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Eviction prevention efforts in Baltimore lag

Doug Donovan Jean Marbella

May 06, 2017 |

The Baltimore Sun |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Baltimore, Maryland

Resources to prevent evictions in Baltimore continue to decline, even while other cities are allotting more resources to keeping people in their homes. This article explores the many problems facing Baltimore tenants trying to avoid eviction and juxtaposes those examples with those of other cities such as New York, which is actually expanding funding for attorneys to represent tenants because avoiding evictions saves money. Many organizations in Baltimore say people often need help just once to avert a crisis, but the funds available to help continue to dwindle.

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Where Some of the Most Housing-Challenged Philadelphians Find Help

Jean Friedman-Rudovsky

May 01, 2017 |

Next City |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Housing is one of the major hurdles former prisoners have to tackle when they get out of prison. Two judges know this, that’s why they created a re-entry program that offers prisoners numerous services. The results? “Over the past 10 years, only 13 percent of graduates and 21 percent of all participants were arrested or had their parole revoked — compared to a 41 percent revocation rate for other returning citizens in the Philadelphia area.”

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Leveling the playing field in rent court

The Baltimore Sun Editorial Board

April 30, 2017 |

The Baltimore Sun |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Baltimore, Maryland

This is an opinion piece by the paper's staff based on a large series of investigative stories about evictions and substandard housing in Baltimore. It critiques a system that was designed to protect tenants, where they can get a judge to set up an escrow account to collect rent while landlords make repairs, because it usually favors landlords over tenants. The column outlines specific fixes that would address this imbalance, including more code inspections, a more transparent process and laws that hold landlords accountable for substandard properties.

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In Myanmar's slums, women pool savings to get relief from crushing loans

Connor MacDonald

March 30, 2017 |

Citiscope |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Myanmar, Yangon, Yangon Region

Years of misrule and a subsequent dearth of hard currency, along with crippling bank-fostered debt cycles and exorbitant home mortgage interest rates, have created immense suffering for Myanmar's poor. But with the guidance of a local NGO, Women for the World, a pilot project helped women in some of Yangon's poorest neighborhoods capitalize on their cultural "head-of-household" status. It helped them form and manage community savings cooperatives, secure land, build homes, buy food, and even generate profit through loans to families' business enterprises.

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Years with no nation, 90 days to become a Minnesotan

Mila Koumpilova

December 31, 2016 |

Minnesota Star Tribune |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Thousands of refugees are navigating hurdles of integration in the United States. Organizations like the Minnesota Council of Churches provide comprehensive support in a number of areas - from housing to job applications to health insurance paperwork - but all with the end goal of helping the relocated families towards independence and sustainability in their new life.

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Chicago Renters Back ‘ROOTS' as Solution to Affordable Housing

Chloe Riley

September 21, 2016 |

Equal Voice News |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

Communities United a grassroots organizations in Chicago is solving the city's housing crisis with a program called ROOTS (Renters Organizing Ourselves to Stay). The organization is bringing together financiers, development organizations and partners to make housing more affordable. ROOTS managed to significantly improve renters' rights law by making amendments to the city’s affordable housing ordinance.

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A Nonprofit Lender Revives the Hopes of Subprime Borrowers

Binyamin Appelbaum

February 25, 2014 |

The New York Times |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington, District of Columbia

Many subprime borrowers in the United States are financially unable to buy a home themselves. An unconventional lender is trying to make it easier for low-income people to buy houses despite the tighter requirements that other lenders adopted after the mortgage bust.

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New Mortgage Program Helps Cambodia's Poor Find Better Homes

Daniel Zwerdling

April 04, 2013 |

NPR |

Radio |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: Cambodia, Phnom Penh, Phnom Penh

An innovative program by an unusual bank allows low-income people in Cambodia to take out a 15-year fixed mortgage with little or no documentation - contradicting traditional loan assumptions and creating means for some of the country's poorest people to completely change their lives. The bank and its investors are now making a profit, and more than 700 mortgages and building loans have been provided.

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