Housing Law Commons^™

The Bunk House Rules: Housing Migrant Labour In Ontario, Adrian A. Smith

Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper Series

The paper tackles the recent controversy surrounding an application to convert an abandoned school into housing for migrant agricultural workers in Ontario, Canada. It examines how the written reactions of community residents to a proposed municipal zoning by-law amendment convey and invoke understandings of the legal regulation of temporary labour migration. When viewed through a legal consciousness analytic lens, reconstituted to attend to the material practices and context underpinning residents’ discursive and ideological responses, what I term a ‘materialist legal consciousness studies’, it is evident that the residents’ submissions intervene in the organization and regulation of agricultural production. While framed …

Ending Homelessness: Building Not Only Homes But Relationships Of Respect, Janet Mosher

Commissioned Reports, Studies and Public Policy Documents

No abstract provided.

Holding Deposit Agreements: Pre-Tenancy Obligations And Rights, Samuel Beswick

All Faculty Publications

There is confusion in the rental market over the legal significance of holding deposits, which are routinely paid by prospective tenants prior to signing a lease document. The purpose of this article is to clarify the legal position of holding deposit agreements (HDAs) entered into in the pre-tenancy period. In particular, to emphasise that, in the usual course:

• The agreement to, and payment of, a holding deposit creates a binding contract between the prospective tenant and the landlord. • A HDA is a conditional contract, which grants the applicant both the right and obligation to enter into the proposed …

Who Wins Residential Property Tax Appeals?, Randall K. Johnson

Faculty Works

This article explains who wins residential property tax appeals in Cook County, Illinois. It does so by collecting and combining public sector data, which has been recently released by the Cook County Assessor. The article then uses this data to compute three statistics. Lastly, it contextualizes each statistic in order to determine if some townships, or groups of townships, win more appeals than expected.

A Tale Of Two Cities: The Regulatory Battle To Incorporate Short-Term Residential Rentals Into Modern Law, Dana Palombo

American University Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Can't We Be Your Neighbor? Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman, And The Resistance To Blacks As Neighbors, Jeannine Bell

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 paved the way for the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which was designed to address discrimination in one of our most intimate space — neighborhoods. Fifty-six years after the passage of the Fair Housing Act, Americans remain fiercely resistant to the concept of neighborhood integration. This Article uses an unlikely event, the killing of Trayvon Martin, to discuss one manifestation of that resistance with disturbing implications.

Private Regimes In The Public Sphere: Optimizing The Benefits Of Common Interest Communities, Gerald Korngold

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

American Dreams, American Realities, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

Review of Zoned In The USA, by Sonia Hirt.

Community Lawyering: Introductory Thoughts On Theory And Practice, Michael R. Diamond

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

There are several fundamental questions that one might ask in seeking the meaning of the term "community lawyer." Albeit somewhat theoretical, the most basic questions involve delving into exactly what is meant by the term "community." For what, exactly, is the community-lawyer lawyering? Further, once a client has been identified, questions will arise about how the lawyer should relate to that client and about the role the lawyer ought to play in assisting the client to achieve its goals. There is a long and rich literature concerning the latter question but a fairly sparse body of legal writing on the …

Welcome To The Village: An Analysis Of How St. Louis County Occupancy Permit Schemes Perpetuate Segregation And Violate The Constitution, Zachary Schmook, Lauren Verseman

Faculty Articles

In the wake of the shooting of Michael Brown in August 2014 and the events that followed in Ferguson, national attention turned to the several ways St. Louis County’s balkanized municipal governments create policies and conditions that target poor residents and perpetuate racial segregation in the region. One such set of municipal policies involves occupancy permits: many municipalities in St. Louis County require both tenants and owners of residential properties to obtain new occupancy permits upon each change in the individuals occupying the residence. Even as the State of Missouri takes action to address some of the abuses by limiting …

Welcome To The Jungle, Where The Rent Is Too Damn High: Using Rent Regulation In New York City To Maintain An Affordable Housing Stock, Gabrielle Denaro

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

First, this Note describes and explains the difference between rent control and rent stabilization in New York City. Then, the history of rent control and rent stabilization laws is discussed, followed by an analysis of the arguments of those both for and against the preservation of rent regulation. Further, this Note discusses the issue of gentrification. Finally, this Note proposes an idea for an arbitration forum, and explains the logistics of how it would work and how it could benefit the system overall.

Just, Smart: Civil Rights Protections And Market-Sensitive Vacant Property Strategies, James J. Kelly Jr.

Journal Articles

This essay, prepared for and published by the Center for Community Progress, a national, non-profit intermediary dedicated to developing effective, sustainable solutions to turn vacant, abandoned and problem properties into vibrant places, examines the legal and normative implications of local governments' use of neighborhood real estate market data to strategically focus vacant property remediation tools. I and other writers, such as Frank Alexander, Alan Mallach and Joseph Schilling, have argued for the importance of understanding the economic feasibility of market-based rehabilitation of derelict, vacant houses in making decisions as to how and when to use a variety of code enforcement, …

Precipice Regulations And Perverse Incentives: Comparing Historic Preservation Designation And Endangered Species Listing, J. Peter Byrne

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The insight upon which this article is built is that the common structures of these two legal regimes create incentives toward destroying the resources they seek to protect. The shift from legal freedom to exploit resources to strict limitation on property modification and the lengthy and public process to designate or list specific resources for protection provide the motive and the opportunity to legally frustrate the application of the statutes. This article seeks to understand how these perverse incentives are created and how they can be lessened. The procedural and substantive provisions of both legal regimes have evolved to reduce …

A Road To Home: The Right To Housing In Canada And Around The World, Darcel Bullen

Journal of Law and Social Policy

Collects papers presented at the Right to Housing symposium, “A Road to Home: The Right to Housing in Canada and Around the World” held in Toronto, 24 October 2013. Contributors speak to the various interventions and strategies used to actualize housing as a fundamental human right in South Africa, France, the United States, Scotland, and Canada, ranging from litigation, to community awareness building, to protests, and to lobbying. Also speaks to the challenges of enforcement of the right to housing once that right is recognized at law.

Charter Eviction: Litigating Out Of House And Home, Margot Young

Journal of Law and Social Policy

The case of Tanudjaja v Attorney General (Canada) takes up the cause of housing rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in a novel and complex way. The government actions and inactions cited as constitutional breaches and the broad remedial requests reflect the “pixelated” picture of housing concerns necessary to understanding Canada’s housing security crisis. In dismissing the challenge at a preliminary stage, the Ontario Superior and Appeal Courts risk rendering the Charter irrelevant to the deep social justice concerns that cross our country. More specifically, formulaic judicial invocation of concerns about positive rights and justiciability leave the …

Community Campaigns For The Right To Housing: Lessons From The R2h Coalition Of Ontario, Yutaka Dirks

Journal of Law and Social Policy

This paper describes the history of the Right to Housing (R2H) Coalition of Ontario and the role of the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO) within the Coalition. The R2H Coalition provided support to the applicants in the Right to Housing Charter Challenge. The Coalition also engaged in a variety of educational and community organizing activities in support of the right to housing and the creation of a federally funded affordable housing strategy. This paper, based on the author’s personal experiences within the R2H Coalition, examines how the adoption of community organizing principles could strengthen campaigns for systemic social change, …

Catherine Lennon's Story: Lessons From Front Line Advocacy On The Human Right To Housing, Rob Robinson

Journal of Law and Social Policy

Discusses the United States housing crisis, where four and a half million families were foreclosed on between 2008 and 2013. Families who lacked universal or adequate health insurance, found the physical pain and suffering of a loved one was soon followed by the economic pain and suffering associated with the high costs of health care. The human reality of this suffering is reflected by the story of New York state resident Catherine Lennon. Ensuring the pay out to Bank of America was the law firm of Steven J. Baum, the notorious New York based foreclosure mill, which has since been …

The Right To Housing In France: Still A Long Way To Go From Intention To Implementation, Claire Lévy-Vroelant

Journal of Law and Social Policy

The goal of this essay is to examine the implementation of housing rights in France. Legislation adopted in March 2007 opened the possibility of an enforceable right, which can be asserted before a court. However, it also created new inequalities before the law. Indeed, the conditions required to access that right exclude people who do not have permanent residence or a valid temporary resident permit. The implementation of this right is also limited due to the lack of available housing, especially at Ile-de-France, and to competition between people with priority entitlements. The horrible fire at a furnished Parisian hotel in …

Do Us Proud: Poor Women Claiming Adjudicative Space At Cesr, Emily Paradis

Journal of Law and Social Policy

Claiming Our Rights was a feminist participatory action research project based at Sistering, a Toronto drop-in for women facing homelessness. At weekly meetings over the course of eighteen months, members learned about social and economic rights, gave testimony on their lived experiences, and undertook actions to claim their rights. Among other initiatives, the group—which members named FORWARD—contributed a report on women’s homelessness to the 2006 review of Canada by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This paper draws upon observations of the group’s process and in-depth interviews with participants to assess this human rights education methodology. …

Scotland: Delivering A Right To Housing, Fiona King

Journal of Law and Social Policy

Discusses Scotland’s progressive homelessness legislation and the mechanisms through which this right to housing has been achieved. Also considers the substantial issues stemming from a lack of central government investment and the supply of social homes across Scotland to meet the legal commitment and the challenges for Scotland to continue to deliver on the right to housing.