Housing Law Commons^™

Preventing Shelterization: Alleviating The Struggles Of Homeless Individuals And Families In New York City, Salley Kim

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Yes To Infill, No To Nuisance, Michael Lewyn

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A World Class Solution: How Implementing Class Action Lawsuits In Spain Could Help Remedy The Spanish Housing Crisis, David Flanzer

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The note argues that implementing class action lawsuits in Spain could provide a viable solution to address the country's housing crisis, exacerbated by predatory lending practices and high eviction rates. By adopting a U.S.-style opt-out class action system, Spain could enable affected homeowners to challenge unfair mortgage terms collectively, potentially decreasing evictions and deterring future predatory practices.

Putting Exclusionary Zoning In Its Place: Affordable Housing And Geographical Scale, Christopher Serkin, Leslie Wellington

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Whither Workforce Housing?, Matthew J. Parlow

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The last forty years have marked a dynamic era in affordable housing. During this time, affordable housing shifted from being largely government-owned to privately-owned, though certainly supported by government efforts. This evolution thus marked a distinct switch from a supply-side approach to a demand-side approach to affordable housing. As states and localities adapted to this paradigm shift, some high-priced metropolitan regions discovered that their housing markets were squeezing out middle-income service workers, such as police officers and teachers. In response, many localities—and some states—adopted various laws and policies to spur the creation of workforce housing: that is, moderately-priced housing that …

Changes Spark Interest In Sustainable Urban Places: But How Do We Identify And Support Them?, John R. Nolon

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Saving Mount Laurel?, Roderick M. Hills

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

New Challenges For Urban Areas Facing Flood Risks, Debbie M. Chizewer, A Dan Tarlock

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Rebirth Of The Neighborhood, J. Peter Byrne

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Federal Housing Administration (Fha) And Private Mortgage Insurance (Pmi): A Bibliography, David J. Reiss

Cornell Law Faculty Working Papers

This is an unannotated bibliography of writings through 2015 primarily about the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), but it also includes materials regarding the private mortgage insurance (PMI) industry. While it is comprehensive, it is not exhaustive, with a focus on work published by government agencies, economists, legal and policy scholars, private sector analysts and think tanks. The bibliography also includes other materials about the housing finance market in the early and mid-20th Century. These broader materials provide some context for the operations of the FHA and PMI.

This bibliography will be posted on Wikipedia so that others can make additions …

Location, Location, Mis-Location: How Local Land Use Restrictions Are Dulling Halfway Housing's Criminal Rehabilitation Potentia, Michael J. Mcgowan

Student Scholarship

Part I of this Article begins with a brief historical explanation of halfway houses as a model of criminal rehabilitation. Part II addresses why recidivism rates provide the most appropriate metric gauging halfway houses' success and how they apparently have failed to improve recidivism rates. Part III then delves into the body of scholarship that explains how an individual's likelihood of landing back behind bars is to some extent demonstrably tied to their location, meaning their surrounding cultural, economic, and criminogenic environment. Part IV discusses the sparse data on the sorts of neighborhoods where halfway houses ultimately end up and …

"No Handicapped People Allowed": The Need For Objective Accessibiity Standards Under The Fair Housing Act, Michael J. Jeter

Washington Law Review

The Fair Housing Act (FHA or the Act) sets forth accessibility requirements that housing developers must meet, but the Act does not contain objective performance standards for satisfying those requirements. This omission creates substantial barriers in housing opportunities for persons with disabilities. For example, the FHA mandates that doors must be wide enough to allow passage of wheelchair users, but it does not provide measurements for door width. The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has attempted to use ten model building codes or “safe harbors” from its regulations as minimal objective standards for accessibility. HUD and …

No Better Instrument: The Necessity Of Notice And An Opportunity To Be Heard And The Due Process Deficiencies Of Nuisance Abatement, Elise Bernlohr

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Second Chances For The Second City's Vacant Properties: An Analysis Of Chicago's Policy Approaches To Vacancy, Abandonment, & Blight, Elizabeth Butler

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Addressing the externalities of vacancy and blight is a major challenge for the Chicago metropolitan area. While neighborhoods on the South and West sides of Chicago struggle with blight, neglect, and abandonment, downtown Chicago and the northern neighborhoods and suburbs experience stronger market conditions. This crisis has amplified entrenched socioeconomic divisions and ultimately burdens the entire region by perpetuating a cycle of poverty, violence, and physical and social disorder that tarnish Chicago’s image.

This Note outlines Chicago’s vacant property challenge by discussing the history of urban decline in Chicago. It examines factors that led to a high level of vacant …

Southern Highlands V. San Florentine, 132 Nev. Adv. Op. 3 (Jan. 14, 2016), Kristen Matteoni

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Under the plain language of NRS 116.3116(4), “equal priority” is given to multiple HOA liens on the same property when those liens secure unpaid HOA charges and dues. When one lienholder of equal priority forecloses, all other liens are terminated. Nonetheless, all equal priority lienholders share in the foreclosure profit by either being paid in full when able to do so or, if sale profit is inadequate, through a pro-rata share of the proceeds. Thus, because the Foothills and Southern Highlands have equal priority liens, Foothills’ foreclosure terminated Southern Highlands lien, however Southern Highlands is entitled its allotment of the …

Eviction Court And A Judicial Duty Of Inquiry, Harold Krent, Peter Cheung, Kayla Higgins, Matthew Mcelwee

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Maryland's Medical Marijuana Law: Transactional And Ethical Perspectives For Real Estate Practitioners, Nicole M. Lacoste Folks, Lawrence F. Haislip, Matthew L. Kimball

University of Baltimore Journal of Land and Development

The congruence between Federal and state laws relating to marijuana, 2 which has existed for generations, is unraveling. In recent years a number of states have reduced or eliminated criminal penalties for the possession or use of small amounts of marijuana;3 twentythree states have established a state law exception for medical marijuana; 4 and Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon now authorize the retail and personal growth, sale and possession of marijuana as a matter of state law.5 Maryland has lately joined the list of states purporting to create exceptions or safe harbors for those wishing to engage in the manufacture, …

Housing, Legal Clinic Program

Course Descriptions and Information

Students in this clinic help protect the rights of low-income tenants who are faced with an immediate threat of losing their homes due to an eviction or foreclosure. In addition, students assist housing applicants who are requesting a return of their security deposit, seeking to avoid utility shut-offs and lock-outs, termination of public and subsidized housing , loan modifications and loss mitigation and landlord tenant disputes.

Housing Clinic, Legal Clinic Program

Clinical Programs Brochures

The Housing Clinic offers a comprehensive set of legal services focused on assisting and empowering low income individuals in housing related matters. Its goal is to instill in students a sense of compassion and responsibility in representing the interests of the under represented. It also provides students with practical training in core legal skills and an understanding of the rules of professional responsibility. Students also study relevant government Programs and policies and assess their success or failure in meeting the needs of people who are homeless or at risk of becoming so.

Homelessness And Legal Advocacy Clinic, Legal Clinic Program

Clinical Programs Brochures

The goals of the Homelessness and Legal Advocacy Clinic are to educate students in homelessness related issues, such as housing, public benefits, family law, and consumer law. In addition to interviewing clients at the Clinic's office, Clinic students interview homeless individuals at the Coalition for the Homeless, the Women's Residential Counseling Center, and potential clients who contact the Clinic.

Community Economic Development Clinic, Legal Clinic Program

Clinical Programs Brochures

The Community Economic Development Clinic is an in-house small business transactional clinic designed to provide students with a broad study of the growing area of community economic development law. Services include legal business, policy and regulatory considerations that underlie efforts to enhance the economic viability of low-income communities through the development of entrepreneurship and affordable housing.

Assistance may be provided to groups that promote community and economic development in the following areas: community preservation, development and empowerment; drug prevention; homelessness; literacy; micro-enterprise development; social welfare; youth and teen development entrepreneurship; and creating and maintaining low-income and affordable housing.

Counting Casualties In Communities Hit Hardest By The Foreclosure Crisis, Matthew Rossman

Faculty Publications

Recent statistics suggest that the U.S. housing market has largely recovered from the Foreclosure Crisis. A closer look reveals that the country is composed not of one market, but of thousands of smaller, local housing markets that have experienced dramatically uneven levels of recovery. Repeated waves of home mortgage foreclosures inundated certain communities (the “Hardest Hit Communities”), causing their housing markets to break rather than bend and resulting in what amounts to a permanent transition to a lower value plateau. Homeowners in these predominantly low and middle income and/or minority communities who endured the Foreclosure Crisis lost significant equity in …

How Can The Government Sustain People's Privacy Interests As The Real Estate Industry Adopts And Applies A Fully Electronic System? 32 J. Marshall J. Info. Tech. & Privacy L. 321 (2016), Drago Putica

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Varying The Variance: How New York City Can Solve Its Housing Crisis And Optimize Land Use To Serve The Public Interest, Nathan T. Boone

Brooklyn Law Review

As Millennials repopulate American cities and seek jobs in creative industries, housing affordability has risen to the forefront of urban policy battles. Major conflicts exist between homeowners, renters, municipal governments, and growing industries regarding the proper way to grapple with an influx of new capital, both financial and human. New York City is a prime example of this problem. Housing cost increases have exceeded income increases, leaving a large percentage of New Yorkers “rent burdened.” This note seeks to examine a likely cause of the present problem: zoning and variance systems that limit the ability of private land owners to …

Building Community, Still Thirsty For Justice: Supporting Community Development Efforts In Baltimore, Renee Hatcher, Jaime Alison Lee

All Faculty Scholarship

Baltimore is a city of many challenges, but it possesses true communitybased strength. The city’s residents and community organizations are its greatest assets. This article highlights some of the community’s work and how the Community Development Clinic at the University of Baltimore School of Law (CDC) supports this work through its experiential learning curriculum.

The challenges facing Baltimore’s communities (systemic disinvestment, structural racism, vacant buildings, unemployment, and the criminalization of poverty, to name a few) existed long before the national media coverage and uprising surrounding the death of Freddie Gray, an unarmed Black man who suffered a fatal spinal injury …

Dealing With Illegal Housing: What Can New York City Learn From Shenzhen?, Shitong Qiao

Faculty Scholarship

In New York City, owners violated zoning regulations and opened up their basements, garages, and other floors to rent to people (particularly low-income immigrants) priced out of the formal market. The more than 100,000 illegal dwelling units in New York City (NYC) were referred to as “granny units,” “illegal twos or threes,” or “accessory units.” Due to the safety and habitability considerations of “alter[ing] or modif[ying] of an existing building to create an additional housing unit without first obtaining approval from the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB),” the City government devoted a lot of resources to detecting and …

The Nature Of Equality: Promoting Environmental Justice In Kentucky Via The Fair Housing Act, Nicole Zub

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

Cash Is King: How Market-Based Strategies Have Corrupted Classrooms And Criminal Courts In Post-Katrina New Orleans, 39 Seattle U. L. Rev. 1199 (2016), Olympia Duhart, Hugh Mundy

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

On many accounts, it is a tale of two cities. The headlines and marketing machines tout to the world that “The Big Easy is Back.” But beyond the celebrations and parades, the story for poor Katrina survivors is very different. While many residents and businesses are enjoying a resurgence a decade after Katrina stormed through, others in post-Katrina New Orleans have a different experience. More than ten years after Hurricane Katrina, the city still struggles with systemic failures. These problem areas include housing, health care, mental health treatment, employment, education, and the criminal justice system. All of these challenges are …

Proving Disparate Impact In Fair Housing Cases After Inclusive Communities, Robert G. Schwemm, Calvin Bradford

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Disparate-impact claims under the federal Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) are now a well-established part of housing discrimination law, having been recognized for decades by the lower courts and recently endorsed by the Supreme Court in Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. The Court in Inclusive Communities saw the impact theory as a way of bolstering the FHA’s “role in moving the Nation toward a more integrated society,” but it also set forth certain “cautionary standards” to guard against “abusive” impact claims. Under these standards, which are similar to those adopted in a 2013 HUD …

Providing Copyright Protection To Real Estate Listings: Protecting Brokers, Sellers, And Consumers, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 318 (2016), Kathryn Robinson

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

In a technology-driven age, the Internet has changed how prospective homebuyers search for their new home. For many, a search on Google is the first step before hiring a broker or getting prequalified for a mortgage. Although the Internet is a powerful tool widely utilized by many, there has been a growing concern for managing and protecting the integrity of real estate listings. Data scraping of listing data has become problematic for the real estate industry; as a result, this has caused irreparable harm to everyone. This comment highlights the benefits of awarding copyright protection to all contents of the …