After several years of work around housing rights an advocacy group for affordable and safe housing in Shelbyville, Tennessee, is celebrating a victory.

Bedford County Listening Project members, renters with the Shelbyville Tenants Organizing for Protection campaign, and the Shelbyville City Council have voted to establish a safe and affordable housing committee to study and make recommendations.

Sophia Tillett, a leader of the Bedford County Listening Project, said the Shelbyville Tenants Organizing for Protections campaign began when they spoke to neighbors and discovered many of them were experiencing substandard housing and continuing rent increases, despite the living conditions, which she noted were unlivable and unsafe.

"There were a lot of bug issues, there's a lot of mold issues," Tillett outlined. "The buildings are dilapidated and falling apart. There are holes in the floors and ceilings and leaks."

Tillett pointed out such were the living conditions at Canterbrook Village, formerly known as Bedford Manor, prior to a resident moving out. She noted the apartments were renovated, and the residents moved back in. She added there are still problems with the apartments, and the committee is working on setting up its first meeting with the Shelbyville City Council to discuss the issues.

Tristan Call, an organizer for the Bedford County Listening Project, said the committee is important because in the past, the Shelbyville City Council has been unresponsive to their recommendations. He emphasized they have tried to get the City Council to make certain changes to the codes-compliance process, and said currently, residents who make codes complaints are subject to being evicted.

"And we see it happen all the time. There are some things that we have managed to change, like now they say they'll at least keep the codes complaint open, even if someone gets evicted," Call stressed. "The landlord can't just get rid of it by evicting somebody entirely."

Call added they want the Shelbyville City Council to add rental protections for residents, so if they make a code complaint, landlords cannot initiate eviction proceedings on that basis.

Some Illinois real estate corporations are getting large paydays by charging homeowners assessments for "common expenses," and the owners allege they are taking advantage of the Illinois Condominium Property Act.

Owners in a building along Chicago's Lakefront say they are being pushed out of their homes and cannot afford the new building owner's fees, which they say are unreasonable.

Teyona James Harris, a member of Condo Owners of Woodland Park and 13-year homeowner demanded assistance at City Hall to fight what she calls "unjust displacement."

"So, they have things like landscaping, where they spent like 100-and-something-thousand dollars on," Harris pointed out. "In the past two budgets where we've had special assessments, there were the same items in both budgets that never got taken care of. They're trying to push us out because they want our properties."

The condo owners have joined forces with the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization and are proposing changes to the state's Condominium Property Act to force greater transparency and accountability by condo associations, provide more protections and create a more fair and equitable system for condo owners in Illinois.

The Condominium Property Act is meant to protect current owners from "unreasonable" special assessments, or those which are not necessarily in the best interests of the unit owners. When corporate real estate interests purchase a building and manage to gain a majority stake in the homeowners' association, such expenses can increase and may even be illegal.

Ebony Lucas, an attorney at The Closing Firm, said it is difficult and expensive for longtime owners to use the protections provided by the Act in court.

"At one time there was a discussion about a condo ombudsman, so people don't have to spend so much money in litigation, and there's no arbitration," Lucas explained. "I think it would be helpful to owners to not have to go through very costly lawsuits for issues that are clearly violations of the Act."

Changes to the Illinois Condominium Property Act are not out of question. Gov. JB Pritzker signed House Bill 5246 last month, which shortens the length of time condo board members have to comply with owners' written requests to see records. The Condo Owners of Woodland Park see it as motivation to pursue more changes.


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People cannot be denied a place to live based on their race or disability in Michigan, but some are being turned down based on where they get the money to pay their rent.

Veterans using assistance, retirees on Social Security, parents who get child support or families who use housing vouchers are not protected by anti-discrimination laws. All can be denied rental opportunities even though they have consistent income.

Nora Ryan, supervising attorney for Michigan Legal Help, said such restrictions defeat the purpose of housing vouchers, which are supposed to allow people greater access to homes and neighborhoods, but the vouchers are often difficult to use.

"You have a relatively short period of time to be able to place that voucher," Ryan explained. "A lot of landlords do not accept those vouchers. You can actually run out of time to use that voucher, and you can lose it. That ticket to stable, affordable housing is cut off."

In the Michigan Legislature, Senate Bill 205, Senate Bill 206 and Senate Bill 207 would prohibit source-of-income discrimination, and allow renters who are turned down the right to seek "remedies for the discrimination" if they can prove they suffered a loss as a result. The idea was first introduced in the 2021 session, and is still in committee this year.

Jim Schaafsma, housing attorney for the Michigan Poverty Law Program, said he is keeping an eye on the U.S. debt ceiling battle in Congress as well. He worries if money for federal housing programs does not increase based on the rate of inflation, vouchers and other types of assistance could be jeopardized.

He noted Michigan's state legislation will not be enough to help the overall housing situation.

"What we need is a significant increase in the supply of affordable housing in Michigan," Schaafsma asserted. "But even more specific to the voucher program, what we need are what are known as higher payment standards because the higher the value of a voucher, the better the opportunities are for families to rent units in the place of their choice."

Adding urgency to the problem, rent for a typical home in the Detroit metro area has increased by nearly 36% in the past five years, according to Zillow's March 2023 Rental Market Report.

Rent for New Mexicans has increased 70% since 2017, while wages have only grown by 15%, which is one factor pushing more people into homelessness.

The state's Legislative Finance Committee reviewed a report this week, which showed nearly half of renters are cost-burdened and pay more than a third of their income on housing.

Kathleen Gygi, program evaluator for the Legislative Finance Committee, said new data showed the state's emergency shelter capacity has more than doubled in the past seven years, while the supply of affordable rental units has declined by 50% since 2020.

"Homelessness increased by about 48% last year over the year before," Gygi reported. "In addition, rising housing prices and lack of supply of housing units has increased the number of low-income New Mexicans who cannot afford their rent."

There are almost 4,000 homeless people in New Mexico after nearly a decade of declines. Gygi acknowledged while emergency shelter capacity has increased, especially in Albuquerque -- the state's largest city -- moving people into permanent housing has proved to be more difficult. She noted cost-burdened low-income residents face a high risk of losing shelter.

According to the report, January's "Point-in-Time" count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness showed there were plenty of beds available at many shelters across the state, but only about 50% were utilized.

Amy Whitfield, housing and homelessness adviser to the governor's office, said more work needs to be done to find solutions.

"We don't know the numbers that tell us exactly what to build, where to build it and how to build it," Whitfield pointed out. "We've got a lot of different ideas that say we need more permanent supportive housing, we need more multifamily housing. We don't really know for sure how much of that we need and which communities we need it in."

Last year the New Mexico Coalition To End Homelessness estimated about a quarter of those experiencing homelessness were coming from outside of state.