In The News - 4/30/2024
KHQ
Mayor Lisa Brown offers new public safety funding levy
A public safety levy proposed by Mayor Lisa Brown will be considered by voters in August after City Council approved adding it to the ballot on Monday.
According to the mayor’s office, the proposed levy would lift the current levy lid by $1 per $1,000 in assessed property value on Spokane properties. The city estimates that this will lead to a $31.42 monthly charge for the median homeowner.
Brown’s office states that the lift would fund the replacement of a fleet of fire department vehicles, reinstate the department’s fire academy, increase Spokane Police Department bike and foot patrols, in addition to launching or restarting several behavioral health programs
The Coeur d’ Alene Press
Emergency food, shelter funding available to Kootenai County nonprofits
Local food and shelter organizations can apply for funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Kootenai County has been awarded $65,515 for the emergency food and shelter phase 41. The state also awarded Kootenai County $44,438 from some “set aside” funding for the emergency food and shelter phase 41. Phase 41 is a FEMA funding mechanism for the year 2024.
United Ways and St. Vincent de Paul locations nationwide partner with FEMA to distribute the funds. For nonprofits that may not qualify for other types of funding, such as church-based soup kitchens, the emergency food and shelter program provides a unique opportunity.
The Wall St. Journal
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Wall Street Has Spent Billions Buying Homes. A Crackdown Is Looming.
Lawmakers say investors that scooped up hundreds of thousands of houses to rent out are driving up home prices
Democrats in the U.S. Senate and House have sponsored legislation that would force large owners of single-family homes to sell houses to family buyers. A Republican’s bill in the Ohio state legislature aims to drive out institutional owners through heavy taxation.
Lawmakers in Nebraska, California, New York, Minnesota and North Carolina are among those proposing similar laws.
While homeowner associations for years have sought to stop investors from buying and renting out houses in their neighborhoods, the legislative proposals represent a new effort by elected officials to regulate Wall Street’s appetite for single-family homes.
These lawmakers say that investors that have scooped up hundreds of thousands of houses to rent out are contributing to the dearth of homes for sale and driving up home prices. They argue that investor buying has made it harder for first-time buyers to compete with Wall Street-backed investment firms and their all-cash offers.
Investors of all sizes spent billions of dollars buying homes during the pandemic. At the 2022 peak, they bought more than one in every four single-family homes sold, though more recently their activity has slowed as interest rates rose and supply became tighter. Two of the largest home-buying firms, Invitation Homes and AMH, are publicly traded companies, while a number of other companies, backed by private equity, hold portfolios of tens of thousands of homes nationwide.
Companies that buy single-family homes say their businesses provide renters the opportunity to live in desirable neighborhoods where they otherwise couldn’t afford to buy.