes to replace those demolished in past 20 yrs & to preserve others. whyy.org/articles/phi...

Why Philly's public housing costs an average of $315,000 per unit

PHA’s $6.3 billion plan would remake its aging housing portfolio. Its per-unit estimate, which rivals the value of many Philadelphia homes, doesn’t tell the full story.

whyy.org

States and localities are testing new ways to finance mixed-income housing. In this article, Urban experts examine 16 innovative programs that could help inform how to expand the overall housing supply and better serve households facing affordability challenges. #Affordability #Housing #Research

Could New Financing Models for Mixed-Income Housing Improve Housing Supply and Affordability?

We explore the growth in state and local mixed-income housing finance programs and offer lessons learned from Massachusetts’s program.

urbn.is

Join us for free next Friday on August 13 in Baltimore for our next #SummerOfIdeas event, an in-person film screening and conversation about the film "Unblocked Englewood." Learn more and register today:tr.ee/hFe6p8

Even worse thsn demonizing old NIMBYs (who absolutely are responsible for a good share of the problem): demonizing IZ. For reasons described here, gutting IZ obligation wont lead to more building or lower rents. But unlike real targets, an easy, simplistic target that pleases monied interests.

Jeffrey Tumlin 🏳️‍🌈 🌁@jeffreytumlin.bsky.social · 2d ago

SF's high housing costs arise from three "separate policy failures: federal affordable housing defunding since the 1980s, exclusionary zoning with racist roots, and a permitting process that legislated NIMBYism. Picking one villain lets everyone else off the hook." missionlocal.org/2026/08/san-...

Big banks are the primary investors ( i.e. owners) of LIHTC Affordable Housing. They do it mostly for the CRA credit. By weakening bank’s CRA obligations Trump et al undercut the nation’s largest & only remaining program that builds Affordable Housing at any scale. No doubt that is the plan.

Next City@nextcity.org · 2d ago

A proposed overhaul of the Community Reinvestment Act would pull hundreds of banks out of the affordable housing tax credit market, undercutting the same incentives that the Road to Housing Act is expanding. nextcity.org/urbanist-new...

The mixed (but mostly MR) Lutherville Sta project in Baltimore Co will likely take even longer, even tho the site & developer ready to go. Innovative & prospering suburban King Co has aggressively addressed its full range of housing needs, while Baltimore County is a fading backwater of NIMBYism.

Ryan Packer@typewriteralley.bsky.social · 2d ago

This is a story about an affordable housing project that took way too long to get to construction...and a story of city officials who are turning those lessons into reforms that impact all housing projects, affordable and market-rate. www.theurbanist.org/issaquah-bre...

Sorry folks! The housing crisis isn't driven by landlords, it's driven by a pan-political alliance against folks who want to live anywhere near them or their commute or their park or their kids school or..

Its not that Adley or any Oriole should be deemed untouchable at this point. But sadly Mike Elias hasnt shown he can bring back the kind of value that would justify trading the cornerstone of the long rebuild or that he needs to do it under pressure of a deadline deal. And not to Boston or NY.

The battle cry of Cape Cod NIMBYs who dominate local planning & zoning boards is “We’re full!” Legalizing duplexes or small homes on compact lots or small multifamily by right is treated as a threat. But go ahead & build an even bigger single family house on an acre lot & septic. redf.in/CRSfVp

1 Mcsweeney Ln, Falmouth, MA 02540 - 4 beds/3.5 baths

(MLS PIN) For Sale: 4 beds, 3.5 baths ∙ 3576 sq. ft. ∙ 1 Mcsweeney Ln, Falmouth, MA 02540 ∙ $2,995,000 ∙ MLS# 73549367 ∙ A new standard for Cape Cod living in desirable Sippewissett. Set on nearly an ...

redf.in

Cincinnati has developed a Climate Migration Readiness Plan to absorb as many as 525,000 newcomers by 2050. It calls for building much denser housing, expanding public transit and decreasing the city’s reliance on fossil fuels.

A City With a Plan (Gift Article)

Cincinnati wants to take in people fleeing climate disasters. Plus, the latest on fires in Europe.

nytimes.com

Baltimore too. Segregation distorts markets. Supply & demand cant work when the majority population will not consider parts of the market. Btw, just because real estate is no longer separately advertised as “white housing” or “Negro housing” as it was until 1968, doesnt mean segregation ever ended.

cmitown@cmitown.bsky.social · 3d ago

Because of Chicago's extreme segregation, the city has two distinct housing markets. One has extremely expensive housing and the other cheap housing.

France calls out the U.S. at a UN meeting: “The US used to be a beacon of human rights. Not anymore. Today, it stands alongside North Korea, Nicaragua, Mali and Russia. Isolated. And the world no longer listens to it.” U.S. representatives stormed out of the meeting. Well said France! 👏🏼🇫🇷👏🏼

This is what some of the most exclusionary zoning in the US looks like: RC-6 zoning outside the Baltimore Co URDL. An 8 unit HOA of McMansions w/ 6 BR/7BA & big lawns on 3 acre lots passing as forest conservation. All those toilets flushing into septic tanks & leaching into groundwater & watershed.

How can local leaders better understand mobility in their communities? Explore Urban’s Upward Mobility Data Dashboard, featuring 24 key Mobility Metrics for every US county and 400+ cities. #UpwardMobility #Communities #Data

Upward Mobility Data Dashboard

The Upward Mobility Dashboard helps people understand key conditions affecting upward mobility from poverty and racial equity in communities.

urbn.is

Most of the programs are revolving loan funds offering below-market subordinate debt for mixed-income housing construction… But several new programs—such as in Massachusetts, Colorado, Chicago, & Montgomery County, Maryland—are taking equity positions in mixed-income projects at a concessionary rate

Urban Institute@urbaninstitute.bsky.social · last wk.

States and localities are testing new ways to finance mixed-income housing. In this article, Urban experts examine 16 innovative programs that could help inform how to expand the overall housing supply and better serve households facing affordability challenges. #Affordability #Housing #Research

To see segregation in Baltimore Metro region, check out 2025 Baltimore Regional Fair Housing Analysis Plan on websites of BMC & local gov’ts. Bonus: Housing data & maps of exclusionary zoning.

Shelterforce@shelterforce.bsky.social · 7d ago

"Map where segregation exists." Only then can you design appropriate remedies. This piece explores why that simple step of identifying where segregation exists is disappearing from Oregon's fair housing implementation. 📖 bit.ly/4x0O43R #FairHousing #UrbanPlanning #HousingJustice

Great to see Maryland DHCD using its power under new state law! Next? Lutherville Station in NIMBY Baltimore County?

Cheryl Cort@cherylcort.bsky.social · 6d ago

Finally approved! 250 affordable apts 1/4 mile from Suitland Metro station! MD Housing Dept joined me in testifying in support. MD housing ombudsman Steven Palmer invoked new law that allows qualified affordable housing projects - like this one - not be blocked by excessive zoning regulations.

Excellent. This was probably Trump’s (i. e Vought/Miller) plan all along. Why veto if you can kill it administratively? At least getting the law on the books gives Dems a platform to say how they will strengthen it.

Vital City@vitalcitynyc.bsky.social · 6d ago

Washington passed a sweeping new housing production law — but unless federal regulations get precise and demanding about how to fix local zoning codes, it could wind up being a major missed opportunity. So writes Sarah Bronin, who wrote the book on zoning. www.vitalcitynyc.org/increasing-h...

Remarkable: In Massachusetts mixed-income projects now account for most multifamily production —both market rate & Affordable. Plus, these developments are more likely to be built in integrated higher-opp n-hoods than projects that are all market rate or Affordable. 1/ www.urban.org/research/pub...

Can Mixed-Income Housing Advance Housing Supply, Affordability, and Opportunity?

Examining large multifamily developments in the Boston and Worcester-Springfield regions, we find that mixed-income developments now account for most new mul…

urban.org

(And/or those worst environments!👍)

This is part of the "LIHTC at 40" special issue @houspoldebate.bsky.social Two more great articles from the issue now online: Kuai on LIHTC's impacts on segregation www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... Fitzpatrick et al on LIHTC's impacts on housing prices www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Does Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Investment Reduce Poverty Concentration and Racial Segregation? Examining Long-Term Effects Accounting for Neighborhood Trajectories

This paper examines how affordable housing enabled by the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program affects neighborhood poverty exposure and racial composition over time. It addresses two rese...

tandfonline.com

Ann Owens@annowens.bsky.social · last wk.

New in @houspoldebate.bsky.social with Carolina Reid and Quinn Underriner @ternerhousing.bsky.social! We show how neighborhoods and schools change around LIHTC development, adding complexity to how we think about access to opportunity. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....