Envy Apartment

Boston, MA  LIHC Investment Group, one of the nation’s largest owners of affordable housing, has donated its ownership stake in the Close Building to Just-A- Start Corporation , a community development corporation focused on the preservation and expansion of affordable housing opportunities in Cambridge and nearby communities. “Just-A-Start has been an invaluable partner in the Close Building, and under their stewardship the property will be preserved and maintained as affordable housing for tenants and the community for generations to come,” said Andrew Gendron, principal, LIHC Investment Group. “Quality, affordable housing is the foundation of healthy neighborhoods and this donation will allow Just-A-Start to continue and expand its mission in a very tight housing market .” “This generous donation assures the preservation of this property as affordable housing,” said Deborah Ruhe, executive director of Just-A-Start. “We will leverage this donation to support renovations and upgra...

The average market rent for a one- bedroom apartment in San Mateo County is $2,053 per month, according to new rental data released by the San Mateo County Department of Housing. This reflects an 8.2 percent increase from last year. This is devastating news for anyone looking for affordable rental housing and comes on the heels of other unsettling trend data for the county, housing officials said. United Way's 211 referral line for  San Mateo   County  reports taking significantly more calls for housing related services than for any other service. Additionally, according to the county's new Health and Human Services Agency report on homelessness, the county's homeless rate has risen 12 percent since 2011. "People can't afford to live here, and not just people who are poor," said Kate Comfort Harr , Executive Director of HIP Housing, a  San Mateo   County  nonprofit specializing in affordable housing programs including Home Sharing . "Anyone maki...

Palo Alto Jane Huang, 29 Huang moved to Palo Alto with her parents at the age of four. She attended local high schools and Stanford University. Yet despite her hard work, the Palo Alto housing market is too challenging for her to foresee a future in her hometown. “I went to Stanford, I work as a software developer, I make a six-figure income, and I still have to live with three roommates,” Huang said. “What more can I do?” Huang isn’t worried about not being able to pay her rent, but she is worried about doing anything that might upset her landlord. “Landlords have a lot more power here than they used to,” she said. “They know how impossible it would be for their renters to find anything else locally.” While her concerns for herself are real and serious — “With the current housing market , I’m afraid I’ll have to live with roommates for the rest of my life” — she’s equally concerned about what the housing market means for the many Palo Altans who weren’t fortunate enough t...

At the ribbon cutting this month for the Wesley Village affordable housing complex in Garden Grove, Laura Archuleta couldn ’t resist referencing Joni Mitchell ’s 1970 environmental protest “Big Yellow Taxi.” Built on underused land that’s part of the Garden Grove United Methodist Church campus on Main Street, Wesley Village offered Archuleta , president of the nonprofit community organization Jamboree Housing Corp ., a chance to riff on one of Mitchell’s most famous lyrics. Where Mitchell sang “They paved paradise/And put up a parking lot,” Archuleta told about 300 people packed into the steamy church sanctuary on a hot afternoon that “Today we are going to learn how a group of dedicated organizations and individuals re-purposed a parking lot and put up a paradise.” Then she and others who spoke, including a single mom with six children who now reside at Wesley Village , told how the project became reality through a unique collaboration that involved the church, Jamboree and other...

It is one of the necessities in life, finding shelter. But who actually enjoys taking the time to search all over town for a perfect place that mandatorily fits into a budget? Anchorage isn't exactly the most expensive city around, but it's certainly not the cheapest. In a search for almost anything these days, most will likely turn to everybody's favorite modern resource , the Internet. Unfortunately, the online listing for Anchorage apartments is slim, and the information available for those apartments is even more feeble. The best and probably most accurate aid in an apartment search is an Apartment Finder catalogue , the small, detailed pamphlets found all over town in stores like the local supermarket and other retailers. The Apartment Finder names a variety of complexes citywide, lists apartments within most everyone's budget, and even provides maps for easy directions. And it can be acquired for every consumer's favorite cost: p...

The Oasis Terraces housing complex in Singapore and the original cast of “Rent” How to tell if one has made it in America? See if they own a home. For decades, homeownership has been one of the cornerstones of the American dream, and the U.S. housing market was the envy of the world. But that’s changed. The federal mortgage subsidy complex , which turned (white) America into a nation of homeowners in the postwar decades and helped build the world’s largest middle class , is no longer doing what it’s supposed to. Faced with stagnating wages and ballooning property prices , fewer Americans can afford to buy their own homes. The mortgage interest deduction and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are turning into regressive subsidies, channeling taxpayer money to rich homeowners and driving up housing costs while a growing group of middle-income renters must fend for themselves. Rent-stabilization laws have become weaker over time. And New York is dealing with a crumbling public housing infrast...

Last year, the Miami- Dade County Commission shot down a plan that would have forced local developers to include some affordable apartments in every new project. Commissioner Javier Souto claimed the idea was "social engineering," one of the most profoundly stupid things said in South Florida politics this decade. According to the study, almost two-thirds of Miami's poor are stuck spending more than half of their income on rent or living in roach-infested hellholes. "These households are defined as very low-income renters who do not receive government housing assistance and who paid more than one-half of their income for rent, lived in severely inadequate conditions , or both," HUD's researchers write. "High rents in proportion to renter incomes remain dominant among households with worst-case needs, leaving these renters with substantial, unmet need for affordable housing." Larger cities, including New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, techn...

Reliable Sports owner Ken Vos sold to a different buyer. By Sydney.Smith@hollandsentinel.com (616) 546-4219 Reliable Sports isn ’t going anywhere. After Holland City Council approved an affordable housing development earlier this year, developer General Capital could not secure funding through the Michigan State Housing Development Authority , and Reliable Sports owner Ken Vos sold to another buyer who wants to keep the business open. Vos confirmed that the building is under contract to be sold in a sale that will be finalized at the end of September. The building located at 254 S. River Ave. was sold in July. Vos declined to share who the new owner will be, but said they "are a prominent figure in downtown Holland ." He still plans to retire, and a retirement sale is underway at the store. Since the business will remain open, that means the planned 54- unit affordable housing building Centennial Apartments will not happen — unless the new buyer decides to work with...

September 27, 2005 | By Joe Newman, Sentinel Staff Writer When Lesley Brown got her first job out of college, she figured it was time to move out of the cramped house she shared with three other people. But finding something Brown, 22, could afford near the Lockheed Martin facility on Sand Lake Road was another matter. At $950 a month, even a small one-bedroom apartment was out of reach for the University of Central Florida graduate . At that price, she would have been spending much more than a third of her salary on rent. "I was definitely surprised by the prices," Brown said. "The market soared out of my reach." Finding an affordable rental in Central Florida is becoming a Herculean challenge. Two of every five renters in Orange, Seminole, Polk and Volusia counties spent 35 percent or more of their monthly income on housing in 2004, according to a recent U.S. census report. The bureau did not track Osceola County . More than half of all renters in Orange, Semi...