California ‘Cap-And-Trade’ Program Provides $122 Million For Affordable Housing

According to scpr.org, California’s cap-and-trade program this year will provide $122 million in funding for affordable housing, including more than 800 new units in Southern California for lower-income residents.

28 winning projects are to be built using high energy-efficiency standards and will be located within a half mile of public transit stops.

California’s Strategic Growth Council, which picked the award recipients, said that’s in keeping with the spirit of the cap-and-trade program that collects fees from polluting companies to put toward addressing climate change.

The housing projects will “reduce as much greenhouse gas as taking all the cars in Newport Beach and Citrus Heights up north off the road for a year,” said Mike McCoy, the council’s executive director.

http://www.housingca.org/#!cap-and-trade/c1rev

http://www.hcd.ca.gov/financial-assistance/affordable-housing-and-sustainable-communities/

Is Australia Facing Social Issues Similar To The U.S.?

Russell Brand

In this episode of the The Trews, Russell Brand looks at the housing crisis in Australia and also looks at mass incarceration.   Is the U.S. facing similar problems?

(Updated report)

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/australians-to-be-squeezed-by-housing-supply-shortage/story-fnp85ntp-1227367845582

http://www.propertyobserver.com.au/finding/location/nsw/41933-sydney-s-housing-shortage-is-about-a-mismatch-of-supply-pete-wargent.html

http://www.penalreform.org/

HUD Study: 578,424 Americans Are Homeless

Secular Talk

ThinkProgress wrote that homelessness fell at the beginning of 2014 compared to 2013 by 13,344 people, according to the latest data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

In the annual point-in-time count of the country’s homeless population in January of 2014, there were still 578,424 homeless people.

According to the HUD website:  “More than 1 million persons are served in HUD-supported emergency, transitional and permanent housing programs each year. The total number of persons who experience homelessness may be twice as high. There are four federally defined categories under which individuals and families may qualify as homeless: 1) literally homeless; 2) imminent risk of homelessness; 3) homeless under other Federal statues; and 4) fleeing/attempting to flee domestic violence.”

The “point-in-time” survey is how many are homeless at one specific point in time.  For example, some people may be homeless for a couple of months.  That is why the yearly figure is higher than the “point-in-time” figure.

Is Welfare A Bribe?

Welfare is a bribe because…you know…living in public housing must be “the life.”

U.S. Rep-elect Glenn Grothman (Republican, Wisconsin) thinks that welfare is a bribe.

He feels that the government is bribing single parents to stay unemployed and unmarried.

Majority Report video.