Housing Law Commons^™

Displacement And Urban Reinvestment: A Mount Laurel Perspective, Peter W. Salsich

All Faculty Scholarship

This article discusses the continuing national debate concerning the responsibility that local governments should accept when residents are forced to leave their homes as a result of reinvestment activities encouraged by the cities and funded in part with public funds. The author explains the many different forms that reinvestment displacement may take and traces the legislative and judicial response to this issue. Despite what the author refers to as a considerable amount of buck passing, the article points out resources that are being made available to combat displacement. The article highlights the Supreme Court of New Jersey opinion in the …

Housing Issues In Boston: Guidelines For New Policy And Program Perspectives, Joseph S. Slavet, Boston Urban Observatory, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Boston Urban Observatory Publications

Urban stagnation and turbulence, the roller-coaster trends In the national and local economy and the vicissitudes of national, state and local public policies have left their mark on Boston's residential neighborhoods and housing markets.

Boston's response to the new opportunities of public policy during the sixties and seventies was to take full advantage of urban renewal, assis ted-housing production and housing rehabilitation. Large-scale activities reshaped the occupancy patterns and market strengths of residential neighborhoods. By mid-1975, however, except for continuing growth in the City's subsidized housing stock, Boston's housing future looked bleak. There was pervasive evidence of a growing housing …

Maintaining Residential Integration: Municipal Practices And Law, Kermit J. Lind

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article focuses on the policies and programs that can be established to sustain racial diversity in housing. It reviews the circumstances that give rise to such policies and programs, describes the legal framework within which they must be fit, and examines some of them in light of the needs and interests of policy makers in communities that are open to minority groups. Since effective housing integration policies and programs can vary significantly from one place to another, each municipality must consider its options in view of its circumstances and the changing conditions in its housing market. In response to …

Evaluation Of City Of Boston Fair Housing Programs: The Final Report, Boston Urban Observatory, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Boston Urban Observatory Publications

The City of Boston's 3-year Pair Housing Plan (1981-83) identifies the following six goals for achieving greater freedom of choice in housing for its minority residents: 1) To improve the delivery of services relative to the enhancement of freedom of choice to all minorities in Boston as they relate to fair housing; 2) To increase enforcement of fair housing laws; 3) To increase public safety and security to assure equal access throughout the City of Boston; 4) To Increase the participation of all minorities and low-and moderate-income people in all City of Boston housing programs; 5) To increase low-cost housing …

Condominium Law: A Comparison Of The Uniform Act With The Illinois Act, 14 J. Marshall L. Rev. 387 (1981), Stephen B. Cohen, Allen Goldberg, Conrad M. Mulvaney

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Conversion Condominium Development: An Issue Of Tenants' Rights, Amy R. Goldstein

Cleveland State Law Review

It is against the backdrop of burgeoning condominium conversion activity, rental housing shortages and diverse legislative controls that this Note will examine the issue of tenant protection as it has developed in Ohio. The consideration given to conversion condominium development in the 1978 amendments to the Ohio Condominium Property Act creates minimal, if any, protection for either tenants or the rental housing market. This Note will critically examine the pertinent provision of the Ohio Act, outline the municipal tenant protection laws which have subsequently been enacted in metropolitan Cleveland communities and consider the issue of whether these local conversion regulations …

The Validity Of Ordinances Limiting Condominium Conversion, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In 1974, the New York Times ran a front-page story about the dilemma of an elderly woman who lived in a Washington, D.C., apartment building that was being converted into a condominium. On a limited budget, she faced the choice of either finding a new place to live in the tight Washington housing market or paying $2000 down and $422.50 in monthly installments for the same one-bedroom apartment she had been renting for $ 155.00 per month. The woman's situation is not unusual: a federal study estimates that owners have recently converted 60,000 rental apartment units to condominiums, and real …

Homestead Legislation In California, Charles Adams

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Texas Urban Renewal Law - An Important But Primitive Tool For Community Development., Arthur Troilo

St. Mary's Law Journal

The Texas Urban Renewal Act (the Act) of 1954 has provided nearly twenty-four Texas cities access to federal assistance programs in redeveloping their blighted communities. As the federal government began withholding its financial support for urban assistance programs, many cities began reevaluating their approaches to redevelopment and the outmoded provisions of the Act. The holding in Davis v. Lubbock (1959) established the constitutional limits of the Urban Renewal Act according to the recent Texas Constitution. This study examines the shortcomings experienced as cities relied more on local funding while struggling with the inefficiencies apparent in the Act’s execution in adhering …

Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency Act Of 1972, John A. Stevens

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The 1959 Pennsylvania legislation, while commendable for its goals and its innovative financing concepts, proved inadequate over the years in meeting the changing housing needs in the state. In an attempt to correct the deficiencies of this legislation, Pennsylvania radically revised its housing law by enacting the Housing Finance Agency Act of 1972. This note undertakes a historical analysis of both the 1959 Act and the 1972 Act. Then, the new act is contrasted with similar statutes in other states. Finally, the effectiveness of the Pennsylvania legislation as a stimulate to the development of new low- and moderate-income housing is …

Substandard Housing And The Cost Of Providing Housing-Related Services, David Podoff, Daniel A. Primont, Louis Esposito, Boston Urban Observatory, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Boston Urban Observatory Publications

Designed as a comparative undertaking by the National League of Cities (NLC) , this study is officially entitled "National Research Agenda Project No. 5: Substandard Housing and the Cost of Providing Housing-Related Services." A similar study was carried out by the urban observatories in Denver and Nashville. According to the study scope of services, the NLC was interested in the cost of "a wide variety of local government activities ... required to support and service urban housing," and how these costs "are affected by housing quality, housing location, age and type of structures. ..." It was also suggested that attention …

The Interrelationship Between Excusionary Subdivision Control - A Second Look, Roger A. Cunningham

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The thesis of this article is that the conclusion set out above is both oversimplified and inaccurate. Contrary to the author's contention in his Journal article, there are "viable distinctions between zoning and subdivision control," and consequently the major exclusionary techniques available to suburban communities through "zoning" are simply not available in connection with "subdivision control." Dramatic attempts at racial exclusion through subdivision control are likely to be infrequent. Although subdivision regulations, like zoning ordinances and building codes, require expenditures by land developers which increase the cost of housing and thus tend to exclude the poor, the effect of subdivision …

Exclusionary Zoning: A Wrong In Search Of A Remedy, Leonard S. Rubinowitz

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article discusses affirmative approaches to providing effective relief in two types of exclusionary zoning cases: (1) remedies specific to a particular proposed development or a given site and (2) regional remedies, which provide a generalized framework for meeting what courts are increasingly identifying as a regional problem: the need for decent housing for all families. In the first instance (the "single-site" case) a court would remove obstacles in order to facilitate development of low- and moderate- income housing on a particular suburban site. In the second case (the regional approach) a court would specify the obligation of the municipalities …

Modern Legislation, Metropolitan Court, Miniscule Results: A Study Of Detroit's Landlord-Tenant Court, Marilyn Miller Mosier, Richard A. Soble

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article is a description of a study of cases filed and tried in the Detroit, Michigan, Common Pleas Court, Landlord-Tenant Division, during 1970 and 1971. The court is in a large urban center and handles a high volume of cases, in most of which one or both parties appear without an attorney. The impetus for the study was Michigan legislation passed in 1968, which gave tenants additional defenses to summary eviction procedures. The main goal of the study was to observe the effects of the legislation on tenants who were subject to summary proceedings in Detroit. The purpose of …

Strategies For Metropolitan Stabilization, John W. Ragsdale Jr, Thomas Clark

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Housing Inspectional Services On Housing Maintenance In The City Of Boston: A Preliminary Evaluation, Boston Urban Observatory, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Boston Urban Observatory Publications

This study is a preliminary evaluation of the relative impacts of various City policies and programs related to the enforcement of housing codes and to the maintenance and upgrading of the existing supply of housing. It analyzes code enforcement functions at both the level of central administration and field procedures. City departments covered by the study include Housing Inspection (HID), Building, and the environmental unit of Health and Hospitals. Also reviewed are newer approaches to housing code enforcement, including civil remedies and federally-assisted concentrated code enforcement projects.

State Legislative Response To The Housing Crisis, Richard E. Streeter, David G. Davies, Arthur V. N. Brooks

Cleveland State Law Review

Great public attention has recently been focused on the crisis in housing facing all major urban areas in this country. This article has been prepared to bring close attention to one segment of the hoped for solution-legislative action needed on the state level.

Impact Of A Community Association On Integrated Suburban Housing Patterns, Stephen J. Alfred, Charles R. Marcoux

Cleveland State Law Review

Community associations-neighbors who join together in recognition of common interests and sometimes in pursuit of greater political influence-appear and disappear with the ebb and flow of local issues. Home community organizations have concerned themselves with installation of improvements, such as sidewalks and sewers; others, with the quality of municipal services, property maintenance, and compliance with building and zoning laws. More recently, however, such community organizations have sprung into life for the purpose of dealing with the emotionally-charged issue of racial integration in their neighborhoods. This paper will explore the development of The Lomond Association, a community organization committed to a …

Detroit Housing Code Enforcement And Community Renewal: A Study In Futility, Brett R. Dick, John S. Pfarr Jr.

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article will demonstrate that the inconsistency is, to a large extent, more apparent than real and results from the application of two different conceptions of the purpose of the program to the same facts. Furthermore, it will be demonstrated that Detroit's Building (housing) Code has failed in its attempt to force rehabilitation of residential structures through Code enforcement. Although it can be made to work more efficiently, the Code will never serve as an effective solution to the housing problem.

Metropolitan Problems And Local Government Structure: An Examination Of Old And New Issues, Daniel R. Grant

Vanderbilt Law Review

At a time when our leading popular magazines are featuring cover headlines on "The Sick, Sick Cities," and articles on their"Battle for Survival" it seems appropriate to examine some old and new issues concerning the relationship of metropolitan problems to local government structure. The journalists who write such articles probably hear a great deal about the frustrating legal and political obstacles to achieving more rational forms of government for our exploding, strife-torn metropolitan areas. They probably do not hear, however, that political scientists are divided on such questions as the reality of "metropolitan-type" problems and the feasibility of area-wide metropolitan …

Overcoming Barriers To Scattered-Site Low-Cost Housing, Darrel J. Grinstead

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The effect of most zoning devices which have been used in suburban and non-ghetto city planning in the past few decades has been to erect substantial economic barriers around entire cities. These devices include minimum lot size requirements, density zoning, frontage requirements, single family restrictions, and minimum living space requirements. While such zoning practices may not be exclusionary in purpose, exclusion of minority groups has been the result. Moreover, since most minorities are heavily concentrated in low income groups, economic segregation will bring about a high degree of racial and ethnic segregation. Indeed, it has been suggested that these economic …

Housing Codes, Building Demolition, And Just Compensation: A Rationale For The Exercise Of Public Powers Over Slum Housing, Daniel R. Mandelker

Michigan Law Review

In programs of housing improvement and slum clearance, public agencies must often make difficult choices between the exercise of public powers of land acquisition, which require the payment of compensation, and public powers of noncompensatory regulation, which require no payment of compensation. This Article focuses on three of these programs-building demolition, urban renewal, and housing code enforcement. Public agencies may demolish slum dwellings, one at a time, without compensation. Title to the cleared site is not affected and remains in the owner after the building has been demolished. Under statutory powers of urban renewal, local public agencies may designate entire …

Aesthetics And The Police Power, Robert J. Dicello

Cleveland State Law Review

Under the Ohio Constitution municipalities have the authority to exercise all powers of local self-government. This authority is exercised through police power which is sufficient to support the enactment and enforcement of a wide variety of regulations which serve the public welfare. The police power, then, is the means whereby there is delegated by the state to the municipality effective power to promote and protect the general welfare. The purpose of any enforceable ordinance established under the police power must be directly related to the general welfare of the community wherein it operates.

Housing Code Enforcement - A New Approach, Richard J. Marco, James P. Mancino

Cleveland State Law Review

Recognizing the national housing crises and the inadequate progress toward solutions through the utilization of either present code enforcement techniques or the ponderous urban renewal processes, new methods, techniques and approaches for the enforcement of housing code standards were sought.

Persuader: Mobilization Of Support, Mary Ann Beattie

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Law reform can be achieved through precedent-setting case law and through legislation. Each is a time-consuming activity with its own stumbling blocks. To establish law through the case method, one must have a fact situation directly on point with the inequity which one is trying to remedy. In many situations the client must be willing to follow through a long process of trial and appeal, instead of settling for a more immediate but incomplete resolution of his problem. The costs of litigation may become an insurmountable problem. Another difficulty with the test case as a vehicle for law reform is …

Landlord And Tenant--Leases--Lease Executed In Violation Of District Of Columbia Housing Regulations Is An Illegal Contract--Brown V. Southall Realty Co., Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff-landlord brought an action for possession based on nonpayment of rent in the Landlord-Tenant Branch of the District of Columbia Court of General Sessions. Although the parties stipulated at trial that the rent was 230 dollars in arrears, defendant-tenant contended that the plaintiff was not entitled to possession because the lease was an illegal contract under the District of Columbia Housing Regulations. The trial court rejected this contention and gave judgment for plaintiff. By the time her appeal to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals was heard, the tenant had vacated the premises and no longer desired to contest …

Slumlordism As A Tort--A Dissenting View, Walter J. Blum, Allison Dunham

Michigan Law Review

The persistence of substandard housing in urban centers stands as a challenge to law. There is a pressing need to re-examine whether prevailing legal doctrines are adequate for dealing with the problem and to suggest new doctrines where the old are found wanting. To their great credit, Joseph L. Sax and Fred J. Hiestand in their article "Slumlordism as a Tort" face up to these tasks boldly and vigorously. They conclude that, under existing conditions, it is imprudent to rely on public authorities to enforce housing codes and it is unlikely that legislatures will place sufficient enforcement powers in private …

Slumlordism As A Tort--A Brief Response, Joseph L. Sax

Michigan Law Review

Professors Blum and Dunham begin their comment by accusing us of having a new idea. We plead guilty. Our purpose was to demonstrate that accepted principles in analogous areas of law would support a slumlordism action, not to argue that tort law as presently applied would do so. Indeed, our basic intent was to underscore the myopia of existing tort law perspectives.

Michigan Landlord-Tenant Law: Course Of Statutory Reform

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Introduction to the Articles, Draftsman: Formulation of Policy, Persuader: Mobilization of Support, and Tenant's Attorney: Evaluation of Impact

Draftsman: Formulation Of Policy, Carl Schier

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Most low income families rent their living accommodations; for them the lease arrangement is a precarious one at best. It is generally a periodic tenancy from week to week or month to month with the agreement rarely reduced to writing. If the allocation of rights and duties between the parties is spelled out by them at all, it is quite one-sided and normally delineates only what the tenant may and may not do. When there is no written agreement or when the writing is silent as to the obligations of the parties, the common law of landlord and tenant controls, …