Gentrification & Housing
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California Beachfront Property Taken From Black Couple Nearly 100 Years Returned to Descendants
Gov. Gavin Newsom signs new law returning Bruce's Beach to the descendants of Willa and Charles Bruce.
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City of Oakland Strikes Agreement for Sale of Vacant Moms 4 Housing Property Following Armed Evictions, Riot Gear Arrests
That’s the spirit. Here’s some corporate and civic kindness for MLK Day. On Monday, Moms 4 Housing announced that it had struck a deal with Oakland’s Mayor Libby Schaaf and housing developer Wedgewood Properties to sell the vacant Oakland house, located at 2928 Magnolia Street, to them. The agreement follows last week’s eviction and arrests…
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Homeless Crisis in Los Angeles Highlights the Fall of the Black Middle Class
Blacks make up just 9 percent of Los Angeles County’s population overall, but comprise 40 percent of the area’s homeless, pushed to the margins by decades of redlining, layoffs, mass incarceration and gentrification. Among the homeless population, two-thirds live outside, some in whole tent communities filled with close-knit bands of men and women, according to…
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Colonizing BK to the Fullest: Rent Biggie’s ‘One Room Shack’ for a Measly $4,000 Per Month
If you ever dreamed of sipping Mo’ on the living room floor of the Brooklyn apartment immortalized by the Notorious B.I.G., you might not be able to play Nintendo with Cease-a-Leo, but for a scant $4,000 per month, you can rent Biggie’s childhood home, presenting the unique opportunity for affluent hip-hop fans to pick up…
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Greedy Developers Try to Bully 94-Year-Old Black Woman Out of Her Property in Nashville
We are seeing it more and more in cities across the country: Greedy developers infringing on the lives of black and brown people who have lived in neighborhoods for decades, attempting to push them out in order to raise housing costs and make a profit. In Nashville, Tenn., one determined 94-year-old black woman has said…
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Welfare for the Wealthy: Trump Administration Tax Loophole Is Government Assistance for Gentrifiers
Hidden in the new tax code passed by a Republican-led Congress and signed by the Trump administration is a new program that critics say will reward gentrification by giving billions in tax breaks to wealthy venture capitalists, individuals and corporations who invest in low-income communities. On Wednesday, April 17, as journalists waited for the release…
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The Rent Is Too Damn High and Now Los Angeles City Council Says It Wants to Help by Banning Section 8 Bans Targeting the Poor
Finding decent, affordable housing for yourself and your family can be tough, especially if you’re working-class or low-income and living in any one of the rapidly gentrifying big cities in the nation. In Los Angeles, where median rent for an apartment is $2,428, lawmakers have moved to make it illegal for landlords to discriminate against…
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What Gentrification and the New NFL Stadium Mean for Longterm Black Residents of Inglewood, Calif.
By now, we have all heard the stories of how hard Nipsey Hussle was working to keep his Hyde Park neighborhood from becoming gentrified. For years, the area has been inhabited almost exclusively by blacks, but as the city’s Metro has been constructing a new train that will take travelers down Crenshaw Boulevard and eventually…
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Amid Some Economic Gains, Black Homeownership Continues to Fall: Report
Despite record low unemployment and higher wages than in the past, substantial barriers to homeownership continue to keep black Americans from amassing wealth. A new Washington Post report collects recent studies and data on black homeownership that offers a stark view of the racial gap in housing—one that only seems to be getting worse. Citing…