News

Columbia banks work together on low-income housing (USA)

Published in Wednesday May 2nd, 2012 In In the media

April 29, 2012 Seven Columbia banks that normally compete for customers are working together to increase the number of affordable home in some of the city’s most distressed neighborhoods. The banks have built nearly 30 homes and renovated several more in the city’s First Ward since 1994 by purchasing and restoring vacant or dilapidated homes. […]

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Tensions high in Port Bell as another eviction looms (Uganda)

Published in Wednesday May 2nd, 2012 In In the media

April 30, 2012 It is now three months since the murderous eviction that went wrong at Port Bell in Luzira, a Kampala suburb. The ground has, however, been set for a similarly hot-tempered eviction exercise of occupants on land belonging to Uganda Railways Corporation (URC), 100 metres away from the spot where Santos Komakech, a […]

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‘Landmark’ Roma eviction ruling sets precedent, rights group says (Bulgaria)

Published in Wednesday May 2nd, 2012 In In the media

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that evicting Roma from an established community outside of Sofia, Bulgaria, would violate the right to life. Amnesty International called it a “landmark judgment.” The Strasbourg-based rights court issued the ruling last week in favor of 23 Bulgarian nationals living in a settlement with about 250 other Roma. The Roma had settled in Batalova Vodenitsa, on the outskirts of Bulgaria’s capital Sofia, in the 1960s and 70s. The Roma, also known as gypsies, have been pushed to the margins of European society and have even become targets of persecution.

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Spanish homeowners rally together to fight evictions by banks

Published in Wednesday May 2nd, 2012 In In the media

May 2nd, 2012 Residents in a quiet suburb of Barcelona are taking the fight against the financial sector to the judiciary as they attempt to save a family from being evicted from their home, in a case that has become a powerful symbol of Spain’s five-year economic crisis. At 9.30am in the district of Santa […]

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Judge denies restraining order on closing ‘Occupy Madison’ camp (USA)

Published in Wednesday May 2nd, 2012 In In the media

April 29, 2012 A Dane County judge refused to issue a restraining order against the closing of the Occupy Madison encampment on the city’s east side. Judge Amy Smith says while Occupy Madison protesters have first amendment rights they have no special rights to camp out at the location on the 800 block of East […]

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Kolkata Slum dwellers’ eviction a crime: Binayak Sen (India)

Published in Wednesday May 2nd, 2012 In In the media

April 29, 2012 Describing the eviction of people from slums in Nonadanga in the eastern part of the city as a “tragedy and great crime”, human rights activist Binayak Sen Sunday accused the West Bengal government of being inhuman. “It (eviction) is a great tragedy and a great crime committed. It is really inhumane on […]

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Kenya: Get to Know Your Rights, Dwellers of Slums Told

Published in Wednesday May 2nd, 2012 In Social movement news

April 27, 2012 Amnesty International yesterday challenged slum dwellers to be aware of their human rights in order to fight aggressions meted on them including evictions. Amnesty International campaign officer Naomi Barasa said lack of awareness by slum dwellers on their rights is greatly contributing to numerous violations. She added that if slum dwellers are […]

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Stripped-down protesters in Cambodia demand land titles after eviction

Published in Wednesday May 2nd, 2012 In In the media

May 1st, 2012 About a dozen women who stripped down to their underwear were among 100 protesters outside Cambodia’s National Assembly on Tuesday demanding land titles they said they were promised after being evicted from their homes. The protesters said they had been residents of Phnom Penh’s Boueng Kak lake area whose land was awarded […]

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Pa. homeless camp eviction deadline pushed back (USA)

Published in Wednesday May 2nd, 2012 In In the media

May 2nd, 2012 The eviction of a group of about 20 homeless people from a suburban Philadelphia camp has been pushed back to next week. Residents of a homeless enclave near a hospital in Bristol, Bucks County had been ordered to leave by Tuesday, but the deadline has been pushed back to May 7. After […]

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With affordable housing endangered, neighborhoods turn to land trusts (USA)

Published in Friday April 27th, 2012 In In the media

April 27, 2012 For 30 years, community organizations in the city have fought rising land prices to maintain affordable housing in their neighborhoods, often by buying, rehabbing and renting out one house at a time. Today, however, suitable houses are becoming scarce, so neighborhood activists are turning to instruments known as community land trusts. Promoted […]

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