The owner of a Miami Beach hotel—Setai Hotel Acquisition LLC–is suing the city over a zoning change. Zoning officials approved a change that would allow BHI Miami Limited to make additions to a building it recently purchased. Setai claims that the additions will block ocean views in many of its rooms, those views are a…
Housing advocates frequently talk about the imbalance of power between landlords and renters. Their solution is to use brute force to provide a more “equitable” balance. This policy is founded on the premise that individuals should experience the same results, regardless of their actions or character. As an example, a growing number of jurisdictions are…
The pandemic has exposed how widely misunderstood concepts like freedom and rights are. Many claim that rights conflict, and policy must balance there rights. For example, in a piece titled “COVID brings front and center the tug between individual rights and the public good,” the author writes: Why should anyone be allowed to spread a…
Housing vouchers are a subsidy provided by the federal government and administered by local government housing officials. Vouchers allow low-income families to obtain better rental housing than they could otherwise afford. However, many landlords do not accept vouchers. Housing advocates say that “source of income” discrimination should be outlawed and landlords should be required to…
In the early twentieth century, cities across the nation began enacting zoning ordinances that prohibited blacks from buying a home in a predominantly white neighborhood and vice versa. Beginning in the 1930s, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) refused to insure mortgages for black homeowners. For decades, at both the federal and local level, government essentially…
Housing advocates are promoting two bills before the Texas legislature (HB1470 and SB265) in the name of freedom of choice. But these bills are not about freedom of choice. The two bills would make it illegal for landlords to refuse to accept housing choice vouchers or other forms of financial aid for housing. This, we…
A new “pro-choice” movement is being promoted by Leftists. As is often the case, the stated goals of this movement are a masquerade. While the policies advocated by the movement are presented as promoting freedom of choice, those policies are an attack on that freedom. As one example, housing advocates and their political supporters are…
Leftists have a tactic that is often effective in generating support for their policies. They tell a really sad story, sprinkle in some horrifying statistics, and then evade relevant facts. A story about the eviction crisis on The Appeal illustrates this tactic. The article begins with a story about Samantha, a mother who worries where…
Housing advocates are promoting two bills introduced in the Texas Legislature that would give tenants more choices and reduce choices for landlords. The bills would prohibit landlords from using source of income as a consideration when renting a property. The purpose of the bills is to force landlords to accept housing vouchers. Advocates defend the…
Many Americans, including President Biden, believe that wearing a mask in public should be mandated by law. Violators should be subject to criminal prosecution. Wearing a mask, the argument goes, will protect the wearer, as well as those around him. If this is true, and there is substantial evidence supporting it, then why aren’t we…
In Part 2, we examined how the alleged right to choose advocated by housing advocates actually destroys the freedom to choose. In this post, we will look at the second “right” asserted by advocates: the “right” to stay. We will see how, if put into practice, this guarantee against involuntary displacement will reduce voluntary action….
In Part 1, we saw that housing advocates are advocating four “rights” pertaining to housing. In this post, we will examine the first of these alleged rights, the “right” to choose. We will see that, if put into practice, this “right” will eliminate the freedom of choice. Housing advocates state that, The right to choose…