Housing Law Commons^™

A Home Is A Good Thing: An Argument For Changing The Eviction Process, Samuel Spaid

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

No abstract provided.

A Framework For Effective And Strategic Eviction Prevention, Maya Brennan

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

No abstract provided.

The High Cost Of Eviction: Struggling To Contain A Growing Social Problem, Judith Fox

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

No abstract provided.

In West Philadelphia Born And Raised Or Moving To Bel-Air? Racial Steering As A Consequence Of Using Race Data On Real Estate Websites, Nadiyah J. Humber

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Community In Property: Lessons From Tiny Homes Villages, Lisa T. Alexander

Faculty Scholarship

The evolving role of community in property law remains undertheorized. While legal scholars have analyzed the commons, common interest communities, and aspects of the sharing economy, the recent rise of intentional co-housing communities re-mains relatively understudied. This Article analyzes tiny homes villages for unhoused people in the United States, as examples of co-housing communities that create a new housing tenure—stewardship—and demonstrate the growing importance of community, co-management, sustainability, and flexibility in con-temporary property law. These villages’ property relationships challenge the predominance of individualized, exclusionary, long-term, fee simple ownership in contemporary property law and exemplify property theories such as progressive property …

Illegal Substance Abuse And Protection From Discrimination In Housing And Employment: Reversing The Exclusion Of Illegal Substance Abuse As A Disability, Leslie P. Francis

Utah Law Review

When landlords or employers know that someone is using opioids, either legally or illegally, the consequences can be significant. Rental housing or employment are both critical to well-being, yet may be at particularly high risk. As this Article argues below, legal protections in these areas are inadequate. To summarize the argument briefly, a crucial legal problem for people suffering from substance abuse disorders is that current illegal use of controlled substances is excluded from the definition of disability in federal anti-discrimination statutes. A history of substance abuse is a disability protected from discrimination, but recent relapses vitiate this protection. Relatedly, …

Vouchers And Affordable Housing: The Limits Of Choice In The Political Economy Of Place, Rigel C. Oliveri

Faculty Publications

America's housing segregation problem, and the direct role of government and private actors in creating it, is well documented. What to do about it is less clear. And even when consensus develops about particular strategies, they can be difficult to implement because of significant headwinds that impede change. These headwinds-including market forces, government policies, and private prejudices-continue to stymie progress, and even well-intentioned reform efforts can fail at best and lead to negative consequences at worst. This piece seeks not to provide answers, but rather to describe one such set of reforms and headwinds and to propose some modest policy …

Rwu Law: The Magazine Of Roger Williams University School Of Law (Issue 10, 25th Anniversary Issue) (May 2019), Roger Williams University School Of Law

RWU Law

No abstract provided.

Supbrime Lending/Foreclosure Crisis, Jacob Rugh

Faculty Publications

Subprime mortgage lending in the USA rose alongside home prices and lasted about 15 years, ending abruptly in late 2007, setting off a national foreclosure crisis. Between 2007 and 2012 there were 9 to 12 million foreclosures filings and 4 to 5 million completed foreclosures. The ensuing foreclosure crisis stemmed more from falling home prices but its unequal distribution across society by race and space was also the product of legacies of exclusion and a shared consensus on the expansion of mortgage credit and home ownership. Modest federal interventions to buffer communities and homeowners from the crisis likely reinforced the …

When A Tent Is Your Castle: Constitutional Protection Against Unreasonable Searches Of Makeshift Dwellings Of Unhoused Persons, Evanie Parr

Seattle University Law Review

This Note will argue that all jurisdictions should follow the Washington State Court of Appeals, Division II in validating makeshift dwellings used by people experiencing homelessness as spaces protected from unwarranted police intrusions by shifting evaluations of “reasonable expectations of privacy” to a more equitable standard that appreciates the realities of economic disparity. This approach to constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures is imperative to protect the rights of people experiencing homelessness, given that such individuals are regularly subjected to invasions of privacy and heightened exposure to the criminal justice system.

Blackfeet Housing V. Reevis, Et Al, 18-Ap-02 (Blkft. Tr. Ct. App., Feb. 12, 2019), Blackfeet Appellate Court

Court Decisions

In the Blackfeet Tribal Court of Appeals, the Court upheld a lower court determination, upholding an eviction, and that the defendant did violate their lease agreement. The appellate Court finds nothing in the Tribal Trial Court record which gives cause for review of any legal issue and does not find cause to set aside any trial court determinations of fact.

The Properties Of Integration: Mixed-Income Housing As Discrimination Management, Audrey Mcfarlane

All Faculty Scholarship

Mixed-income housing is an increasingly popular approach to providing affordable housing. The technique largely went unnoticed until developers of mixed-income housing constructed buildings containing separate entrances for rich and poor residents. The ensuing “poor door” controversy illustrated that mixed-income housing, as both a method of affordable housing production and an integration strategy, is in unacknowledged tension with itself. This Article argues that, mixedincome housing is implemented as a surreptitious form of racial and economic integration that accommodates and replicates prevailing race and class assumptions detrimental to the needs and interests of low to moderate-income individuals in need of housing. The …

A Euclid Dissent, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

In Euclid v. Ambler Realty, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of zoning, including zoning that excluded apartment houses and retail businesses. Although the decision was not unanimous, the Euclid minority did not write a formal dissent. The purpose of this article is to show what such a dissent should have looked like.

Do You Believe In Ghost Apartments?, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

According to the popular press, expensive cities are being overrun by "ghost apartments"- condominiums owned by wealthy foreigners, but used as investments rather than being rented out to local residents. This article points out that such apartments are in fact a very small percentage of housing supply, even in some cities that are supposedly overran with such condos. More importantly, the existence of new “ghost apartments” does not justify exclusionary zoning policies. If a city popular with foreign investors discourages construction of new housing, investors are likely to purchase older housing units, outbidding local residents for those units. In this …

The Least Restrictive Environment For Providing Education, Treatment, And Community Services For Persons With Disabilities: Rethinking The Concept, Donald H. Stone

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Unjust Cities? Gentrification, Integration, And The Fair Housing Act, Olatunde C.A. Johnson

Faculty Scholarship

What does gentrification mean for fair housing? This article considers the possibility that gentrification should be celebrated as a form of integration alongside a darker narrative that sees gentrification as necessarily unstable and leading to inequality or displacement of lower-income, predominantly of color, residents. Given evidence of both possibilities, this article considers how the Fair Housing Act might be deployed to minimize gentrification’s harms while harnessing some of the benefits that might attend integration and movement of higher-income residents to cities. Ultimately, the article urges building on the fair housing approach but employing a broader set of tools to advance …

Environmental Determinism: Functional Egalitarian Spaces Promote Functional Egalitarian Practices, Katharine B. Silbaugh

Faculty Scholarship

Egalitarian, place-based thinking belongs at the table when considering approaches to improving early childhood. Places connect people’s lives. They also generate patterns that organize, and can re-organize, our social order and behavior. Places can spark and support the development of self-governance and cultivate a political voice grounded in the needs of the same community that place generates. Whether considered as community schools, community centers, or more ambitiously, community housing developments designed to include services that meet the needs of residents, the spatial dimensions of early childhood policy require explicit consideration.

A Homestead Act For The 21st Century, Mehrsa Baradaran

Scholarly Works

The goal of the 21st century Homestead Act is to counteract the longstanding legacy of racially discriminatory housing policies by revitalizing distressed communities through public investment. The basic structure of the program is a wholesale transfer of land to residents who meet certain criteria. Accompanied by a holistic plan at the city level to revitalize the community through public investments in infrastructure and jobs, this proposal would benefit people who live in select small and medium-sized cities that are experiencing high vacancies.

Elizabeth Warren’S New Housing Proposal Is Actually A Brilliant Plan To Close The Racial Wealth Gap, Mehrsa Baradaran, Darrick Hamilton

Popular Media

Last month, Sen. Elizabeth Warren released a $450 billion housing plan called the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act. The proposal is a comprehensive and bold step toward providing affordable housing for the most vulnerable Americans. The bill is the first since the Fair Housing Act with the explicit intent of redressing the iterative effects of our nation’s sordid history of housing discrimination. Critically, it has the potential to make a substantive dent in closing our enormous and persistent racial wealth gap.

A Rash Decision In Sunnyslope: Confusion Lingers Over Collateral Valuation, Michael D. Manzo

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Comment argues that the Ninth Circuit’s Sunnyslope decision misconstrued the Rash Court’s holding and is divorced from the text and structure of the Code. Rash does not provide a brightline rule that answers valuation questions in cramdowns; it offers a flexible standard that is compatible with the Code’s protections for both debtors and secured creditors. Further, this Comment also argues that Sunnyslope could have been answered not as a valuation issue, but as a lien priority issue. In any event, the Ninth Circuit completely missed the mark in interpreting the Supreme Court’s holding in Rash and in understanding …

Sustainable Affordable Housing, Andrea Boyack

Faculty Publications

Sustainable real estate development is an essential component of intergenerational justice, in part because the real estate sector creates more than 20% of the world’s carbon emissions. Governments, recognizing that environmentally sustainable real estate development involves higher upfront costs, have encouraged green building by offering publicly funded incentives such as tax credits, grants, reduced approval fees, and streamlined permitting. Using market measurement innovations such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, investors can promote environmentally sustainable development by prioritizing real estate developers that embrace environmentally conscious practices. Even though real estate in general still underperforms in many other sectors in terms …

Law School News: 'Force Multipliers': Ri Tenant Stablization Project Aims To Help Eviction And Homelessness Issues For Low-Income Tenants 04-06-2018, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The Prison To Homelessness Pipeline: Criminal Record Checks, Race, And Disparate Impact, Valerie Schneider

Indiana Law Journal

Study after study has shown that securing housing upon release from prison is critical to reducing the likelihood of recidivism,1 yet those with criminal records— a population that disproportionately consists of racial minorities—are routinely denied access to housing, even if their offense was minor and was shown to have no bearing on whether the applicant would be likely to be a successful renter. In April of 2016, the Office of General Counsel for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued much anticipated guidance dealing directly with the racially disparate impact of barring those with criminal records …

Dignity Takings And “Trailer Trash”: The Case Of Mobile Home Park Mass Evictions, Esther Sullivan

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Mobile homes are a primary source of shelter for America’s poor and working classes. A large share of the nation’s mobile home stock is found in mobile home parks where residents own their homes but lease the land under their homes from private landlords. Urban growth has put pressure on park landlords to sell and redevelop mobile home parks. When parks are redeveloped mobile home residents are evicted and entire communities are destroyed. Residents lose their homes and home equity as they struggle to relocate their homes to different parks or are forced to abandon them. Through two continuous years …

Testing Fannie Mae's And Freddie Mac's Post-Crisis Self-Preservation Policies Under The Fair Housing Act, Shelby D. Green

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Beginning in the 1930s, the federal government adopted programs and policies toward safe and decent housing for all. The initiatives included the creation of the Federal Housing Administration that, among other things, spurred mortgage lending by guaranteeing mortgage loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers. The creation of the secondary mortgage market by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (“GSEs”) helped provide more liquidity for loan originators. However, somewhere along the way, these GSEs lost their way, as they pursued profitability without regard to risk and heedlessly bought mortgages without considering quality.

The overabundance of poor quality mortgages led to the housing …

How Federal Tax Law Rewards Housing Segregation, Michelle D. Layser

Indiana Law Journal

INTRODUCTION

I. THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF TAX-BASED HOUSING SUBSIDIES

A.WHY THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF TAX-BASED HOUSING SUBSIDIES MATTERS

B. THE LOCATION OF TAX-SUBSIDIZED HOUSING IN AMERICA

1. THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF MORTGAGE INTEREST DEDUCTION BENEFITS

2. THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF LOW-INCOME HOUSING TAX CREDIT PROJECTS

II. VISUALIZING THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF TAX-BASED HOUSING SUBSIDIES

A. THE BIG PICTURE: MAPPING TAX-BASED HOUSING SUBSIDIES

B. A CLOSER LOOK: DESCRIBING TAX-SUBSIDIZED NEIGHBORHOODS

1. NEIGHBORHOODS WITH HIGH SHARES OF MORTGAGE INTEREST DEDUCTION BENEFITS AND FEW LIHTC PROPERTIES

2. NEIGHBORHOODS WITH HIGH NUMBERS OF LIHTC PROPERTIES AND LITTLE MORTGAGE INTEREST DEDUCTION BENEFIT

3. NEIGHBORHOODS IN …

Smart Growth Through Tiny Homes: Incentivizing Freedom Of Housing, A. Robin Donnelly

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

Tiny Homes are an environmentally friendly housing option popping up across the United States. Tiny Homes have a minimal environmental footprint due to their small size and eco-friendly design. As such, Tiny Homes could address several of the Environmental Protection Agency’s city development goals. The Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has created a Smart Growth program that provides financial assistance to cities seeking to implement greener practices throughout city planning. Tiny Home Eco communities could become a popular Smart Growth development plan. Unfortunately, cities have not welcomed Tiny Homes, and this alternative green housing scheme has remained undeveloped. This Comment is …

The Right To Counsel For Tenants Who Faced Eviction, Andrew Scherer

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Segregation In St. Louis: Dismantling The Divide, For The Sake Of All [In Collaboration With], Thomas Harvey, John Mcannar, Michael-John Voss, Ascend Stl Inc., Community Builders Network Of Metro St. Louis, Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing And Opportunity Council (Ehoc), Team Tif

All Faculty Scholarship

Place matters. Where people live in St. Louis has been shaped by an extensive history of segregation that was driven by policies at multiple levels of government and practices across multiple sectors of society. The effect of segregation has been to systematically exclude African American families from areas opportunity that support economic, educational, and health outcomes.

Non-Enforcement Takings, Timothy M. Mulvaney

Faculty Scholarship

The non-enforcement of existing property laws is not logically separable from the issue of unfair and unjust state deprivations of property rights at which the Constitution's Takings Clause takes aim. This Article suggests, therefore, that takings law should police allocations resulting from non-enforcement decisions on the same "fairness and justice" grounds that it polices allocations resulting from decisions to enact and enforce new regulations. Rejecting the extant majority position that state decisions not to enforce existing property laws are categorically immune from takings liability is not to advocate that persons impacted by such decisions should be automatically or even regularly …