DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Low-income Americans wait years to get housing vouchers that are often impossible to use. Fixing the system could mean more funding and less red tape.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-18 | by ( Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The federal Housing Choice Voucher Program, also known as Section 8, is also the biggest, aiding about 5 million people in 2.3 million households. While it's illegal in some places to discriminate against voucher holders, the practice isn't outlawed everywhere. Fully funding housing vouchers would mean many more housing-insecure and unhoused people would get help. Related storiesIn its budget for fiscal year 2025, the Biden administration requested a $2.5 billion increase for voucher funding over 2023 levels. Researchers at the Department of Housing and Urban Development have proposed piloting a direct cash transfer program for rent as an alternative to housing vouchers.

Persons: Will Fischer, Biden, Jenny Schuetz, isn't, Lindsey Nicholson, Michael Stegman, Stegman, Tara Radosevich, Fischer, Schuetz Organizations: Service, Business, of Housing, Urban Development, Budget, Harvard, The New York Times, Republicans, Brookings Institute, Getty, Urban Institute, HUD, Washington State, Department of Housing Locations: —, Los Angeles, Fort Worth, Philadelphia, Iowa, Long Island City, Queens, Oregon

☆ 15 cities with plenty of rentals and high enough wages to afford them
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-12 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A new Zillow and StreetEasy analysis finds that rental price growth is far outpacing wage growth in most big cities — and New Yorkers are particularly screwed. In New York City, rents increased seven times as fast as wages from 2022 to 2023. Similarly, renters in Boston, Cincinnati, and Buffalo are seeing their wage growth dwarfed by their rent increases. But it's not all bad news for prospective and current tenants: There are still a handful of cities where wage growth has outpaced rent increases. While wages rose by 5.5% between 2022 and 2023, rents increased by just 0.8%, the Zillow/StreetEasy report found.

Persons: it's, Tesla, Austin, that's, there's Organizations: Service, Business, Apple, The Atlantic Locations: New York City, Boston , Cincinnati, Buffalo, Austin, Portland , Oregon, Salt Lake City, San Jose, Houston, Salt Lake City , Minneapolis, Riverside , California, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, California, Southern, Raleigh, Charlotte, North Carolina, Miami, Georgia, Tennessee

☆ A national shortage of construction workers is driving high home prices. The industry is struggling to fill the gap.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-01 | by ( Eliza Relman | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Fewer construction workers means less — and slower — residential construction, which in turn leads to higher home prices, according to a 2023 report from researchers at the University of Utah and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Builders and infrastructure projects are in desperate need of all kinds of construction workers, but especially skilled tradespeople. Simonson said that allowing more immigrants into the country to fill construction jobs is crucial. Making the industry more appealing to womenBoushey pointed out that the share of women in the overall construction industry has climbed. The construction industry is also at a disadvantage because most workers can't do manual labor until they retire.

Persons: —, Ken Simonson, Kit Dickinson, Dickinson, Ben Brubeck, Maja Rosenquist, Mortenson, we've, Simonson, Brubeck, Rosenquist, Joe Biden, Franklin D, Roosevelt, Heather Boushey, Biden, Boushey, she's Organizations: Service, Associated Builders and Contractors, Business, Associated, Contractors of America, University of Utah, University of Wisconsin - Madison, ADP, —, Builders, Infrastructure Investment, Jobs, Economic Advisers Locations: president's, America

☆ One New Yorker won $150,000 when she found out her landlord had been overcharging her. Now a bunch more tenants are using stabilization laws to get money back and pay cheaper rent.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-28 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

AdvertisementAs TikTok becomes the new town square for all things economic transparency, the latest target of populist ire is New York City landlords. Several videos that have recently gone viral show viewers how to look into their rent histories and call out examples of potentially illegal hikes. Wait times for rent histories are now at 20 business days, up from 10 in late January, as a result of "social media activity." Klenkar has made TikToks about her old apartment and rent histories and has had "lots" of people reach out with their own rent histories. More may be on their way as New Yorkers seem to be requesting their rent histories en masse.

Persons: they've, —, Danielle —, Danielle, TikTok, it's, There's, they're, Allia Mohamed, She's, Mohamed, They've, he's, Carla —, Carla, Thomas Trutschel, Anna Klenkar, Klenkar, I've, Gothamist, DHCR, overcharge, Esteban Girón, shouldn't, It's Organizations: New York, Tenants, Service, Business, BI, Yorkers, New, US, Division, Housing, Community, Rent Administration, Rent, New York State Homes, Community Renewal, Tenant Union, Tenants PAC, Directors Locations: New York State, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn , New York, York City, New York, New York City, New, Washington Heights, Manhattan, Long Island City, Lower, Side, backpay

☆ New Yorkers are flooding a government website to figure out if they're overpaying for rent
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-24 | by ( Eliza Relman | Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A spokesperson for DHCR told Business Insider the "surge" in rent history requests is "unprecedented." Mohamed said that since she posted that TikTok, hundreds of people have emailed openigloo asking for help deciphering the rent history information they've received from DHCR. Diana Prendergast, a 27-year-old recording artist who lives in New York, requested her rent history after learning about it from TikTok. She said she's still awaiting her rent history. Did you request your rent history, or discover you were being overcharged?

Persons: —, openigloo, Allia Mohamed, Mohamed, they've, Diana Prendergast, she's, Gothamist Organizations: Service, New York, Homes, Community Renewal, New, DHCR, Business, The Met Council, Housing Locations: New York, DHCR, TikTok, New York City

☆ Homes made in factories were supposed to save us from the housing crisis, but the companies that make them are failing
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-14 | by ( Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

But the world of modular housing, which includes multi-unit apartment buildings and conventional-looking houses, is littered with companies that have gone bust. AdvertisementThese restrictive policies often reflect the lingering perception that factory-built homes are inferior to traditional housing, Erlich said. Investors aren't convinced there's sufficient and consistent demand for modular housing in most markets. They tend to be run by people with deep experience in the construction industry, Erlich said. AdvertisementDo you work in the modular housing industry?

Persons: —, Mark Erlich, Katerra, Erlich, Andrew Justus, Justus, Biden, aren't, there's Organizations: Service, New England Regional, of Carpenters, Urban, Niskanen, of Housing, Motors, Avana, Factory, New York Times Locations: Silicon, California, Brooklyn, Manhattan, San Francisco Bay

☆ 'Zombie' offices could turn into 400,000 new apartments for families. That's almost double the number of new US units in a typical year.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( Eliza Relman | Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The rise of remote work, high interest rates, and climate regulations all pose problems for office buildings. A new study found that more than 2,000 US office buildings could be converted into up to 400,000 apartments. And new environmental regulations require that buildings meet certain energy efficiency standards that can require costly renovations. Turning office buildings into apartments isn't a new concept, and it's one that New York City has embraced in theory. Of course, office buildings require some retrofitting to be turned from sprawling workplaces to livable apartments.

Persons: Arpit Gupta, Candy Martinez, Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, Insider's Jordan Hart Organizations: Service, National Bureau of Economic Research, Los, New York City, jkaplan Locations: Wall, Silicon, Greater New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, New York

☆ Texans are staying inside during record heat — and the state's economy could take a $9.5 billion hit from reduced business
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-29 | by ( Eliza Relman | Noah Sheidlower | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In Texas, that could mean a $9.5 billion hit to the state's GDP if the extreme heat continues. As extreme heat grips much of the US this summer and the Earth records its hottest month on record, people are staying inside. Pardue told Insider he was surprised at the magnitude of the decline in hours worked as a result of extreme heat. "And then we're seeing, long term, this opposite shift, where during the summer, there's all this extreme heat." Are you staying home or working fewer hours because of extreme heat?

Persons: —, Luke Pardue, Pardue, we've, Ray Perryman, Jonathan Horowitz, Andreas Flouris Organizations: Service, Workers, Wall Street, Buffalo Bayou Brewing, Nationwide, The National Energy Assistance, Association, Research, University of Thessaly, New York Times, Nature Conservancy, Phoenix, Louisiana Department of Health, erelman Locations: Texas, Houston, Greece, Arizona, New Orleans

☆ America's broken housing market is making millennials and Gen Z lonelier
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Loneliness is a perceived lack of connection — the discrepancy between the social connection someone has and the connection they want. Holt-Lunstad's widely-cited research has found that loneliness and social isolation have health impacts comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. People who live in communities with more walkable neighborhoods, shared space, greenery, and diverse types of housing, feel more socially connected and less lonely. In her work, Peavey has come up with six design strategies for creating third spaces — places that aren't home, work, or school — to facilitate social connection. But neighborhoods need to be dense and walkable in order for people to easily access these places because cars and physical distance get in the way.

Search resuls for: "erelman"

9 mentions found