Nation Topics - Housing Activism | The Nation

As the housing market flattens, the poor pay the price for the greed and stupidity of the real estate and banking bigwigs.

In the world's increasingly crowded cities, personal space is shrinking--and so are options for personal happiness.

Mayor-appointed commissions and experts, mostly white and Republican,
propose to radically shrink and reshape a majority-black and Democratic
city.

A perfect storm of malign neglect is battering the victims of Hurricane
Katrina. But the people of New Orleans are fighting back: They deserve
our support as they press for the rights of the displaced.

If New Orleans is to reclaim its greatness, the scope of the solution must match the scope of the problem. The city could become the nation's classroom by re-engineering levees, responsibly building neighborhoods and schools and repairing the environment, but time is running out.

Fitful efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast unfold against a backdrop
of looming economic disaster: rising unemployment and interest rates,
misplaced priorities and a recession that will hurt the weakest most.

This is a list of "Pro-Free-Market Ideas for Responding to Hurricane
Katrina and High Gas Prices," circulated by the href="http://johnshadegg.house.gov/rsc/about.htm">House Republican
Study

Why are the poorest victims of Hurricane Katrina
being kept out of perfectly livable homes?

Here's how we identified more than 11,000 empty, rentable homes in
New Orleans:

New homes for those displaced by Hurricane Katrina need not be the
penitentiary-style public housing we've come to dread. Bring in
architects who know how to create human-scale dwellings for the poor.