Free Republic

Illegal border crossers in New York City continue to be afforded thousands of dollars monthly in free rent for apartments and hotel rooms as Big Apple citizens are forced to pay thousands a month for tiny apartments. The New York Times, for instance, published a lengthy article on Feb. 25 celebrating the “resettlement” of 170 migrant families who have been moved from city-paid hotel rooms to suburban Central Islip and other areas where they are being given upwards to $2,500 a month in free rent. One illegal from Venezuela, who moved from a Manhattan hotel — where she and her...

Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was called out for prioritizing illegal migrants over her own constituents at a Green New Deal town hall in Queens on Thursday. The congresswoman was touting the purported benefits of the climate change legislation when two attendees, including a Republican challenger for her seat in the U.S. House, began heckling her. “My name is Jonathan David Rinaldi and I’m running for Congress against AOC. The Green New Deal is a scam,” one man shouted. “They’re giving the NYCHA apartments away, they’re giving illegal aliens $10,000 a day… I want you to debate me AOC, debate...

Maine’s taxpayers are footing the bill for new apartments built specifically for newly arrived border crossers and illegal aliens who will have at least two years’ worth of rent paid for. This week, Maine officials in Brunswick unveiled new apartments that will go to border crossers and illegal aliens who will have their rent paid for at least two years, News Center Maine reports:

HARVEY, Ill. (WLS) -- Harvey city officials said they have been talking with property managers about unfit living conditions and ongoing crime on South Halsted Street since October, but told ABC7 it was the owners who took it upon themselves, on Friday night, to board up the apartments there. Some residents said they were still inside their homes. Rudolph Williams spoke from inside. "I opened the door, and here's this big piece of plywood right there," Williams said. Williams is now able to walk through his opened front door after, he claims, crews boarded it shut with plywood while he...

The ultimate monument to moving on — or a misguided attempt at reparations? Survivors and first responders devastated by the 9/11 terrorist attacks are divided over news that they can apply for “affordable” apartments in a ritzy new building just steps from Ground Zero. The 900-foot skyscraper, 5 World Trade Center, will be constructed at the corner of Greenwich and Albany streets in lower Manhattan and is set to feature 1,200 plush apartments — and haunting views overlooking the site where more than 2,900 New Yorkers were murdered. As part of a new agreement brokered by Gov. Kathy Hochul, 80...

Lonely office buildings languishing away during the remote and hybrid work boom could have a new life — and it might mean your next apartment could be both good for the environment and your wallet. A new working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research by Arpit Gupta, Candy Martinez, and Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh finds that more than 2,000 office buildings in American downtowns could be converted into eco-friendly apartment buildings. Those conversions could yield up to 400,000 new apartment units, and, at minimum, over 170,000 new units — a major boon in cities simultaneously inflicted with housing crises...

The Denver metro area is a study in real estate contrasts. Many office buildings now sit with high vacancy rates, but cranes mark where new apartments are rapidly being built. At the corner of 6th Avenue in Simms Street in Lakewood used to be an office building. For a dozen years, it sat empty and now it's been turned into something unique. It is now an apartment building that has struck the right note.

Big money investors pumped billions into buying up apartment buildings in the pandemic era. The deals were often based on the assumption that rents would continue to increase. But rents are flatlining and expenses are increasing, leaving landlords to face big losses. While offices have been going through a paradigmatic shift as more workers do their jobs remotely, apartment buildings have experienced robust demand from tenants. But fault lines have emerged for investors who paid top dollar for assets that depended on substantial rent increases and persistent low interest rates to achieve profitability. Those kinds of optimistic projections became increasingly...

Half of American renters — or 25 million people — now spend more than 30 percent of their pre-tax income on housing amid President Joe Biden’s wage-cutting, rent-spiking welcome for mass migration. “The national average rent-to-income (RTI) reached 30% for the first time in our 20+ years of tracking history, up 1.5% from year-ago,” said a housing report by the Wall Street firm of Moody’s Analytics. “Rent … rose faster than incomes” in 75 metro areas, the report said.

This is a video of an apartment building on fire in Wuhan today. This building is OCCUPIED. I put this on DropBox to post here, please click on the source link to view the video. My wife is fairly new to the US (8 months from China) and today she has started to finally see how the Chinese government and system really treats their subjects. A sobering experience for her, to say the least. My prayers go out to everyone in China right now. Please share this video!

Three glistening new buildings in downtown Seattle with 165 studio apartments — originally to be rented at market rates — will instead house the homeless.The Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) is buying the buildings with taxpayer dollars for about $50 million, with federal COVID-19 relief funds splitting the cost equally. Seattle City Hall is contributing about $25 million, while also using “American Rescue Plan Act” funds. A large portion comes from Washington State’s Department of Commerce.Left-wing Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, so unpopular she can’t run for re-election, claims the deals will house people quickly and cheaply, compared to the time...

Amazon’s “Key for Business” system allows delivery drivers to access apartment buildings without having to be buzzed in and the system has been installed in thousands of apartment buildings across the United States. The e-commerce giant reportedly entices building managers with gift cards as incentives to install the system. The Verge reports that Amazon’s “Key for Business” system allows delivery drivers to gain access to apartment buildings without having to be buzzed in, and has been installed in thousands of buildings across the United States. The company is reportedly pushing to get the system installed in more buildings, offering free...

Box 500 Apartments — built out of shipping containers stacked six stories high and locked together like LEGO bricks — is set to open in July at 543 S. 500 West in Salt Lake City. The 83 units were awarded city incentives to be affordable and rents will range from $829 to $1,204 a month, said Amanda Best, a specialist in the housing development program. Tenants have to qualify to rent them by earning 60% or less of the city’s median income, said builder Rod Newman. Best said maximum income levels depend on household size, but will initially range from...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and President Trump made sure to protect tenants by banning evictions during the pandemic, but public officials have done almost nothing for property owners. That’s inviting disaster. Many of these landlords, particularly mom-and-pop small-building owners, have been struggling for months to make ends meet as the COVID crisis drags on. Thousands of tenants haven’t paid full rent. Others, looking to escape the virus, violent crime and plunging quality of life, have fled, pushing up the vacancy rate and forcing owners to grant concessions.

Manhattan apartment sales in the second quarter fell by 54%, the largest percentage decline in 30 years, according to a report from Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman. The median sales price fell 18% to $1 million, which is the biggest decline in a decade. There were only 1,147 sales in the quarter — the lowest number on record, according to Compass. SNIP

BEXAR COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) — Bexar County is investigating after nearly 50 residents were locked out of their apartments at a San Antonio complex. They say they found their doorknobs bolted when they returned home on Monday. That’s despite a local moratorium on evictions that’s currently in effect due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “It is sad. It is sad when somebody put a key on the door, even though they don’t have money for two or three months. Right now, we don’t need that,” says Luis Falcon, who son was locked out of his apartment. “This is the first flagrant...

Virginia House Del. Ibraheem Samirah introduced a bill that would override local zoning officials to permit multi-family housing in every neighborhood, changing the character of quiet suburbs.Oregon passed a similar bill, following moves by cities such as Minneapolis; Austin, Texas; and Seattle.Proponents say urban lifestyles are better for the environment and that suburbs are bastions of racial segregation. Democrats in Virginia may override local zoning to bring high-density housing, including public housing, to every neighborhood statewide — whether residents want it or not.The measure could quickly transform the suburban lifestyle enjoyed by millions, permitting duplexes to be built on...

An earthquake safety revolution is spreading along the streets and back alleys of Los Angeles, as steel frames and strong walls appear inside the first-story parking garages of thousands of apartment buildings. The construction is designed to fix one of the most dangerous earthquake risks: Wood apartment buildings collapsing because the skinny poles propping up parking at the ground level are not strong enough to withstand the shaking. Now, 27% of Los Angeles’ 11,400 dangerous wood-frame apartments are retrofitted to better resist earthquakes. Retrofit progress has been steady across the city, a Times analysis of city records shows. Among the...

Kansas City officials, using a new housing inspection law, have moved residents out of a troubled Northland apartment building where they found roaches, severe plumbing problems and other dangerous health violations, the Health Department announced in a news conference Wednesday. In the building, city officials and elected leaders said they saw caved-in ceilings, mold and damp carpets. During their visit Friday, they walked through human excrement in an apartment where sewage had backed up into the toilet, sinks and bathtub. “Disgusting is the best way I can tell you what I saw,” Councilman Dan Fowler, who represents the area, said...

WASHINGTON - The SWAT team, the overdose, the complaints of pot smoke in the air and feces in the stairwell - it would be hard to pinpoint a moment when things took a turn for the worse at Sedgwick Gardens, a stately apartment building in northwest Washington. But the Art Deco complex, which overlooks Rock Creek Park and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is today the troubled locus of a debate on housing policy in a city struggling with the twin crises of homelessness and gentrification. **SNIP** But the situation at Sedgwick Gardens is different: Many...