Housing
City gives federal money to unqualified homebuyers
John Estus of The Daily O’Collegian at Oklahoma State University found that “Nearly $110,000 in federal funds intended to help poor Stillwater residents buy homes of their own was given to middle-class buyers who did not qualify” in an eight-week investigation that has prompted a state audit of the program. Estus also revealed the program…
Read MoreStudents misuse low-income housing
Lee Rood of The Des Moines Register found scores of students are paying little or nothing to live in low-income projects in college towns in every region. Loopholes enable students — including scholarship athletes who already receive housing money — easily qualify for apartments in the Section 8 program. "Last year, during a probe into…
Read MoreMortgage fraud surges in Chicago
David Jackson, with contributions from Ray Gibson, Todd Lighty and John McCormick of the Chicago Tribune, reviewed thousands of pages of land and court records and interviewed more than 100 people to show that a white-collar crime wave is raking Chicago’s poorest communities, robbing vulnerable families of their homes and draining billions of dollars from…
Read MoreFlawed homes go unrepaired in hurricane-prone area
Mc Nelly Torres of South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that, despite an engineer’s independent study showing workmanship and materials that did not meet standards in a hurricane-prone area, homeowners have been waiting 10 years for their homes to be fixed. Torres reviewed hundreds of records, including a grand jury report, two independent studies, and other construction-related…
Read MoreCity approved slipshod repairs on homes
Mike McGraw and Michael Mansur of The Kansas City Star report that an investigation by The Kansas City Star revealed that the taxpayer-supported home maintenance program overseen by the city’s former housing agency approved of shoddy repair work on homes leading to leaky roofs, sagging ceilings, buckling and poorly repaired foundations and dangerous furnaces and…
Read MoreLax oversight contributes to high foreclosure rate
Geoff Dutton and Jill Riepenhoff of The Columbus Dispatch investigated Ohio’s high foreclosure rate, “a problem fueled by a weak economy, aggressive mortgage brokers, financial overreaching and tepid state oversight.”. The newspaper analyzed Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data, obtained U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development audit reports of homebuilders through the federal Freedom of…
Read MoreDevelopers take advantage of agricultural breaks
Samuel P. Nitze and Beth Reinhard of The Miami Herald used local property data to show that “under a 1959 state law intended to preserve agriculture, developers reap huge property tax breaks by herding cows or raising crops in the most unlikely settings. Some pay less in annual property taxes than the average homeowner on…
Read MoreCrime data shows drug arrests in blighted area
Bryan Chambers of The (Huntington, W.Va.) Herald-Dispatch used local crime data for a story about the city’s effort to clean up a blighted area. “Between September 2003 and May 2004 nearly 21 percent of the city
Read MoreHome prices rose sharply
Bob Fernandez and Alletta Emeno of The Philadelphia Inquirer analyzed real estate data from the region to find that a rising tide of prices is lifting many boats: “the gains are broad-based and remarkably even, with the median gain ranging from 13 percent in Bucks and Camden Counties to 17 percent in Philadelphia and Gloucester…
Read MoreHurricane related building codes going unchecked
Steve Myers, Bill Finch and Brendan Kirby of the Mobile Register surveyed local governments to find that “numerous jurisdictions in Mobile and Baldwin counties have not been enforcing significant portions of their building codes, those designed to protect residential homes from hurricane damage.” Only two communities enforce the highest level of wind-resistance protection, and they…
Read More