Tag Archives: Housing

‘The Stuff of Slumlords’: Ben Carson Unveils Plan to Triple Rent on Poor Americans Using Housing Assistance

“It is ironic that a man who used taxpayer dollars to buy a $30,000 dining room table for the federal agency he leads wants to raise rent on poor people.”

By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 4-25-2018

HUD Secretary Ben Carson on Wednesday introduced a proposal to impose work requirements on Americans who receive housing subsidies, aas well as raising their rent. (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr/cc)

Blatantly flouting his own agency’s recommendation for how much money Americans should spend on monthly housing costs, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson announced Wednesday a plan to triple the rent for low-income individuals and families who receive housing subsidies and to impose work requirements on many recipients.

Ben Carson likely wants us all to think that this inhumane policy will inspire the poor to raise themselves up by their own bootstraps. But tripling the rent of those who need housing assistance and instituting work requirements is the stuff of slumlords. https://t.co/ZH1kPlMmUL

— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) April 25, 2018

Continue reading →

House Members Are Pushing a Bill That Will Roll Back the Rights of People With Disabilities

Leave a reply

By Susan Mizner, Disability Counsel, ACLU. Published 2-13-2018

The entrance to the post office in a small town was up a flight of 20 steps. When told he needed to make the post office accessible to wheelchair users, the postmaster was befuddled. “I’ve been here for thirty-five years and in all that time I’ve yet to see a single customer come in here in a wheelchair,” he said, according to Joe Shapiro in his 1994 book, “No Pity.”

It would seem the postmaster didn’t see the irony in that response. But it’s because of that lack of awareness from business owners and government workers that Congress in 1990 passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which promoted the integration, acceptance, and everyday rights of people with disabilities. But this week, the House of Representatives could undermine a key tenet of that landmark civil rights law. Continue reading →

All Evidence Shows #GOPTaxScam Is Horrible. Only Question: Can It Be Stopped?

Leave a reply

“No good can come of this plan unless you are wealthy or a corporation.”

By Jon Queally, staff writer for CommonDreams. Published 11-18-2017

Photo: LinkedIn

While informed critics and experts say they are now “running out of adjectives to describe how horrible” the GOP’s House and Senate tax plans are, the evidence continues to mount showing the manner in which the party’s overall approach is a gift to the rich and corporations at the expense of low- and middle-income families, millions of whom who will see their taxes actually go up while key social programs like public education, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will face massive cuts.

Another reminder the #GOPTaxScam is a TERRIBLE bill for the middle class. Incomes at $100,000 or below get nothing or see a tax INCREASE. https://t.co/0TPghlKRTs

— Chad Bolt (@chadderr) November 18, 2017

Continue reading →

So, You Thought Bank of America Would be Punished for Role in 2008 Crisis? Think Again

Leave a reply

By Claire Bernish. Published 5-23-2016 by The Anti-Media

Photo via The Center for Story-based Strategy (CSS).

United States — In a reversal of the smidgen of accountability forced on Bank of America for its role in the 2008 financial crisis, a U.S. appeals court threw out a jury’s verdict — and with it, the $1.27 billion fine BoA would have paid for mortgage fraud.

Though the Department of Justice had alleged Countrywide Financial Corp., which was purchased by Bank of America in 2008, had sold Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac thousands of bad loans through its “Hustle” mortgage program, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York found insufficient evidence to back charges of fraud. Continue reading →

From Shanghai to New York, the rent is too damn high

Leave a reply

Fueled by years of record-low interest rates, a new housing crisis is rearing its head from London to L.A. This time, however, it will not go uncontested.

By Jerome Roos. Published 10-28-2015 at ROAR Magazine

A protest for increased corporate taxes and affordable housing in San Francisco.

Capitalism is a strange beast. Though incredibly resilient in the face of systemic crises and remarkably adaptive to ever-changing conditions, it never truly overcomes its structural contradictions. As the Marxist geographer David Harvey often points out, it merely displaces them in space and time.

The global financial crisis of 2008-’09 has been no exception in this regard. In fact, the very response to that calamity has already laid the foundations for the next big crisis. And just like its immediate predecessor, it looks like this one will be centered, at least in part, on a massive speculative housing bubble. Continue reading →

Occupy World Writes

The Movement Continues – Globally

Tag Archives: Housing

‘The Stuff of Slumlords’: Ben Carson Unveils Plan to Triple Rent on Poor Americans Using Housing Assistance

“It is ironic that a man who used taxpayer dollars to buy a $30,000 dining room table for the federal agency he leads wants to raise rent on poor people.”