Housing Law Commons^™

Climate Last Resorts, Michael Pappas

Publications

The United States faces a climate crisis, an affordable housing crisis, and, linking them both, an insurance crisis. At the intersection of these concurrent predicaments lie a set of little-known but surprisingly impactful policies: state Insurer of Last Resort (ILR) programs. ILRs are state policies that provide property insurance when private insurance is unavailable, such as when private insurers determine that climate hazards are too risky to underwrite.

This Article argues that long-overlooked ILR programs are quickly becoming lynchpins for addressing some of today’s most pressing concerns around climate, housing, and insurance. Accordingly, ILRs bear urgent attention and reevaluation. In …

No Shelter: The Criminalization Of Homelessness And The Gaps In Constitutional Protections If Robinson Is Overruled, Shelby Stansbury

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Golden Opportunity For New York: Caveat Emptor And Revised Mckinney's 465, Grady Miller

NYLS Law Review

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For centuries, the doctrine of caveat emptor has governed New York residential real estate transactions, rewarding sellers who do not disclose material defects affecting the property, and punishing unsuspecting buyers who fail to exercise due diligence. To alleviate the doctrine’s inherent unfairness to buyers, the New York …

Black Suburbanization: Potent Hope Or Illusory Promise?, Mary Jo Wiggins

Marquette Law Review

Suburbs are popular. People like living in them, and scholars like studying them. For the first time, more Americans live in the suburbs than in central cities. Perhaps more noteworthy is that more Black Americans live in the suburbs than ever before. Given these realities, it is not surprising that the suburbs have become a laboratory for analyzing a host of political, legal, and economic questions.

In previous scholarship, I examined the complex phenomenon of Black suburbanization through the lens of two communities: South DeKalb, Georgia and Prince George’s County, Maryland. These communities were part of what I called the …

Rent Abatement In Wisconsin: Duty To Repair A Broken Statute, Brady Wirkes

Marquette Law Review

Wisconsin, like many states, has a rent abatement statute that authorizes tenants to withhold rent from their landlord. Despite the apparent strength of the rent abatement statute, tenants rarely utilize it. The statute, as it exists, fails to provide an adequate safety net for tenants. Even tenants with flawless abatement arguments are currently required to risk eviction to make a claim. However, the risk of eviction is merely the tip of the iceberg.

This Comment explores the complexities of a rent abatement claim in Wisconsin, highlighting the difficulties that tenants face trying to successfully withhold rent. Wisconsin’s rent abatement statute …

The New Neccesity, Ezra Rosser

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

According to the U.S. Supreme Court, cities are free to criminalize homelessness. The 2024 case City of Grants Pass v. Johnson is the most important homelessness case in decades and was a significant blow to advocates for the unhoused. The conservative majority rejected the idea that city ordinances criminalizing sleeping in public amounted to cruel and unusual punishment insofar as they penalized status. There is no sidestepping the loss. But within the faint glow of the embers of the oral argument and of the decision itself, there is the possibility that a new understanding of necessity, supported by the same …

Peeking Inside The Black Box: Discovery In Fair Housing Act Cases Arising From Ai Decision Making, Jessica Mahon Scoles

Faculty Scholarship

In today’s real estate market, more housing decisions are being automated. If artificial intelligence renders a biased decision, will the person impacted have any legal recourse? Commentators have expressed concern that the proprietary nature of AI will allow defendants in discrimination lawsuits to avoid discovery, effectively shielding their decision making from judicial scrutiny. This article examines whether AI and algorithm-related information is the discovery black box that some fear it to be.

Addressing the issue in the context of Fair Housing Act (FHA) litigation, the article argues that concerns about access to AI and algorithm-related discovery are overstated. In real …