Thomas Silverstein

prracperspective.ghost.ioBridging the YIMBY/Tenant Organizing DivideBy Thomas Silverstein, President/Executive Director, Poverty & Race Research Action Council Affordability - and how to achieve it - is the defining policy challenge of the moment. Nowhere is that mo...

At @prrac.bsky.social, we've been working towards this launch for a handful of months & I'm so excited that the day has come. This 1st post is personal to me. I've been thinking/writing/advocating both in the tenant movement sphere & RE zoning reform my whole career. I know we're stronger together.

Poverty & Race Research Action Council@prrac.bsky.social

New PRRAC publication just dropped. Check out the PRRAC Perspective! Here, we'll share our analysis of key developments in our sector. The 1st piece is a doozy from @tsilverstein.bsky.social, showing how far we've come since peak Housing Twitter (TM). prracperspective.ghost.io/bridging-the...

Today is a particularly apt day for thinking about what we can learn from MoCo and what we might not want to leave unadorned. The Prince George's County Council just passed a resolution to create a Social Housing Task Force 😍.

Poverty & Race Research Action Council@prrac.bsky.social

Just as interesting today as it was yesterday!

prracperspective.ghost.ioHow to Make the MoCo Social Housing Model Really Good in Three StepsBy Thomas Silverstein, President/Executive Director, Poverty & Race Research Action Council A few years ago, the fairly wonky work that Montgomery County, Maryland had begun to develop mixed-income h...

What are those 3 ways you ask? (1) Looking for other increments of profit motive to take out of development & property management processes by building state capacity; (2) adding in public subsidy alongside with continued reliance on cross-subsidization; & (3) democratizing property management!

Poverty & Race Research Action Council@prrac.bsky.social

And...we have a second post! Also from @tsilverstein.bsky.social (that might happen quite a bit) & this time explaining 3 ways of taking the scaffolding of Montgomery County, MD's social housing program & building a program more aligned with social housing principles like those of @aforhj.org.

forms.gleThe Best Album of 1988 Tournament - Nomination FormHello! This is the nomination form for the Best Album of 1988 Tournament, as run by @bestalbumbrackets.bsky.social on Bluesky (personal account: @kentmbeeson.bsky.social). If you could list every 1988...

What a year for hip-hop! Staggering depth and quality (not that there aren't any good rock albums, looking at you Daydream Nation, Bug, 16 Lovers Lane, Surfer Rosa, and Isn't Anything. Still it would be a shame if a hip-hop album didn't ultimately win (Follow the Leader, maybe?).

The Best Album of 2001@bestalbumbrackets.bsky.social

Here is the nomination form for the upcoming Best Album of 1988 tournament: forms.gle/MxGVfmFQaMvx...

Thomas Silverstein reposted

Poverty & Race Research Action Council

@prrac.bsky.social

This article has aged well. One day old and still salient!

Poverty & Race Research Action Council@prrac.bsky.social

Thomas Silverstein reposted

Brian Robson

@brianrobson.bsky.social

'Neither YIMBYs nor tenant organizers have the power to solve the housing crisis without each other. The time is right to try to do it together.' prracperspective.ghost.io/bridging-the... Excellent from @prrac.bsky.social's @tsilverstein.bsky.social - written w/US context but highly relevant to UK.

You heard it here first: the Wizards are going to go 82-0, and Anthony Davis is going to win the MVP award.

Thomas Silverstein reposted

citylimits.orgOpinion: A Flawed Ruling Threatens to Lock New Tens of Thousands of New Yorkers Out of Housing - City Limits"Challenges to the constitutionality of any law must be grounded in real harm, not speculation about scenarios that likely will never come to pass."

Trump’s open antagonism to Civil Rights & Fair Housing has emboldened these spurious copy cat challenges. “Challenges to the constitutionality of any law must be grounded in real harm, not speculation about scenarios that likely will never come to pass.”

Thomas Silverstein@tsilverstein.bsky.social

From friend of PRRAC Diane Houk, a must read.

Thomas Silverstein reposted

“When you strip away source-of-income protection, you're not just passing a code update," resident Gina Ventre told Council. "You are telling vulnerable residents in University Heights that their dignity and housing stability are negotiable."

Thomas Silverstein@tsilverstein.bsky.social

Great to see residents refuse to back down in the face of these pernicious attempts to roll back SOI protections through litigation based on pretextual privacy “concerns.”

wkyc.comwkyc.com

Great to see residents refuse to back down in the face of these pernicious attempts to roll back SOI protections through litigation based on pretextual privacy “concerns.”

wkyc.comwkyc.com

From friend of PRRAC Diane Houk, a must read.

Thomas Silverstein reposted

buff.lyHomelessness Experts Want Housing Without Strings Attached — ShelterforceHousing First has been part of homelessness policy for decades. Experts say the Trump administration's alternative doesn't measure up.

Housing First is not housing w/o treatment. It is treatment maximized by the stable base of safe housing. And it works.

Shelterforce@shelterforce.bsky.social

Housing First has shaped U.S. homelessness policy for decades. Now, the Trump administration wants to move toward a model with treatment requirements. Experts say the evidence supports housing without preconditions. buff.ly/ewa62Jh #HousingFirst #Homelessness #HousingJustice #UnderTheLens

thestranger.comSeattle Social Housing Developer Announces First Construction Project - The StrangerAt a chilly morning press conference today, Seattle Social Housing Developer (SSHD) Interim CEO Tiffani McCoy announced plans for the agency’s first original construction project, a five-story apartment building in the Central District on the lot that used to belong to the late housing advocate Rep. Frank Chopp. Scheduled to open in 2028, the development […]

Exciting to see plans taking shape for a first new construction project! As always, a shrug (that's fine but not that effective) from me at the community preference in a low-income community of color. I hope (as does the FHA) SSHD doesn't plan on doing that in rich, white areas, however!

Thomas Silverstein reposted

Poverty & Race Research Action Council

Why not Maryland? Our peer states (e.g Mass, CT, RI, Ill) have enacted “Anti-snob Zoning” (aka Builders Remedy) mandates & processes. New NYU report shows these laws increase housing stock & result in the development of more mixed income housing than other approaches. share.google/UHBtcWZaajx0...

share.googleshare.google

Thomas Silverstein reposted

@prrac.bsky.social

An insightful piece from friend of PRRAC Richard Rothstein on judicial supremacy in @scotusblog.com. www.scotusblog.com/2026/10/the-...

scotusblog.comThe Supreme Court and the last wordPlease note that SCOTUS Outside Opinions constitute the views of outside contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SCOTUSblog or its staff.

Trump's HUD has turned its authoritarian gaze upon - of all targets - Wells Fargo, announcing an investigation of the bank on the *putative* basis that its special purpose credit programs may violate the FHA. What's missing? A lot! 1. Any discussion of... www.hud.gov/sites/defaul...

hud.govhud.gov

...have zero sum components as opposed to being purely pie expanding. 6. Any discussion of the persistence of lending discrimination against communities of color & the persistence of the racial wealth gap - discussion which could have included reference to cases in which plaintiffs credibly...

...alleged that WF intentionally discriminated against Black - not white - borrowers & applicants. Probably a lot more! Can't wait for the D.D.C. to rule that the CFPB rule change that was an attempt to pull the rug out from SPCPs like WF's violated the APA!!!

hud.govhud.gov

...past the time when the CFPB changed its rules. 3. Any discussion of HUD OGC's past guidance concluding that the FHA also had to be read to allow SPCPs in order to not make that provision of ECOA a nullity with respect to mortgage lending. Or, alternatively, any discussion of that underlying...

...statutory interpretation question, even without reference to the HUD guidance. 4. Any acknowledgement that the position with regard to SPCPs that the administration is taking is totally contrary to the first Trump Administration's approach. 5. Any allegations along the lines that WF's SPCPs...

hud.govhud.gov

Poverty & Race Research Action Council

...15 U.S.C. § 1691(c)(3) which states that SPCPs of profit-making institutions that meet the CFPB's requirements (which WF's likely did, until those requirements were unlawfully changed this spring) do not violate the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. 2. Any allegation that WF's SPCPs persisted...

Thomas Silverstein reposted

@prrac.bsky.social

From our friends at @cplusc.bsky.social stopgreedbuildgreen.climateandcommunity.org/posts/buildi...

stopgreedbuildgreen.climateandcommunity.orgBuilding a Federal Cool Homes ProgramExtreme heat is making homes dangerous while electricity bills soar. A $35 billion Cool Homes Program would get working families the cooling they need at little or no cost.

Prison abolition except for people who send scam emails about donation/grant opportunities to non-profit executives. They're pretty much always very obvious, but they are not good for my mental health!

governing.comgoverning.com

This piece really misses the moment we're in & quite badly at that. Many of the additional land use reforms that could be enacted atop those that are already in place are varying shades of good & we should do them. However, the failure to do ALL of the reforms... www.governing.com/urban/the-st...

...aesthetically-oriented design requirements & allow single-stair & limit resource to state environmental law litigation to stop infill development, but don't mistake those steps for ones that will take on the costs of money, materials & labor or that will make markets dominated by incumbents...

...truly competitive.

governing.comgoverning.com

...like Austin and Denver? The reforms obviously worked to a degree. Would more reform keep the engine chugging? Seems doubtful when decreasing rents & high vacancy rates in new developments are at the forefront of developers' minds. That context demands either/both a public sector social housing...

...developer to play a counter-cyclical role and/or small, nimble non-incumbent developers to come into the space and make for a more competitive market (where the impact of new development on the financial health of existing holdings is not a consideration). So, by all means, reduce/axe onerous...

governing.comgoverning.com

...is not why existing reforms aren't working. Why? Because, well, the reforms are working (with some obvious unevenness). If permitting is similar in a high-interest rate, high-tariff environment where ICE/CBP are terrorizing immigrants (who disproportionately work in construction) to what it...

...was in a low-interest rate, low-tariff environment where immigrant construction workers weren't frightened to leave their homes, are reforms not working OR is the work that they're doing the work of preventing us from falling underwater? And what of the places that have had production booms...

nplusonemag.comSocial and Anti-Social Housing | Samuel SteinWe have public housing, but it has never been as well designed, built, or maintained. We have limited-equity co-ops built by limited-dividend companies, but we built far fewer of them, and we allowed ...

Social and Anti-Social Housing www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...

abc7ny.comMayor Mamdani fast tracks affordable housing in 12 districts, including Upper East SideMayor Zohran Mamdani is backing a plan aimed at increasing affordable housing construction in neighborhoods where such development has been limited, including the Upper East Side.

Across multiple NYC mayors, most (not all; see Gowanus, Soho/Noho, etc.) efforts to increase production have been basically reverse-targeted viz where it would advance equity. Some resulting housing in low-income communities of color has been salutary, but it is still good to see the winds shift!

time.comNursing Homes Have Become Last-Resort HousingFinding the right care for older adults facing homelessness could be part of a broader rethinking of long-term care, writes Michele Cohen Marill.

Apropos of earlier thread, co-living can theoretically help with this (I had a younger nursing home resident client once for whom that would have been ideal) but also carries some risks and investments in permanent supportive housing - at scale - are ultimately the most important intervention.

vox.comAmerica’s empty bedrooms are up for grabsA 20th-century backlash banned a popular affordable housing option. It’s now seeing a revival.

Great piece from @rcobooth.bsky.social. Some aspects of this issue not explored in the article but worthy of attention: - There is a long track record of successful litigation challenges to occupancy limits in the context of rejected reasonable accommodation requests... www.vox.com/the-highligh...

...SROs or adult dorms). Many unused bedrooms are rooms that are used for other purposes, such as home offices in the post-COVID era (like where I'm typing right now). & of course some folks, especially but not exclusively more affluent ones, intentionally want to have multiple guest rooms for...

...occasions like holidays when they may have a large amount of family in town at once. I'm not sure what a realistic number of bedrooms nationwide that could be redeployed for co-living is, but I'd wager it is a very small fraction of the total number of unused bedrooms.

vox.comAmerica’s empty bedrooms are up for grabsA 20th-century backlash banned a popular affordable housing option. It’s now seeing a revival.

That is better than homelessness or institutionalization, but, unlike for folks like me 15 years ago who got a lot of having roommates in my mid-20s, having his own home would absolutely be preferable for his individual sense of dignity & autonomy. - Lastly, there's undoubtedly some value in...

...observing how many "unused" bedrooms are sitting around in private homes that theoretically could be rented, but we shouldn't (not that I think anyone is) treat that number as reflective of anything close to the scalable potential for co-living in existing housing (distinct from purpose-built...

vox.comAmerica’s empty bedrooms are up for grabsA 20th-century backlash banned a popular affordable housing option. It’s now seeing a revival.

...arrangements, too. And, more to the point, we need a hell of a lot more of them (whether because of how they are subsidized or because there is also an infusion of Housing Choice Vouchers) to be affordable to extremely low-income households. I've spent a lot of time over the years helping a...

...friend, who is on SSI & far from the top of any HCV waiting list, get his basic needs met. In the absence of available public housing, Project-Based Section 8, or a voucher to use in the private market, a room in a shared home has been the only remotely feasible non-institutional option.

vox.comAmerica’s empty bedrooms are up for grabsA 20th-century backlash banned a popular affordable housing option. It’s now seeing a revival.

...extremist property rights arguments that the likes of PLF & IJ absolutely are advancing in other cases. I'm not saying there's a one-to-one relationship between this case & ones involving rent control, just cause, inclusionary zoning & anti-discrimination laws, but my default is I'd prefer a...

...narrow victory to a broad one. - I don't think anyone is necessarily suggesting that we treat co-living as "good enough" or an ultimate solution, but it is really important from a narrative perspective that we don't. We need to build a lot more affordable homes that don't require sharing...

vox.comAmerica’s empty bedrooms are up for grabsA 20th-century backlash banned a popular affordable housing option. It’s now seeing a revival.

- I haven't delved into the weeds of the state preemption laws and thus can't confirm the extent to which this is a serious concern; however, I do worry that a blunt force approach to state preemption could undermine reasonable safety/habitability regulations viz co-living. Anytime the Koch-verse...

...is advocating for state preemption, there's reason for caution even if not always for opposition. - Similarly, while I would favor SCOTUS abandoning Village of Belle Terre, how they do so matters. It would be important that any such decision not be a stalking horse for a broader set of...

vox.comAmerica’s empty bedrooms are up for grabsA 20th-century backlash banned a popular affordable housing option. It’s now seeing a revival.

...place. Think about no pet policies. Granting a valid RA request to allow a service or support animal, but it is easier for the person in need of an accommodation if there is no restrictive policy to begin with. - There is some, but less, history of applying the Fair Housing Act to protect...

...groups of unrelated, predominantly Latino men sharing homes in areas with rapidly growing immigrant work forces, principally on a disparate impact theory but sometimes with evidence that neutral occupancy limits are being enforced in a way that is targeted based on race or national origin.

vox.comAmerica’s empty bedrooms are up for grabsA 20th-century backlash banned a popular affordable housing option. It’s now seeing a revival.

...from operators of group homes for disabled people. Those challenges don't strike down the laws in their entirety, but they point to the value of repeal: disability inclusion (not that group homes are the epitome of that) is more meaningful if you don't have to make an RA request in the first...