Free Republic

A disabled woman is suing the homeless services department in Multnomah County, Oregon, after she was denied rent relief due to her low score on the county's race-based prioritization rubric, which awards more points for requesting "culturally specific services"—including "BIPOC"-focused housing—than for having a disability. Michele Mei, a white woman with cerebrovascular disease, filed the lawsuit after she was told that she did not meet the cutoff for housing assistance, Fox 12 Oregon reported last month. The complaint came in the wake of an investigation by Oregon's Bureau of Labor and Industries, which found "substantial evidence of an unlawful housing...

Not long ago, I quoted Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck’s conclusion about the results of rent control. He wrote that in many cases, it “appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city — except for bombing.” Lindbeck, however, seems to have missed an even better way to wreak havoc on major cities. It would be rent control combined with massive subsidies for renters. Rent control dramatically limits the supply of new housing units by discouraging people from building new apartments and punishing landlords for offering them for rent by limiting the price they can charge. But...