Louisville Launches ‘Anti-Displacement Tool’
The city of Louisville will begin using a new algorithmic tool to assess the potential for displacement of proposed housing projects, according to a Shelterforce article. “The tool analyzes whether a given project meets the neighborhood’s housing needs and income levels, ensuring that rents match local incomes. If the development does not meet these standards, then the city cannot subsidize it.” City officials hope the tool will make development more equitable and ensure that city funding does not contribute to the displacement of long-term residents.
Making the case for good cause eviction in Maryland
Maryland’s General Assembly is currently looking at a bill that would block landlords from evicting tenants without a legitimate reason. On February 18th, members of Renters United Maryland called on lawmakers to require a “good cause” or “just cause” for any eviction, such as a lease violation or non-payment.
Special Legislative Commission to Study and Provide Recommendations to Update and Clarify the “Residential Landlord and Tenant Act”: 2-24-2025
Art on the Underground: A Public Contradiction
Rudy Loewe’s commission at Brixton Underground Station is a case in point. Launching in November 2025, this work will form part of the now well established Brixton Mural Programme by seeking to build upon the area’s diverse narratives by highlighting the ways people gather together in this urban environment. The ‘bold, flat colours’ that characterise Loewe’s aesthetic will undoubtedly chime with Brixton’s own multicultural offering – providing Brixton’s community an opportunity to recognise, and even reclaim, their lived experiences in dialogue with the art. Certainly this is what Claudette Johnson’s current (2024) Brixton commission, Three Women, has sought to achieve.
Anti-displacement planning tool
The city council of Louisville, Kentucky, have voted to adopt an Anti-Displacement Assessment Tool to ensure the risk of displacement is considered in planning, and protect low-income and marginalised groups from displacement. This was based on their 2019 Housing Needs Assessment, which undertook an analysis of displacement and gentrification – and which groups were most at risk. Will you explore how a similar tool might work in London, by a) meeting with academics who devised this tool in Louisville, and b) looking at how the upcoming Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) can consider the risks of displacement faced by marginalised communities?
Is the new anti-gentrification legislation in Louisville a model for global cities?
The housing crisis is often framed as a straightforward shortage of housing of any type, meaning any new supply is seen as good. But in Louisville, Kentucky as in many other places, the picture is really more nuanced. Every type of development does not benefit every type of resident.
Urban Refuge Alumni Reunion Highlights Careers and Impact
On November 18, the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies hosted a career networking roundtable as part of Professor Dr. Noora Lori’s Urban Refuge Reunion Initiative, bringing together alumni from the 2016 Forced Migration and Human Trafficking class with the 2024 cohort. Six distinguished alumni—Meaghan Delaney, Sara Lopez Gonzalez, Ellie Hitt, Raina Kadavil, Victoria Kelberer, and Taylor Resteghini—shared how they transformed a classroom innovation into a lasting humanitarian initiative.
In Boston, map of opportunity for first-time homebuying has changed
Three years later, after more price increases and shrinking inventory, she is hailing a new source of help for first-time buyers, including many being priced out of Boston: the “One+ Mortgage” program announced on Nov. 26 by the Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP). The shift had been gradual, and now it was more formalized: the map of homebuying opportunity had changed.
Electric Bikes and Scooters Are Everywhere. Here’s How You Can Stay Safe
There are plenty of ways to get around Boston University’s unique campus layout, which spans both sides of Comm Ave for nearly two miles. Many BU community members opt for the MBTA Green Line, which runs straight through campus and into downtown Boston, while others walk, take the free BU Shuttle, or bike. But in recent years, many cities, including Boston, have seen a rise in electric bicycles and scooters on their roads. The majority of these vehicles are battery-powered micromobility devices and can include “bicycles, skateboards, scooters, and other small, wheeled conveyances designed for personal transport,” according to BU Transportation Services.
A new tool helps avoid displacing vulnerable residents
In the wake of the justice movement for Breonna Taylor – who police shot and killed in March 2020 – an activist and a newly elected Louisville Metro Council member decided it was time to protect the city’s Historically Black Neighborhoods. Four years later – on Nov. 21, 2024 — the Louisville Metro Council unanimously passed the Anti-Displacement Ordinance. The law enabled the creation of the Anti-Displacement Assessment Tool, the first grassroots-conceived, legislatively driven public dashboard to measure and limit the risk of displacement in areas where publicly funded residential developments are proposed.