The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) this week released its "2010 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress."
Despite a troubled economy, the report shows homelessness up less than 1 percent from 2009 to 2010 — from 404,957 to 407,966. According to the report, more than 1.59 million people spent at least one night in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program during 2010. That's a 2.2 percent increase from the previous year.
U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development Deputy Secretary Ron Sims is stepping down from his post at the end of next month.
Sims, who has been HUD's second-in-charge since May 2009, says he's leaving to spend more time with his family in Seattle.
Local governments in Portland, Ore., Los Angeles, Calif., and Kirkland, Wash., have taken steps to promote small housing development, according to the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development's case studies clearinghouse.
Portland's Living Smart Program offers permit-ready "skinny home" plans — plans pre-approved by the city council that have already passed life, safety, and structural review — that developers can acquire to build on small, infill lots in the city's neighborhoods.
The ground breaking at Thayer Commons in Burlington's New North End yesterday was the subject of an article in today's Burlington Free Press.
The article cites Housing Vermont's Nancy Owens with a figure of about $760 for a two-bedroom rental in the facility, including heat and water, compared with a market rate of about $1,200.