News

World Cup preparation means eviction for several Brazilian residents

Published in Tuesday January 14th, 2014 In In the media

At dusk, just a few days before Christmas, Veronica Maria da Silva, her husband and her brother-in-law were taking the last valuables they could out of their homes in their neighborhood of São Francisco near the city of Camaragibe. Windows and doors can be reused, but only if they’re saved before the demolition crew arrives. So the family pulled them out of the walls, leaving ragged holes behind with piles of loose brick and tile spilled over the floors.

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Eminent Domain: A Long Shot Against Blight

Published in Monday January 13th, 2014 In In the media

Ms. McLaughlin has a plan to help the many Richmond residents who owe more money on their houses than their houses are worth, but it’s one that banks like Wells Fargo, large asset managers like Pimco and BlackRock, real estate interests and even Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance giants, have tried to quash. Her idea involves a novel use of the power of eminent domain to bail out homeowners by buying up and then forgiving mortgage debt.

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4 years after earthquake, Haiti reconstruction is haphazard

Published in Monday January 13th, 2014 In In the media

Canaan has become a squatters’ paradise of mushrooming construction of makeshift shacks and concrete homes, with quake victims, land speculators and ordinary Haitians seeking opportunities.

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Philippines typhoon rebuilding may cost 50 pct more this year than estimated

Published in Friday January 10th, 2014 In In the media

The cost of typhoon reconstruction this year could reach 138 billion pesos ($3.1 billion), more than 50 percent higher than initially estimated, as the Philippines seeks to build back better and put in safeguards for future disasters, the budget secretary said on Thursday.

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Families Flee From Marakwet Forests Ahead of Police Evictions

Published in Thursday January 9th, 2014 In In the media

January 08, 2013 by Mathews Ndanyi Hundreds of families are fleeing from Embobut forest in Marakwet where the government has deployed police to evict more than 15,000 squatters. Some of the families they feared the government would use excessive force to evict them from the forests following the expiry of a 21 days notice issued […]

EU migrants to be helped find homes by assigned housing officer in Aberdeen

Published in Wednesday January 8th, 2014 In In the media

The city council has revealed that 18.5 per cent of housing applications are from the migrant worker community and councillors believe migrants have not been given the same level of information and advice about entitlement to local authority housing since the city council stopped funding the project three years ago.

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Sengwer tribe faces eviction in the name of conservation

Published in Wednesday January 8th, 2014 In Social movement news

The Sengwer tribe has safeguarded the Embobut forest in western Kenya for hundreds of years and they wish to remain on their lands and care for the forest where their ancestors are buried. But the Kenyan government claims to be protecting the forest’s biodiversity by removing the very people who have protected it.

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Eviction threats remain for vulnerable displaced people

Published in Tuesday January 7th, 2014 In In the media

Since mid-2013 tens of thousands of internally displaced people living in formal and in-formal settlements in Mogadishu have been forced to move to makeshift settlements north of the city, Kilometre 7 to 13.

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D.C. foreclosure law is too weak to protect homeowners

Published in Tuesday January 7th, 2014 In In the media

The D.C. Council recently revised the foreclosure mediation law it passed three years ago. Known as the Saving D.C. Homes From Foreclosure Act of 2010, the law was created to address the foreclosure crisis in the District. But in tinkering with the measure, the council avoided the basic issue: The District needs a strong foreclosure law that protects consumers.

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15,000 squatters to be kicked out in Keiyo

Published in Tuesday January 7th, 2014 In In the media

County commissioner Arthur Osiya has said the squatters will not be given extra time to continue living in the forests as they had been paid Sh400,000 per family to buy land elsewhere.