YIMBY News for 5/14

[Eric Budd]

How Pittsburgh’s Hill District Failure-Proofed Its Community Benefits Fund

Next City

---

KEYWORD SCORE: 52.02. affordable, affordable housing, construction, development, homeowner, house, housing, parking, parking lot, planning commission, project, real estate, rent, urban, walk

When developers come to town with visions of large-scale construction — a stadium, a corporate campus, an Amazon warehouse, a data center — communities have increasingly turned to community benefit agreements to help ensure residents don’t get the short end of the stick. The premise is straightforward: you want to build here, you give us something in return. Long-term jobs for residents. Affordable housing. A community fund. In exchange, you get a smoother path through the approval process. But developers can walk away, corporations can pull out, and real estate firms can go bankrupt. When tha

Share via:

Maple Valley Pulls Plug on Housing Incentive Program in Face of Backlash

The Urbanist

---

KEYWORD SCORE: 42.30. affordable, affordable housing, comprehensive plan, development, growth, homeowner, house, housing, income, market-rate, public hearing, rent, renter, single-family, urban, zone, zoning

[image: Maple Valley Pulls Plug on Housing Incentive Program in Face of Backlash] The Maple Valley City Council voted Monday night to scrap a tax incentive program intended to encourage the production of affordable housing, following a cavalcade of public opposition to the proposal over the past few weeks. Despite already voting to create a Multifamily Tax Exemption (MFTE) program earlier this spring, a 5-2 vote fully repealed the program, with the council turning down a separate ordinance that had been drafted to implement it. MFTE is a common tool used across Washington State to incentivize

Share via:

Homelessness Is Solvable. Finland Shows How.

Governing

---

KEYWORD SCORE: 35.45. affordable, affordable housing, apartment, house, housing, income, project, rent, urban, walk

When I speak at public events, I am often asked whether homelessness can be solved. My answer, always, is yes. A recent trip to Helsinki confirmed it. Over the past decade working in the homelessness field, I’ve come to believe that intention, applied consistently, produces results. What I saw in Finland was that same conviction operating at the scale of a national government — and producing the kind of outcomes American cities keep promising and failing to deliver. I traveled to Helsinki with Sam Dodge, a longtime figure in San Francisco's homelessness and public works agencies, to meet with

Share via:

Southend Advocates Cry Foul as Sound Transit Moves to Defer Graham Street, Tukwila Stations

The Urbanist

---

KEYWORD SCORE: 35.00. affordable, affordable housing, development, housing, income, infill, mixed-use, project, rent, transportation, urban

[image: Southend Advocates Cry Foul as Sound Transit Moves to Defer Graham Street, Tukwila Stations] *The Southend Transit Justice Coalition* hosted a rally on Monday near the site of the long-planned Graham Street light rail station to demand Sound Transit not cut the infill station from a rebalanced Sound Transit 3 (ST3) plan. Well attended by local elected officials, non-profit organizations, and community members, rally members insisted that Sound Transit “build the damn trains.” Advocates also pushed back against plans to cut the Boeing Access Road infill light rail station in Tukwila. If

Share via:

Tenant Movement Takes on Corporate Landlords

Next City

---

KEYWORD SCORE: 18.14. affordable, affordable housing, housing, rent, renter

[image: Next City Podcast] Renters and renter rights advocates demonstrated for better protections for renters, the creation of more affordable housing and to end the Ellis Act, during a march at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2014.( Photo by Rich Pedroncelli / AP) Faced with corporate landlords that control multiple buildings, tenant organizers are assembling the neighbor-to-neighbor relationships that scale renter power and make political wins possible. In this two-part podcast episode, Next City's managing Editor Aysha Khan talks with four organizers leading the tenant

Share via: