Archinect - News

States are being pressured to act as the CDC-backed eviction moratorium ends

2021-08-03T16:46:00-04:00

The eviction system, which saw a dramatic drop in cases before a federal moratorium expired over the weekend, rumbled back into action Monday, with activists girding for the first of what could be millions of tenants to be tossed onto the streets as the delta variant of the coronavirus surges.

The White House is now pushing for states and cities to use some of the billions in coronavirus funds still being held up. Representative Cori Bush of Missouri has been sleeping on the Capitol steps since Friday to raise awareness. Renters in states like New Jersey and Massachusetts have more time and resources compared to southern states, which already have fewer protections. Nationwide, more than 3.6 million people are facing eviction according to a recent census.

Some landlords are having difficulties finding a solution. Officials in Chicago are leaning on a little-used legal aid service to help stem the tide from the “tsunami of evictions” expected after September 1st. 500,000 New Yorkers are facing eviction, too.

The Wall Street Journal has more on the looming crisis here.

Gov. Newsom orders two-month delay on evictions in California

2020-03-30T11:23:00-04:00

With April 1 fast approaching, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the L.A. City Council on Friday expanded efforts to prevent residential evictions during the coronavirus pandemic.... Through an executive order, Newsom announced a two-month delay on residential evictions for those who can’t pay their rent as a result of the virus — the first statewide action he has taken on evictions during the outbreak.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the City Council voted to prevent landlords from evicting tenants affected by the coronavirus. The order covers those who have lost their jobs because of the coronavirus and those who need to take care of their children due to school closures. However, renters will have to pay back the rent they miss in the subsequent months after the order expires, the Los Angeles Times reports.

"Humanitarian emergency": Michael Greenberg looks inside New York City’s housing crisis

2017-08-01T15:47:00-04:00

New York City is in the throes of a humanitarian emergency, a term defined by the Humanitarian Coalition of large international aid organizations as “an event or series of events that represents a critical threat to the health, safety, security or wellbeing of a community or other large group of people.” New York’s is [...] a “complex emergency”: man-made and shaped by a combination of forces that have led to a large-scale “displacement of populations” from their homes.

"What makes the crisis especially startling," author Michael Greenberg continues in his latest piece for The New York Review of Books, "is that New York has the most progressive housing laws in the country and a mayor who has made tenants’ rights and affordable housing a central focus of his administration."

A tragic tale of live-and-let-die development on Shanghai's Street of Eternal Happiness

2016-08-03T17:00:00-04:00

“One day at around eight in the morning, I was returning from the market when six of the developer’s thugs tackled me outside my home and pushed me into a car,” remembers Xi. Several others, she says, climbed a ladder to her balcony. Xi says she screamed for her husband, but it was too late. There was a scuffle inside, and then black smoke poured out of their balcony window before the house went up in flames. Xi’s husband burned to death, and the developer’s men escaped.

Los Angeles sues property owner who allegedly evicted tenants for Airbnb flip

2016-06-21T17:31:00-04:00

City attorney Mike Feuer has filed criminal charges against Carol Jean Alsman, a local property owner, for allegedly forcing out tenants in rent-controlled units and then listing the units for rent on Airbnb. [...] [Feuer’s] office has lodged civil complaints against three other Los Angeles property owners for allegedly using their buildings as illegal hotels [...] “In a city with a profound shortage of affordable housing, unlawfully converting rental units to operate hotels has got to stop”

Related on Archinect:

Historic community facing eviction in Bangkok

2016-04-01T14:15:00-04:00

The fort community houses 59 families, and is well-known for its wooden houses in the early Rattanakosin-style. Faced with strong resistance from the community, and academics and activists, City Hall the plan but dusted it off early last month amid a public outcry.

The Pom Mahakan community on the edge of Rattanakosin Island in Bangkok has been there for more than 150 years. Many of the old teak houses remain behind the last piece of the original wall of the city. The people of this community have faced many eviction threats in the past 20 years as the Bangkok Metro Administration attempts to move them out in order to implement the Rattanakosin Master Plan, part of which calls for this small strip of land between the klong and the old city wall to be turned into a tourist park. NGOs and academics have, over the years called for the protection of this piece of vernacular architectural history and for the community with the intimate knowledge of that history and culture (see, for example, the 2007 UN Global Report on Human Settlements - Strategies for Survival). A short video of the Pom Mahakan community was done in 2004 when they were facing yet another threat of eviction. That eviction notice was postponed with the help of KMUTT architect...

How Chinese families are handling the country's ongoing mass evictions

2016-01-27T18:16:00-05:00

'My family has lived here for generations. We don’t want the money, we don’t want our house destroyed, we just want to live here,' Mrs. Zhang declared. The physical re-facing of China is cutting some very deep social scars. Abuse of power, corruption, developers in cahoots with government officials, and the misappropriation of funds are rife throughout the eviction and relocation process, littering the country with the seeds of discontent.

Wade Shepard digs into China's ongoing mass evictions and the country's laws that have long enabled such property seizures. While some families were lucky enough to receive compensation to give up their homes, the evictions have been the harshest for those who have lived in the same towns for centuries.

Airbnb rentals cut deep into San Francisco housing stock, report says

2015-05-26T17:05:00-04:00

Between 925 and 1,960 units citywide have been removed from the housing market by hosts renting out entire units on Airbnb for more than 58 days, the [San Francisco Budget & Legislative Analyst's] report estimates. [...] The report draws a comparison between the number of evictions in neighborhoods with the most hosts, though notes there is no way to draw a direct connection. In the Mission, for example, there were 315 hosts last year and 323 evictions.

Activists “Evict” Businesses in Gentrifying L.A. Neighborhood

2014-12-10T13:22:00-05:00

On November 8th, a group called the North East L.A. Alliance (NELA Alliance) held a public art performance titled “Procesion de Testimonios: Evicting Displacement,” which sought to bring attention to changes in Highland Park. The procession began along the most visibly gentrifying corridor, York Boulevard, and the group served mock eviction notices to businesses the group didn’t feel were “culturally inviting, affordable and displaced long-time businesses,” according to organizer Melissa Uribe.

Families Removed From 'Tower of David' Skyscraper Slum

2014-07-25T12:43:00-04:00

Andreína Contreras, a 26-year-old mother of two, lived until this week in the “Tower of David,” in Caracas, Venezuela, which has been described as the world’s tallest slum, because it is situated in an abandoned skyscraper. She is among an estimated 1,150 families living in the tower who are to be removed and relocated permanently this week, seven years after the officially named Torre Confinanzas was first occupied as a result of Venezuela’s financial crisis...

Venezuelan Government Evicts Residents From World's Tallest Slum

2014-07-22T13:54:00-04:00

Venezuelan soldiers and officials began moving hundreds of families on Tuesday out of a half-built 45-story skyscraper that dominates the Caracas skyline and is thought to be the world's tallest slum. Residents from the "Tower of David” were going to new homes in the town of Cua, south of Caracas [...]. President Nicolas Maduro's government has not yet said what it will do with the tower, but one local newspaper reported Chinese banks were buying it to restore to its original purpose.

Previously:

Airbnb host forced to evict squatter in Palm Springs rental

2014-07-22T13:49:00-04:00

A woman rented her 600-square-foot Palm Springs, California, condo to someone for a little over a month, and now she says the guy won't leave and is threatening to sue her. She's had to hire a lawyer and go through the entire eviction process, which could take 3-6 months, the same as if he were a long-term tenant. It's "been a nightmare," the host, Cory Tschogl, told Business Insider.

An urbanist's guide to Istanbul: ‘We live in a giant construction site’

2014-07-21T13:08:00-04:00

Istanbul is the city of transformation and contradiction. As an urbanist, I am trying to keep record and make sense of this transformation and am especially interested in its winners and losers. At the moment we live in a giant construction site, where skyscrapers, mega projects and urban renewal projects are taking place all around. There is a gold rush to real-estate development.

Azerbaijan counts human cost of architecture

2014-07-14T13:10:00-04:00

Baku is gaining international recognition as a centre of cutting-edge architectural design thanks in part to a major award given recently to London-based architect Zaha Hadid for her Heydar Aliyev Centre. The Azerbaijani capital’s new look has plenty of local fans, but also some detractors. [...] The latest wave of protests occurred in February and March, prompted by a government announcement that 40,000 downtown residents would be evicted to make way for a “green zone” [...].

SF gentrification doesn't have to be bad

2014-01-24T13:56:00-05:00

San Francisco is practically the reductio ad absurdum of gentrification: It’s already land limited on three sides by water, and the massive rise of the tech industry over the last few decades has dramatically increased both the population of the area and its wealth. [...] But the blame shouldn’t go to the tech companies or their employees moving to San Francisco, however despicable some might be. Blame San Francisco for being pleasant, and its policymakers for being foolish