February 17, 2022

Corporate landlords and private equity firms who own affordable housing buildings are being accused of neglecting poor housing conditions. A class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for Maryland against Arbor Realty Trust Inc. alleges violations of the Fair Housing Act, including intentional discrimination based on race and national origin. Arbor Reality owns multifamily residential properties in Hyattsville, MD, where residents document poor housing conditions, like insect infestations, broken AC units, and buckling floors, despite recent rent increases. "The government doesn't fully understand how bad this industry is taking advantage of people and then raising their rents year after year," said Joseph Donahue, co-counsel in the lawsuit.

After last year’s winter storm, in which people experiencing homelessness were among the most vulnerable, Texan officials vowed to improve emergency communications. Last week’s winter storm showed that these efforts were unsuccessful, as many people experiencing homelessness did not receive accessible information about shelters and transportation. Although many organizations did their best to serve these communities, they were disappointed with the lack of resources dedicated to ensuring safety. “The government has so much money. Money we don’t have as we hear our community crying, and it is devastating,” said Sarah Pope, founder of Black Trans Texas Connection.

The National Housing Law Project’s survey of nearly 120 legal aid attorneys and civil rights advocates found that 86% of respondents reported cases where tenants were approved for rental help and still faced eviction. The emergency rental assistance program prevents landlords from evicting during the period covered by rental assistance but does not enforce policies that ban evictions up to three months afterward. “It feels much more like it’s a program that is alleviating the pressure of the eviction crisis but not solving the underlying problems,” said Tori Tavormina, an eviction prevention specialist with Texas Housers.

In 2018, Salt Lake City passed ordinances encouraging mother-in-law apartments, backyard cottages and other kinds of accessory dwellings in residential zones. Since then, only 30 units have been completed despite an estimated deficit of 45,000 affordable housing units statewide. The city is considering new policies that would boost construction of ADUs, including removing owner-occupied requirements, defining more ADUs automatically as a permitted use, regulations on parking, and how far backyard ADUs must be set back from property boundaries.