Austin’s Surge of New Housing Construction Drove Down Rents After decades of explosive growth, Austin, Texas, in the 2010s was a victim of its own success. Lured by high-tech jobs and the city’s hip reputation, too many people were competing for too few…

How can we make housing more affordable? Build more housing! Read lessons from Austin.

Register here: buff.ly/OX9BEuP

Making Homeownership Affordable: Bringing Fannie and Freddie Back to Mission

April 16 @ 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Our Director of Policy attended today's PA House Housing and Community Development Committee meeting, where several bills to stabilize PA communities and expand affordable housing options passed with bipartisan support. Thank you, Rep. Brandon Markosek and Rep. Rich Irvin, for your leadership!

A Call to Action: Pathways to 38 offers a bold vision for supportive housing in Pennsylvania

Understanding the need to highlight supportive housing, The AIA has featured the Corporation for Supportive Housing in their latest issue focusing on emergency housing, homelessness, and the need to address housing for the "missing middle". You can find it here

Making just housing a human right LOUISVILLE — Adrian Alberto Madriz will never forget the smell of burning mattresses.After Hurricane Andrew — a violent, 1992 Category 5 storm that left close to 100 people dead and several hundred…

"Why, he wondered, were his neighbors in Miami living in unsafe housing in one of the richest cities in the richest country in the world?"

Lawsuit says HUD directive undercuts states’ ability to investigate housing discrimination • Stateline Sixteen states and the District of Columbia are challenging guidance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that plaintiffs allege imposes new rules and funding conditions they say…

"Sixteen states and DC are challenging guidance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that plaintiffs allege imposes new rules and funding conditions they say could weaken state protections against housing discrimination — and their ability to investigate them."

New 50-Bed Homeless Shelter Breaks Ground In Norristown The facility aims to help those at "greatest risk of severe health and safety consequences," county leaders said.

A 50-bed homeless shelter for single adults in Norristown has broken ground! Read more in the local paper:

What is Functional Zero—and How Do Communities Achieve It? Functional zero is both a goal and a method for communities seeking to meaningfully address homelessness in their region.

What is Functional Zero, and how do we get there? Read more from Project Home:

It's tempting to try to simplify the causes of the affordable housing crisis, and 'regulation' is a frequent target, but there's more to the story. Read more:

Is the YIMBY movement doomed? For decades, rising home prices have been an engine for middle-class wealth. Now a growing movement wants to slow — or even reverse — that trend. Are the politics around new housing development…

"This actually makes the politics of getting people to accept more housing incredibly difficult b/c it's an awful political slogan, 'Let's build more housing so price increases aren't as high as they would've been if we hadn't built as much housing. No one wants to run on that."

Bucking stigma, more places turn to factory-built for affordable housing Mobile homes have long been zoned out of cities and suburbs. But with updated designs and a housing shortage, they're increasingly being welcomed as more-affordable starter homes.

Manufactured housing is less costly to purchase, and it is finally losing its stigma:

Fair Housing Empower Hour - RHLS Website PHRC Empower Hour – VRG Fair Housing in Screening Access flyer

Join RHLS Senior Policy Analyst Vanessa Raymond Garcia for the Fair Housing Empower Hour. Head to our website for more details and to register:

The Housing Action Plan Virtual Session - RHLS Website The Housing Action Plan Virtual Session Date: Tuesday, March 24, 2026 | 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM Description: Join Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania and co-hosting partners for a briefing with…

The Housing Action Plan Virtual Session: Join Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania and co-hosting partners for a briefing with Administration officials on the details of the recently released Governor’s Housing Action Plan.
March 24, 2026, from 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM. Register today:

To Solve the Housing Affordability Crisis, Communities Must Confront Inequality — Shelterforce Conversations on housing costs often focus on zoning rules, but two new studies say declining affordability is due more to rising income.

"...the paper argues that affordability is not fundamentally a housing supply issue that can be solved with deregulation—inequality is the primary driver."

For the greater good, federal funding must be restored to permanent supportive housing efforts Changes to federal homeless assistance funding are jeopardizing access to permanent housing for housing-insecure individuals and families in Pennsylvania and across the country.

"Permanent Supportive Housing works; if this funding disappears, we will see a spike in utilization of various emergency systems, including hospitalization, emergency services, and the prison system. Worst of all, we will see our most vulnerable community members lose their lives."

Philadelphia working to create 1,000 more long-term homeless shelter beds. A new 350-bed shelter will open soon, and other existing facilities are targeted for expansion.

Philadelphia wants to bring in its homeless population from the cold, permanently! Read more about the city's plans:

The Housing Action Plan Virtual Session - RHLS Website The Housing Action Plan Virtual Session Date: Tuesday, March 24, 2026 | 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM Description: Join Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania and our co-hosting partners for a briefing with…

Join the Housing Alliance for the Housing Action Plan Virtual Session on March 24. Check out the details on our website.

What Does It Mean When Anchor CDCs Start Selling Affordable Housing? — Shelterforce Rising costs, rent arrears, and aging properties are forcing nonprofit affordable housing developers to rethink what they can afford to own.

What happens to a community when CDCs sell off their affordable housing? Read more about how hard market changes are hitting operating costs, driving some organizations to sell:

Large lot rent increases can force families and seniors out of their homes. It’s time for PA to join at least 12 other states in regulating rate increases in MHCs by passing HB 1250/ SB 745. This bipartisan legislation would require MHC owners to justify unusually large lot rent and fee increases.

Ardmore House II- affordable homes for seniors in the Philadelphia suburbs. - RHLS Website The township of Lower Merion and its Ardmore section is located just to the west of Philadelphia. As a section of the “Main Line,” a historically wealthy area, property taxes and other living…

Ardmore House II is under construction now! Read more about this development that RHLS worked on with Genesis Housing and HumanGood.

A historic Black community in Cape May County is fighting for its identity Residents have formed a preservation project to stomp out gentrification and put Whitesboro back on the historic map.

We frequently write about tangled title, when there is confusion between heirs, but even worse is when the deed is recorded with differences from the state records! Read about this community in New Jersey as it struggles to straighten out town records and fight off gentrification. buff.ly/KDcwFY9

City Looks to Expand Supportive Housing for New Yorkers Coming Out of Jail The city is seeking providers to operate an additional 190 units of Justice-Involved Supportive Housing—affordable units paired with support services for people with mental health needs who tend to…

RHLS applauds NYC for its commitment to housing with dignity for returning citizens. Read about their progress, including utilizing an underused hospital campus for medically complex individuals exiting the carceral system:

Scattered Homes, Shared Landlords: The Changing Landscape of Tenant Organizing — Shelterforce As the single-family rental market grows, organizers are adapting their tactics to a housing landscape that stretches across neighborhoods.

For families living in stand-alone rentals, tenant organizing can be more challenging, but in the face of investor ownership, just as necessary as the tenants in multi-family properties. Check out this article on how some tenants managed to build a scattered network:

“The research also shows that rent stabilization does not cause the problems that critics sometimes associate with it. In fact, no study, anywhere in the country, has shown a decline in new construction as a result of rent stabilization.”

Federation Housing opens another affordable senior housing development in Trevose: Daniel B Green House - RHLS Website On October 24, 2025, Federation Housing hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Daniel B. Green House in Trevose, its latest senior affordable housing community to open doors. Located at 4695 Somerton…

Last fall, RHLS client Federation Housing celebrated the ribbon-cutting on the Daniel B. Green House in Trevose. RHLS's Kim Dolan worked on this development, helping to bring sixty new affordable homes for seniors to the increasingly-expensive Bucks County. Read more on our website:

True housing justice must include those with No Recourse to Public Funds Thousands of people are excluded from basic support because of their immigration status, writes Margaret-Ann Brünjes, chief executive at Homeless Network Scotland.

" A little bit of stability, it turns out, goes a very long way." Read what Scotland is doing to help its immigrant population stay housed.

More Upstate Towns Opt in to—and Toughen—New York’s Good Cause Eviction Law — Shelterforce Several NY municipalities have adopted—and strengthened—a state law that protects tenants from high rent increases and unreasonable evictions.

Upstate New York municipalities are eager to adopt stronger tenant protections, such as the Good Cause Eviction Law. This law guarantees lease renewals as long as tenants pay their rent and abide by their lease agreements.

Rural homelessness growing faster than cities Homelessness may not look the way many imagine it, particularly in rural Indiana. Rural areas saw a 16.6% increase in people experiencing homelessness between 2023 and 2025, according to Indiana Housing...

Rural homelessness is harder to see than urban, but the same problems confront people trying to find and keep affordable housing. Read more from this Indiana news article:

Philly’s Logan Triangle may become modular housing factory As part of her signature housing plan, Parker wants to bring homebuilding factories to underutilized sites in Philadelphia.

“We are all moving in a unified way to attempt to do what has never been done in the city of Philadelphia before. And that is to create a manufacturing hub for housing,” says the Philadelphia mayor, what do you think?