Truehold, an out-of-state investor, has quickly become one of the largest owners of single-family homes in St. Louis.

It promotes a unique "sell and stay" purchase model that has faced strong scrutiny when used by other companies.

Local real estate agents and lawyers worry that this model preys on desperate, cash-crunched homeowners.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/business/article_320f036b-f2e0-4f7f-88f9-a4b72810a902.html

One aspect of the housing crisis is the plight of leaseholders & their exposure to service charges (and the inadequate maintenance offered by freeholders).

If you were hoping this would be less of a concern with 'social landlords', think again.

Becka White's story from the Leashold frontline put some names & detail into what this all entails.

#housing #inequality

https://thebeemagazine.com/im-a-leaseholder-get-me-out-of-here/

Glad I passed on buying "Abundance" at the Symposium Bookstore here in Providence.

The main premise of this book is false.

We cannot trust centralized or top down governance to make good choices for local conditions & local issues.

In fact, the opposite is true.

Link: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2025/6/9/the-trouble-with-abundance

"The Strong Towns approach rejects the entire pursuit of permanence. It recognizes that healthy communities must be able to evolve."

Toronto moves step closer to allowing fiveplexes, sixplexes in bid to boost housing options
Toronto has moved one step closer to allowing fiveplexes and sixplexes in neighbourhoods across the city.
#housing #cityplanning #realestate #Toronto #News #Canada
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/sixplexes-council-committee-city-staff-recommendations-toronto-1.7561321?cmp=rss

Broken glass, shattered dreams: No money for Sunshine Coast neighbourhood homeowners
In the years since, the houses in the Seawatch subdivision have been vandalized and their assessed value has dropped from about a million dollars to two dollars.
#money #crime #housing #SunshineCoast #Seawatch #Environment
https://globalnews.ca/news/11240669/no-money-seawatch-neighbourhood-homeowners/

Broken glass, shattered dreams: No money for Sunshine Coast neighbourhood homeowners
In the years since, the houses in the Seawatch subdivision have been vandalized and their assessed value has dropped from about a million dollars to two dollars.
#money #crime #housing #SunshineCoast #Seawatch #Environment
https://globalnews.ca/news/11240669/no-money-seawatch-neighbourhood-homeowners/

Interestingly & perhaps being more 'realistic' Angela Rayner, supporting the overall strategy of the spending review, is also (clearly) trying to manage expectations about her (and the Govt.'s) ability to make a real dent in the housing crisis.

She asserts that her & her cabinet colleagues are clear that 'we’ve got to at least start to turn the tide on the housing crisis we’ve got'... which, while realistic also looks like another narrowing of ambition?

#housing
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jun/14/labour-investment-reverse-uk-decline-angela-rayner-housing

“Brussels, my love?” EU extends special status for Ukrainian refugees https://www.byteseu.com/1103273/ #Europe #EuropeanUnion #Housing #HumanRights #Immigration #Refugees #Ukraine

How to stay warm this winter without breaking the bank – or the planet https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jun/14/how-to-stay-warm-this-winter-without-breaking-the-bank-or-the-planet #Housing #Energy

Young people are disporportionately affected by the EU’s housing crisis https://www.byteseu.com/1101377/ #EUPolicy #Europe #EuropeanConservativesAndReformists(ECR) #Housing #HousingCrisis

Seniors can't downsize as renting is more expensive than staying in their owned homes. “Downsizing is not going to be something that's going to unlock a ton of housing any time soon." If seniors have paid off their mortgages it's hard to find something cheaper, especially in Toronto, whether they're looking to buy a new condo or smaller home, or to rent. And with home prices dipping, the math is even harder to make work. #retirees #seniors #housing
https://www.thestar.com/business/why-torontos-slow-real-estate-market-could-mean-fewer-seniors-selling-their-home-to-downsize/article_d680a83c-d302-4df7-b1e4-868b8f16b909.html

Apartments are allowed to be dangerously hot in Toronto. City still studying options
Many renters across Toronto are bracing for yet another hot summer in their units while the city continues looking into implementing a maximum indoor temperature standard for apartments.
#housing #heat #city #Toronto #News #Canada
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/max-temp-summer-coming-1.7558162?cmp=rss

Ford government used code words to make it 'unduly difficult' to search Greenbelt records: report
Ontario Premier Doug Ford's government broke its legal, record-keeping obligations amid its now-reversed decision to open up parts of the protected Greenbelt lands for housing, the province's information and privacy commissioner has found.
#government #law #environment #housing #Ontario #News
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ford-government-greenbelt-records-code-words-1.7559720?cmp=rss

Toronto renter left briefly in the dark as landlord didn't pay for power
Toronto renter Alex Atkinson had his power cut off Wednesday afternoon because of a misunderstanding with his landlord about who should pay for the service. 
#housing #money #electricity #Toronto #News #Canada
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/renter-landlord-dispute-without-power-1.7559435?cmp=rss

Ontario government used code words to hinder search of Greenbelt records: report
Ontario Premier Doug Ford's government broke its legal, record-keeping obligations amid its now-reversed decision to open up parts of the protected Greenbelt lands for housing, the province's information and privacy commissioner has found.
#government #law #environment #housing #Ontario #News
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ford-government-greenbelt-records-code-words-1.7559720?cmp=rss

Ford government used code words to make it 'unduly difficult' to search Greenbelt records: report
Ontario Premier Doug Ford's government broke its legal, record-keeping obligations amid its now-reversed decision to open up parts of the protected Greenbelt lands for housing, the province's information and privacy commissioner has found.
#government #law #environment #housing #Ontario #News
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ford-government-greenbelt-records-code-words-1.7559720?cmp=rss

New mapping to increase Quebec homes in flood zones by about 30%
Quebec's environment minister says about 30 per cent more homes could be located in flood zones when new maps come into effect next year.
#flood #housing #mapping #Quebec #News #Canada
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-flood-maps-1.7560044?cmp=rss

2 cities, 2 buildings and 1 fugitive landlord leaves tenants in unlivable conditions
A wanted fugitive accused of being the ringleader of a grandparent scam has left tenants in two southwestern Ontario cities with a host of maintenance issues and no one to turn to for help. 
#housing #crime #law #Ontario #News #Canada
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/2-cities-2-buildings-and-1-fugitive-landlord-leaves-tenants-in-unlivable-conditions-1.7558659?cmp=rss

After the spending review merely continued the Affordable Homes Programme that Labour inherited from the previous Govt. (with pretty much the same level of spending), its clear that merely allowing social housing providers to bid for AHP funds won't make up for the lack of social housing investment that has constrained new social housing construction for the last two decades (or more)... Angela Rayner will have her work cut out to deliver any tea relief from the housing crisis!

Better title: How the West Failed the Unhoused

And then they have the nerve to say that the problem is not Capitalism and Wage Slavery - it's us and our unwillingness to work, our laziness. That's complete bullshit!! The fact is that we live under a system that is for the most completely irrational and meaningless. Every apologist for capitalism must be utterly brainwashed, severely under the influence of bourgeois ideology ->

"In the end, the effect of There Is No Place for Us is stunning and bleak. Goldstone tells stories of undeniable injustice, none of them with a happy ending or a victory for the good guys. Each story is incontrovertible evidence that the American dream is a lie and that hard work, loving your family, getting good grades, or whatever other bullshit this country supposedly reveres doesn’t guarantee a safe living. In fact, they have absolutely no bearing on whether you end up OK or sleeping in your car with your three kids.

These stories are not five individually explicable outliers concerning people who were simply unfortunate; instead, they are five out of millions of similar stories. As readers conclude There Is No Place for Us, they will feel both the deeply personal impacts of the tragedies explored in the book (...) Every tragedy is unique, and yet in some respects it is not; these tragedies are everywhere, all the time, just often hidden from sight.

And what does it mean to have these stories laid out? If there were any justice, it would lead to enormous change. They are stories of people so obviously oppressed by our institutions and forces far beyond their control—people who are not merely unlucky or who have made bad choices—that the need ought to be clear. A book like this ought to be a rallying cry, the 21st-century equivalent of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle."

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/brian-goldstone-there-is-no-place-for-us/