An editorial outlines ideas for dampening effects of California's Ellis Act, which allows landlords to "go out of business" and evict tenants, possibly in order to sell buildings for condo conversion.
"In a housing crisis, particularly an affordable-housing crisis, there's a pretty simple axiom that ought to guide city policy: Existing housing is valuable. It's way, way cheaper to keep affordable housing from being lost than it is to build new housing to replace it. That's why Sup. Chris Daly's legislation to limit some types of condominium conversions is so important -- and why the supervisors should consider going even further."
"Daly's bill...is aimed at the rash of evictions of low-income tenants whose apartments are turned into condominiums. The way the state's Ellis Act works, any landlord has the right to go out of business -- that is, to stop renting housing units -- and to evict all of his or her tenants. That leaves the building vacant and allows the landlord to sell it to people -- generally better-off people -- who want to buy their units as tenancies in common."
FULL STORY: Stopping the evictions
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
San Francisco's School District Spent $105M To Build Affordable Housing for Teachers — And That's Just the Beginning
SFUSD joins a growing list of school districts using their land holdings to address housing affordability challenges faced by their own employees.
The Tiny, Adorable $7,000 Car Turning Japan Onto EVs
The single seat Mibot charges from a regular plug as quickly as an iPad, and is about half the price of an average EV.
Engineers Gave America's Roads an Almost Failing Grade — Why Aren't We Fixing Them?
With over a trillion dollars spent on roads that are still falling apart, advocates propose a new “fix it first” philosophy.
The European Cities That Love E-Scooters — And Those That Don’t
Where they're working, where they're banned, and where they're just as annoying the tourists that use them.
Map: Where Senate Republicans Want to Sell Your Public Lands
For public land advocates, the Senate Republicans’ proposal to sell millions of acres of public land in the West is “the biggest fight of their careers.”
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Planning for Universal Design
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Smith Gee Studio
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
Municipality of Princeton (NJ)