Housing Law Commons^™

By The People, For The People? Community Participation In Law Reform, Natalina Nheu, Hugh Mcdonald

Access to Justice

This report is based on five case studies of law reform in New South Wales concerning housing, mental health, law and order, and civil procedure laws. It draws from publicly available literature and in-depth interviews with a number of informants involved in these case studies, as well as general literature and data on a number of Bills introduced and enacted in the New South Wales Parliament.

The report highlights the many constraints to the participation of disadvantaged people in law reform, and identifies a range of strategies that might be considered if the most disadvantaged people in the community are ...

Two Cheers For Gentrification, J. Peter Byrne

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The very word "gentrification" implies distaste. Advocates for the poor and ethnic minorities see affluent whites bidding up the prices for urban housing to levels that force poor families out, depriving them of affordable housing, perhaps rendering them homeless, and changing the character of a neighborhood from one that reflects distinct ethnic and class needs and cultural traditions into a bland emporium for expensive consumer goods. Sometimes historic preservation laws are indicted as particular culprits in setting this dynamic in motion. A result of these perceptions is that the legal literature on gentrification, in general, and historic preservation both reflect ...

Improving Access To Justice: Plain Language Family Law Court Forms In Washington State, Charles R. Dyer, Joan E. Fairbanks, M. Lynn Greiner, Kirsten Barron, Janet L. Skreen, Josefina Cerrillo-Ramirez, Andrew Lee, Bill Hinsee

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Converting Nonpayment To Holdover Summary Proceedings: The New York Experience With Conditional Limitations Based Upon Nonpayment Of Rent, Stephen Ross

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article examines the development in New York law of both the landlord's right to terminate a lease for a tenant default and the tenant's right to preserve his tenancy by curing a rent default. It finds that, despite some cases to the contrary, case law in New York favors the landlord's reserved right to terminate over the tenant's historic right to cure, at least as to commercial tenancies." It concludes that, in both residential and commercial tenancies, landlords should not have this termination right' and that the legislature should enact appropriate legislation to achieve that ...

Blighting The Way: Urban Renewal, Economic Development, And The Elusive Definition Of Blight, Colin Gordon

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article examines the way municipalities have used increasingly broad interpretations of "blight" to compete for state tax increment financing (TIFs) for economic development purposes. It traces the definition of blight in the context of state and federal urban redevelopment programs from the nineteenth century through the Progressive Era to the advent of TIF laws in the 1980s and 90s. It goes on to discuss the how the concept of "blight" has shifted from a condition of substandard housing to a condition of "sub-optimal" local economic development, in part due to intense competition among municipalities for TIFs. The article concludes ...

Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning--The Answer To Affordable Housing Problem, Brian R. Lerman

Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review

Affordable housing has always been a problem in the United States. Cities and towns originally engaged in forms of discrimination through exclusionary zoning to exclude low-income residents. While many of the social attitudes persist today, the question is how to encourage new affordable housing development. This Note introduces the concept of inclusionary zoning as a successful method for creating affordable housing. The Note examines the constitutional analyses used for land use ordinances. Then, the Note evaluates existing affordable housing programs, distinguishing between the eastern approach and the western approach. The eastern approach—represented by New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Montgomery County ...

Discriminatory Housing Statements And Section 3604(C): A New Look At The Fair Housing Act's Most Intriguing Provision, Robert G. Schwemm

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article gives a new look at section 3604(c) of the Fair Housing Act. Through section 3604(c), the FHA has outlawed biased statements with respect to an even broader range of housing sales and rentals. The three main purposes of section 3604 directly bear on the FHA's ultimate goals of eliminating housing discrimination and achieving residential integration. Under the FHA, discriminatory statements are not only probative of a defendant's illegal intent, but also, by themselves, violate the statute if made "with respect to eh sale or rental of a dwelling." Further, the lack of aggressive enforcement ...

How Negotiability Has Fouled Up The Secondary Mortgage Market, And What To Do About It, Dale A. Whitman

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of The Standard Mortgage Clause In Insurance Policies, Harry P. Cooper Jr.

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Procedural Due Process And Hearsay Evidence In Section 8 Housing Voucher Termination Hearings, Margaretta E. Homsey

Boston College Law Review

The federal Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program provides critical housing subsidy assistance to over two million low-income families in the United States. Each year some of these families have their Section 8 voucher assistance terminated based solely on uncorroborated hearsay evidence relied on by local public housing authorities to prove various program violations. State and federal courts have reached differing conclusions as to whether these terminations violate families’ procedural due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment and federal regulations governing the program. This Note argues that terminations based solely on hearsay evidence violate procedural due process and the federal ...