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Quick scheduling note: The Weekly Wrap is off next Friday. Next City’s team will be in Chicago hosting Vanguard, our annual conference for rising urban changemakers. We’ll be back in your inbox in October!
San Francisco May Give Housing Its Own City Department
San Francisco Supervisor Myrna Melgar is pushing to create a new standalone city housing department, Mission Local reports, which could potentially be called the Department of Housing Development and Preservation.
Currently, the city’s housing programs are scattered across multiple offices with limited coordination. The new department would pull housing functions out of the mayor’s office and consolidate them into a single agency with broader authority over affordable and market-rate housing production and preservation.
Melgar is also drafting separate legislation to launch a city program supporting limited-equity housing cooperatives. It’s a relatively rare ownership model in San Francisco despite roughly 1,600 existing co-op units, most built decades ago with now-defunct federal subsidies.
A third proposal would require city agencies to coordinate street repaving with planned bike lane installations. “To solve our housing crisis, we need more of everything,” Melgar says.
Supreme Court Preserves Mail-In Voting
The Supreme Court left in place a legal challenge to the Trump administration’s new rules on mail voting, SCOTUS Blog reports.
The rules would have required the Department of Homeland Security to provide a list of U.S. citizens to all states and authorize the attorney general to prosecute elected officials for alleged voter fraud in their districts. After 23 states sued, implementation of the order was paused, which led to a legal back and forth that ended with the Supreme Court.
Governing reports that local election officials are relieved that the new rules won’t be implemented. Mail-in voting is more popular with Democrats than Republicans, who are expected to lose seats during the midterms.
Seattle Social Housing Pauses Lowest-Income Applicants
According to the Seattle Times, the city’s new Social Housing Development Authority has temporarily paused applications for its most low-income applicants.
The authority purchased the Elara apartments and intended to transform it into a mixed-income development subsidized by a tax on corporate earnings that voters approved through multiple ballot measures. The pause on low-income applicants comes as the housing developer said it was still securing contracts for social services, including job referrals and behavioral health.
Trump EPA Weakens Carbon Power Plant Rule
Grist reports that Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency has repealed a Biden-era rule that required coal plants to either end operations by the 2030’s or use carbon sequestration technology to pull carbon from the atmosphere. The agency has also repealed all federal regulations on carbon emissions in the country’s energy sector.
Obama- and Biden- era restrictions were not in place for long enough before their repeal to significantly reduce carbon emissions, but coal production has still slowed largely because of the fracking boom, according to Grist. In recent years, the growth of hyperscale data centers has breathed some new life into the coal industry, as energy-guzzling infrastructure requires fast and cheap sources of fuel to power it.
States Are Fighting Prediction Markets
The federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission has sued nine states for attempting to regulate their own online prediction markets, Governing reports.
The CFTC has argued that prediction markets are not gambling, which states have authority to regulate, but financial derivatives, which the federal government regulates. Kalshi and other companies have argued that the service is not gambling because customers are betting against other customers rather than the “house.”
MORE NEWS
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Tenant right to purchase bill closer than ever in Boston. Commonwealth Beacon
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Deconstruction is a key frontier for climate action in Seattle. The Urbanist
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The death of Vancouver’s Villages Plan, and its lessons. Sightline Institute
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NYC deploys robotoilets. The public bathrooms have a strict 10-minute time limit. Gothamist
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As extreme weather worsens, Black and Hispanic Homeowners are paying more for insurance. Inside Climate News
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Upcoming overhaul of the Chicago region’s transit system shows the power of organizing around public service. Truthout
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New York City’s first light-rail project could take 5 years to build. Smart Cities Dive
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Santa Ana bans city employees from moonlighting for ICE. LAist
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This group is building benches at bus stops that don’t have one. Will the city let them stay? Chicago Sun-Times
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Airbnb launches $250 million housing accelerator to jump-start stalled projects. Housing Wire
OPPORTUNITIES & RESOURCES
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DEADLINE TODAY: The CommonSpirit Health Improvement Grant Program is funding initiatives addressing community health, health equity, mental health, crisis support, and well-being in Colorado, Kansas, and Utah. Apply by Sept. 18.
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The Park Foundation is accepting funding proposals for work related to democracy, civic participation, and media. Apply by Sept. 22.
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Impact Fund is accepting grant applications for impact litigation advancing economic, environmental, and social justice. Submit a letter of interest by Sept. 29.
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The America250 Community Futures Challenge is accepting applications from 501(c)(3) nonprofits advancing workforce development, economic mobility, public infrastructure, civic tech, entrepreneurship, community development, and more. Apply by Nov. 30.
This article is part of The Weekly Wrap, a newsletter rounding up stories that explain the problems oppressing people in cities and elevate the solutions bringing us closer to economic, environmental and social justice. Click here to subscribe to The Weekly Wrap newsletter.
Roshan Abraham is a contributing editor for housing and homelessness at Next City. Based in Queens, New York, he has written extensively about city policy, including prisons and policing, housing and homelessness for The Guardian, The New York Times, Slate, The Baffler, Village Voice, The Verge, Pacific Standard, The Appeal, Vice and other outlets. At Vice, he was formerly a staff writer covering the housing beat. He is a former Open City Fellow and Witness Fellow at the Asian American Writers Workshop and a former Equitable Cities Fellow at Next City.
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