Posts Tagged ‘housing crisis’
No TOPA bill for Richmond, Council holds
Richmond’s City Council on Tuesday halted the drafting of a rule that would have required landlords to offer local tenants the first opportunity to buy their homes before they are put on the market or demolished.
Read MorePanel discusses resolving homelessness in the East Bay
Over the years, Nella Gonçalves has become very used to hearing a certain question: “Ew, you work with the homeless? Don’t they stink?” Gonçalves is the deputy director of Beyond Emancipation, an organization that helps foster youth transition into lives as independent adults. Gonçalves meets a lot of very young people in very difficult positions;…
Read MoreWith over 800 people on the streets every night, Richmond’s homeless task force brainstorms ways to tackle a persistent problem
The Richmond Police Department reports up to 800 live on the streets of Richmond every night, but there is currently no dedicated fund for the homeless in the city. Local advocate Kathy Robinson is the head of the city’s new homeless task force, and she’s determined not to let it go on like this.
Read MoreRichmond has Contra Costa’s highest number of sheriff-enforced evictions, document shows
A 2016 eviction schedule obtained from the Contra Costa County Sheriff Department’s Civil Unit revealed that Richmond has had more sheriff-enforced evictions than any other city in Contra Costa County this year.
Read MoreA new Great Migration: the disappearance of the black middle class
After the great recession of 2008, inequality widened along racial lines as people lost their homes, often their only major asset. Earlier this month the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington, D.C. think tank, reported in “Billionaire Bonanza: The Forbes 400 and the Rest of US,” that the average white family today has net assets of $141,900, compared with the $11,000 for African American families. This hollowing out of the African American family asset base is a nationwide phenomenon that can be explained by the shrinking African American middle class. It’s even more a factor in “strong market” regions like the Bay Area, where housing costs are soaring.
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