The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) claims that Obama's economic stimulus bill helped contain the number of homeless people in 2009 and 2010.
Other leading economic indicators like Wall Street, GDP, unemployment rate, and CPI notwithstanding, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) "does appear to have unambiguously succeeded [because] it kept the number of homeless people from soaring," reports Shawn Zeller.
With $1.5 billion direct funding from the stimulus bill, "the states were able to find housing for 531,000 people at risk of becoming homeless, while 159,000 were moved from the streets into homes."
"[H]ad it not been for President Obama's Recovery Act, many hundreds of thousands of persons may have fallen into homelessness," says HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan in the article.
The rest of $787 billion ARRA money went to rescue too-big-to-fail institutions in order to prevent a systematic collapse of the U.S. financial system.
FULL STORY: A Stimulus Success Story
U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Camping Bans, but Challenges of Addressing Homelessness Remain
In Grants Pass v. Johnson, the Supreme Court upheld an Oregon city’s ban on camping in public places, paving the way for similar bans in cities across the country but doing nothing to solve the cause of homelessness.
Sweeps Aren’t Outreach: Policing Homelessness Still Doesn’t Work
A new study shines a light on the connection between homeless outreach teams and policing, and examines why so many cities still use resident complaints to guide their response to the homelessness crisis.
Los Angeles Tightens Restrictions on Encampments
During a city council meeting that had to pause while police cleared the room of activists opposing the measure, the council voted to ban public sleeping within 500 feet of schools, making one-fifth of city sidewalks off-limits to unhoused people.
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.
Can We Please Give Communities the Design They Deserve?
Often an afterthought, graphic design impacts everything from how we navigate a city to how we feel about it. One designer argues: the people deserve better.
The EV “Charging Divide” Plaguing Rural America
With “the deck stacked” against rural areas, will the great electric American road trip ever be a reality?
Judge Halts Brooklyn Bike Lane Removal
Lawyers must prove the city was not acting “arbitrarily, capriciously, and illegally” in ordering the hasty removal.
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” framework.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Borough of Carlisle
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)