June 13, 2019

On Tuesday, legislators in Albany, New York, announced an agreement that would eliminate rules that allow building owners to deregulate apartments, close loopholes that allow them to increase rents, and expand some tenant protections statewide. “These reforms give New Yorkers the strongest tenant protections in history,” said Senate majority leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins. The chambers are expected to vote on the agreement this week.

Amazon will donate $8 million to tackle homelessness and affordable housing in Seattle, Washington, and Arlington County, Virginia, the company announced on Tuesday. Through September 30, Amazon will match employee donations, up to $5 million, to nonprofits working on homelessness issues. This announcement comes after the company backed efforts to repeal a measure that would have taxed large companies to fund homelessness services.

Ingersoll Senior Residences, New York City’s first affordable housing for older LGBTQ adults, received 1,000 applications on the first day. The property is the largest LGBTQ-inclusive housing for seniors in the country, and the barrage of applications shows how its services have been lacking and needed, as research shows older LGBTQ adults face unique housing discrimination. Ingersoll is the result of the National LGBT Elder Housing Initiative run by SAGE, an LGBT older adult advocacy group. The property has 145 units and will offer programs and activities for people inside and outside the community.

Millennials are being conservative with housing costs and purchases, US Census Bureau data show. Roughly 76 percent of 22-to-38-year-olds spent less than 30 percent of their income on housing costs in 2017, and the proportion of young homebuyers staying under this 30-percent threshold has been consistent since 2013. Redfin broker Rick Morrison said approximately half of his millennial clients set conservative price ceilings. Factors that could contribute to this trend include student debt, valuing experiences above homeownership, unemployment, and switching jobs frequently.

A new report by Public Counsel and the UCLA School of Law finds that 505,924 renters were evicted in Los Angeles County between 2010 and 2018. This number does not include informal evictions or evictions not processed in court. The report suggests that caps on increasing rents and other tenant protections could stem the rise in homelessness. “The risk of homelessness was heavy on the mind of nearly every renter we spoke to,” said author Doug Smith.