Opinion

Tipping the Scales in Housing Court

Published in Friday November 30th, 2012 In Opinion

November 29, 2012 by MATTHEW DESMOND IT’S easy to tell who’s going to win in eviction court. On one side of the room sit the tenants: men in work uniforms, mothers with children in secondhand coats, confused and crowded together on hard benches. On the other side, often in a set-aside space, are not the landlords […]

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Uganda Government Sorting Out Land Problems

Published in Wednesday November 28th, 2012 In Opinion

November 27, 2012 By DAUDI MIGEREKO, Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development. Land is a God-given means of sustenance for all living things, which makes it rational and prudent to use for the continuation of all living species. Land utilization should be able to transform us as individuals and the entire society to be […]

Land Reform in South Africa: An Unfulfilled Obligation

Published in Monday November 5th, 2012 In Opinion

November 1st, 2012 by Glenn Ashton The question of land and agricultural reform in South Africa remains largely unresolved as we head towards the end of our second decade of democracy. It is remarkable that a democratically elected government, enjoying such an overwhelming parliamentary majority and popular support, has failed so spectacularly, in such an […]

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Our Land, Our Future

Published in Wednesday October 24th, 2012 In In the media

October 23rd, 2012 by Mr. Ali D. Kaba Liberia’s total land area is approximately ten million hectares. Liberia currently has one of the highest land concession rates in Africa: almost 40% of our nation’s land has already been promised to foreign investors for logging, palm and rubber plantations, and mining across all fifteen counties. Between […]

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Post-Katrina Reforms in New Orleans Continue to Disenfranchise African-Americans, Poor

Published in Friday August 31st, 2012 In Opinion

August 29, 2012 Seven years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has become a laboratory for government reforms. But the processes through which those experiments have been carried out have rarely been transparent or democratic, and they have often been divisive, pitting new residents against those who grew up here, rich against poor, and white against […]

In the US, the one housing solution left: mass mortgage refinancing

Published in Monday August 13th, 2012 In Opinion

August 12, 2012 By JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ and MARK ZANDI MORE than four million Americans have lost their homes since the housing bubble began bursting six years ago. An additional 3.5 million homeowners are in the foreclosure process or are so delinquent on payments that they will be soon. With 13.5 million homeowners underwater — they owe more […]

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Getting real on human rights at the U.N.

Published in Wednesday July 18th, 2012 In Opinion

July 6, 2012 In the past several days, sound and fury again erupted in Geneva, with allegations of hypocrisy leveled against the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). In testimony before the Council, Thor Halvorssen argued that allowing Venezuela and other bad guys seats on the Council prevents it from promoting human rights. I agree that […]

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In New Zealand, housing is a problem beyond politics

Published in Monday June 25th, 2012 In Opinion

Decent, affordable housing is a basic human right. In the second of a five-part series, David Killick argues Christchurch needs practical housing solutions – now and for the future.

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In the UK, housing crisis deepens

Published in Wednesday June 13th, 2012 In Opinion

June 12, 2012 by Mark Easton The desperate shortage of affordable homes in England appears to be worsening, following Tuesday’s publication of national housing statistics. The Homes and Communities Agency has announced that the number of “affordable housing starts” for 2011-2012 was just 15,698 – a 68% fall on the previous year. The Housing Minister […]

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Evictions of Palestinians from their homes and other properties using affadavits

Published in Monday May 21st, 2012 In Opinion

May 21, 2012 by William Temple A recent court case, from May 8 2012, reported by Haartez has highlighted how The Absentee Property Law together with unsupported affadavits has been used to secure the evictions of Palestinians from their homes in sensitive areas of East Jerusalem. A number of legal methods have been used by […]

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