Housing Law Commons^™

Corporate Consolidation Of Rental Housing & The Case For National Rent Stabilization, Brandon Weiss

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Rental housing in the United States is increasingly owned by corporate landlords that operate under a different set of incentives, behind a level of anonymity previously unavailable, and pursuant to practices that often exacerbate an already precarious housing landscape for tenants. Marketsensitive and nuanced rent stabilization laws have reemerged at the state and local level as a viable policy option to help regulate escalating rents and prevent tenant displacement. These laws, when well drafted, can address outdated critiques of strict rent caps and can complement alternative approaches, like those of the politically popular Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY) movement, which …

Affirmatively Resisting, Ezra Rosser

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This Article argues that administrative processes, in particular rulemaking’s notice-and-comment requirement, enable local institutions to fight back against federal deregulatory efforts. Federalism all the way down means that state and local officials can dissent from within when challenging federal action. Drawing upon the ways in which localities, states, public housing authorities, and fair housing nonprofits resisted the Trump Administration’s efforts to roll back federal fair housing enforcement, this Article shows how uncooperative federalism works in practice.

Despite the fact that the 1968 Fair Housing Act requires that the federal government affirmatively further fair housing (AFFH), the requirement was largely ignored …

Clarifying Nonprofit Purchase Rights In Affordable Housing, Brandon Weiss

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Disputes around the country are proliferating as limited partner investors attempt to thwart the ability of nonprofits to exercise statutorily defined rights of first refusal to acquire low-income housing tax credit developments upon the expiration of rent restrictions. Such efforts, increasingly being made by "aggregator" investors, frustrate congressional intent, violate long-held norms and expectations in the industry, are costly for nonprofits to litigate, jeopardize the ongoing affordability of an already scarce federally assisted housing stock, and threaten to displace low-income tenants. This Essay describes the problem, explores the collision of housing policy and tax policy that gives rise to it, …

The Lihtc Program, Racially/Ethically Concentrated Areas Of Poverty, And High-Opportunity Neighborhoods, Brandon Weiss, Kirk Mcclure, Anne R. Willamson, Hye-Sung Han

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit ("LIHTC") program remains the nation's largest affordable housing production program. LIHTC units are under-represented in the neighborhood that both promote movement to high opportunity neighborhoods and affirmatively further fair housing. State and local officials should play an active role in guiding site selection decisions and ensuring that LIHTC developments are located in a manner that affirmatively furthers fair housing. Planners can use newly available data discussed herein to identify high-opportunity tracts.

Interdisciplinary Projects-Based Community Entrepreneurship Courses, Brandon Weiss, Anthony J. Luppino

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Over the last approximately fifteen years, the University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC) School of Law has developed a multifaceted set of courses, including interdisciplinary courses, pro bono clinics, and other programs and events relating to for-profit entrepreneurship and economic development, and social and civic entrepreneurship. This presentation will describe two recent interdisciplinary additions to these offerings-- the Law, Technology and Public Policy (LT&PP) course and the Entrepreneurial Urban Development (EUD) course. Both have strong elements of increased access to law and justice, with particular focus on presently disadvantaged and underrepresented individuals, groups, and communities. They significantly enhance the training …

Coming Of Age On $2 A Day, Evicted: What Ced Has To Say To Today's Untethered Poverty, Susan Bennett

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

"Going Green" The Wrong Way: How Governments Are Unconstitutionally Delegating Their Legislative Powers In Pursuit Of Environmental Sustainability, Brandon L. Boxler

Legislation and Policy Brief

Through either executive or legislative power, state and local governments are rapidly effecting policies that encourage environmental sustainability. Many of these policies have logically targeted buildings and infrastructure, both of which have a significant adverse impact on the environment. In the United States, 38 percent of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions and 67 percent of its electricity usage come from buildings. New laws and policies are attempting to decrease these figures by requiring construction projects to “go green” and implement sustainable building practices. These legal initiatives have the potential to create substantial environmental benefits by reducing energy consumption, greenhouse gas …

Will The Current Economic Crisis Fuel A Return To Racial Policies That Deny Homeownership Opportunity And Wealth?, Marcia Johnson

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

Protecting Non-Indians From Harm? The Property Consequences Of Indians, Ezra Rosser

Ezra Rosser

This article is an exploration of the assumption, last made by the U.S. Supreme Court in City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York, that non-Indian property owners are harmed by Indian acquisition and control of land. Accepting for the moment the Court's prioritization of a non-Indian perspective, the article explores (a) what lies behind non-Indian resistance to Indian land ownership, and (b) whether in fact non-Indians are harmed by proximity to Indian land. The article combines in its analysis core property law concepts with an empirical examination of the changes over time in assessed land value of …

Exiling The Poor: The Clash Of Redevelopment And Fair Housing In Post-Katrina New Orleans, Anita Sinha, Judith Browne-Dianis

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Protecting Non-Indians From Harm? The Property Consequences Of Indians, Ezra Rosser

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This article is an exploration of the assumption, last made by the U.S. Supreme Court in City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York, that non-Indian property owners are harmed by Indian acquisition and control of land. Accepting for the moment the Court's prioritization of a non-Indian perspective, the article explores (a) what lies behind non-Indian resistance to Indian land ownership, and (b) whether in fact non-Indians are harmed by proximity to Indian land. The article combines in its analysis core property law concepts with an empirical examination of the changes over time in assessed land value of …

Obligations Of Privilege, Ezra Rosser

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Little attention is paid to the nature of the high incomes of the rich or to the legal or norm-based obligations the rich owe society. This popular and scholarly inattention reflects the general acceptance of the idea that the rich have earned their high incomes and owe society little. By looking at income equations revealing society's role in high incomes and the obligations of the rich, the Article urges a strengthening of the obligations of the rich and rejects the argument that the legal community ought not consider the moral demands associated with high incomes.

Obligations Of Privilege, Ezra Rosser

Ezra Rosser

Little attention is paid to the nature of the high incomes of the rich or to the legal or norm-based obligations the rich owe society. This popular and scholarly inattention reflects the general acceptance of the idea that the rich have earned their high incomes and owe society little. By looking at income equations revealing society's role in high incomes and the obligations of the rich, the Article urges a strengthening of the obligations of the rich and rejects the argument that the legal community ought not consider the moral demands associated with high incomes.

Caution, Cooperative Agreements, And The Actual State Of Things: A Reply To Professor Fletcher, Ezra Rosser

Ezra Rosser

This short article argues that tribal governments considering entering into cooperative agreements with federal, state, or local governments ought to maintain a healthy skepticism regarding the non-tribal governments sitting across from them at the negotiating table and the appropriateness of entering into cooperative agreements.

Rural Housing And Code Enforcement: Navigating Between Values And Housing Types, Ezra Rosser

Ezra Rosser

This paper focuses on the relationship between rural housing and building codes. The paper covers the relationship between the existing urban based literature on housing conditions and the rural housing situation as well as a theoretical exploration of different ways of understanding value in housing. Finally, two rural case studies - the Navajo Nation and a small Colorado subdivision - illustrate the challenges of rural housing code enforcement and demonstrate how officials could benefit from the model.

Caution, Cooperative Agreements, And The Actual State Of Things: A Reply To Professor Fletcher, Ezra Rosser

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This short article argues that tribal governments considering entering into cooperative agreements with federal, state, or local governments ought to maintain a healthy skepticism regarding the non-tribal governments sitting across from them at the negotiating table and the appropriateness of entering into cooperative agreements.

Rural Housing And Code Enforcement: Navigating Between Values And Housing Types, Ezra Rosser

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This paper focuses on the relationship between rural housing and building codes. The paper covers the relationship between the existing urban based literature on housing conditions and the rural housing situation as well as a theoretical exploration of different ways of understanding value in housing. Finally, two rural case studies - the Navajo Nation and a small Colorado subdivision - illustrate the challenges of rural housing code enforcement and demonstrate how officials could benefit from the model.

The Trade-Off Between Self-Determination And The Trust Doctrine: Tribal Government And The Possibility Of Failure, Ezra Rosser

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This paper argues that tribes and scholars need to come to grips with the trade-off between trust and self-determination, and that failure to do so-by for example expressing a yearning that the trust doctrine was stronger-will lead to poor choices by tribes. Choices thus need to be based on an understanding of this trade-off and tribes must be aware that exercising self-determination inevitably will lead to a weakening of the trust doctrine over the areas which tribe's assume authority. This point is illustrated using a close analysis of the arguments used by the parties and the Supreme Court's treatment of …

The Trade-Off Between Self-Determination And The Trust Doctrine: Tribal Government And The Possibility Of Failure, Ezra Rosser

Ezra Rosser

This paper argues that tribes and scholars need to come to grips with the trade-off between trust and self-determination, and that failure to do so-by for example expressing a yearning that the trust doctrine was stronger-will lead to poor choices by tribes. Choices thus need to be based on an understanding of this trade-off and tribes must be aware that exercising self-determination inevitably will lead to a weakening of the trust doctrine over the areas which tribe's assume authority. This point is illustrated using a close analysis of the arguments used by the parties and the Supreme Court's treatment of …

The Nature Of Representation: The Cherokee Right To A Congressional Delegate, Ezra Rosser

Ezra Rosser

This paper explores the history and present day implications of the Cherokee Nation's 1835 treaty-based right to a Congressional Delegate.

The Nature Of Representation: The Cherokee Right To A Congressional Delegate, Ezra Rosser

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This paper explores the history and present day implications of the Cherokee Nation's 1835 treaty-based right to a Congressional Delegate.