Shamus Roller
@shamusroller.bsky.social
ED at the National Housing Law Project 🇺🇸 Housing nerd. @nhlp.bsky.social
Reposted by Shamus Roller
1. This week, the FBI released its comprehensive crime report for 2024, which revealed that both VIOLENT CRIME and PROPERTY CRIME reached their LOWEST LEVELS SINCE THE 1960s
This a massive story. But you might not have heard about it, even if you follow the news closely.
Here's why.
This a massive story. But you might not have heard about it, even if you follow the news closely.
Here's why.
Why you might not know that 2024 was America's safest year since the 1960s
An overwhelming majority of Americans, 64 percent, believe that crime increased across the country in 2024, according to a Gallup survey conducted late last year.
popular.info
August 7, 2025 at 1:35 PM
1. This week, the FBI released its comprehensive crime report for 2024, which revealed that both VIOLENT CRIME and PROPERTY CRIME reached their LOWEST LEVELS SINCE THE 1960s
This a massive story. But you might not have heard about it, even if you follow the news closely.
Here's why.
This a massive story. But you might not have heard about it, even if you follow the news closely.
Here's why.
The squatter hysteria from last year is starting to produce what was always intended by the real estate industry - lawful tenants are being removed because they don't have a written lease. www.wsbtv.com/news/local/a...
Atlanta tenants say they’re being wrongly labeled as squatters amid unsafe living conditions
On Friday, some tenants returned home to find their belongings outside.
www.wsbtv.com
June 2, 2025 at 7:04 PM
The squatter hysteria from last year is starting to produce what was always intended by the real estate industry - lawful tenants are being removed because they don't have a written lease. www.wsbtv.com/news/local/a...
Reposted by Shamus Roller
For the June issue of @thenation.com, I wrote about the Harper’s letter 5 years later, and how under a quarter of its signatories have spoken out about Mahmoud Khalil and other campus activists imprisoned for speech.
They All Signed the “Harper’s” Letter. Where Are They Now?
Many of those who were loudest in denouncing cancel culture then are now curiously silent in the face of Donald Trump’s assaults on free speech.
www.thenation.com
May 16, 2025 at 10:14 PM
For the June issue of @thenation.com, I wrote about the Harper’s letter 5 years later, and how under a quarter of its signatories have spoken out about Mahmoud Khalil and other campus activists imprisoned for speech.
Reposted by Shamus Roller
New Study 🔔:
More than 7M Americans face eviction each year. But if they go to court, most do it alone, without a lawyer.
Our researchers studied the initiatives that are trying to change this reality, known as Right to Counsel programs or RTC.
evictionlab.org/disrupting-t...
More than 7M Americans face eviction each year. But if they go to court, most do it alone, without a lawyer.
Our researchers studied the initiatives that are trying to change this reality, known as Right to Counsel programs or RTC.
evictionlab.org/disrupting-t...
Disrupting the Eviction System: Tenant Right to Counsel
As a growing number of jurisdictions consider adopting RTC—and as researchers seek to analyze the effects of such programs—it is critical to understand their challenges and the keys to their success. ...
evictionlab.org
April 28, 2025 at 1:10 PM
New Study 🔔:
More than 7M Americans face eviction each year. But if they go to court, most do it alone, without a lawyer.
Our researchers studied the initiatives that are trying to change this reality, known as Right to Counsel programs or RTC.
evictionlab.org/disrupting-t...
More than 7M Americans face eviction each year. But if they go to court, most do it alone, without a lawyer.
Our researchers studied the initiatives that are trying to change this reality, known as Right to Counsel programs or RTC.
evictionlab.org/disrupting-t...
Reposted by Shamus Roller
MADISON, Wis. – Yesterday, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and other publications reported that Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan apparently attempted to protect a defendant from ICE agents trying to detain that defendant. (1/6)
April 23, 2025 at 4:25 PM
MADISON, Wis. – Yesterday, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and other publications reported that Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan apparently attempted to protect a defendant from ICE agents trying to detain that defendant. (1/6)
I got to meet Dolores Huerta yesterday. Doesn't get much better than that.
April 24, 2025 at 4:48 PM
I got to meet Dolores Huerta yesterday. Doesn't get much better than that.
This Fair Housing Month we are defending hard-won protections. At @NHLP we’re fighting for a different future. While this moment is hard, we must imagine & build a housing system that puts people over profit. Read more of our thoughts here: conta.cc/3FDXnSa
We're fighting for a different future
Email from The National Housing Law Project Dear Friends of NHLP, I’m writing to you on the cusp of Fair Housing Month. April commemorates the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, and the promise
conta.cc
April 24, 2025 at 4:34 PM
This Fair Housing Month we are defending hard-won protections. At @NHLP we’re fighting for a different future. While this moment is hard, we must imagine & build a housing system that puts people over profit. Read more of our thoughts here: conta.cc/3FDXnSa
The CFPB was created in the wake of the Great Recession and the foreclosure crisis - to help prevent a crisis like that from happening again and to protect us - consumers. Bring on the predatory lenders - just what we all needed.
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/u...
Mass Layoffs Hit Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Gift Article)
The agency, which has returned $21 billion to consumers since its inception, could lose 1,500 of its 1,700 employees, a union warned.
www.nytimes.com
April 18, 2025 at 1:22 PM
The CFPB was created in the wake of the Great Recession and the foreclosure crisis - to help prevent a crisis like that from happening again and to protect us - consumers. Bring on the predatory lenders - just what we all needed.
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/u...
I hope that Congress ignores Trump's budget proposals much like they did in the first term but there's less spine in Congress this time around. Decimating the voucher program would make all of our lives worse.
NEW: President Trump is preparing a budget with deep cuts to federal housing programs, including vouchers for the poor. Today, the admin took steps to sell HUD headquarters, and so far, about 2300 workers have taken "deferred resignation" offers to leave. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/u...
White House Eyes Overhaul of Federal Housing Aid to the Poor
The Trump administration has considered sharply curtailing vouchers as part of its budget for the 2026 fiscal year.
www.nytimes.com
April 17, 2025 at 6:46 PM
I hope that Congress ignores Trump's budget proposals much like they did in the first term but there's less spine in Congress this time around. Decimating the voucher program would make all of our lives worse.
Reposted by Shamus Roller
In February, DOGE took screenshots of affordable housing providers' websites and LinkedIn profiles that showed terms associated with diversity and equity — then canceled millions of dollars in contracts with those groups.
That funding was just reinstated on appeal: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
That funding was just reinstated on appeal: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Trump DEI Purge Hits Affordable Housing Groups
Millions of dollars in affordable housing contracts were canceled after a DOGE review of their websites and social media for terms linked to equity and diversity.
www.bloomberg.com
April 11, 2025 at 3:22 PM
In February, DOGE took screenshots of affordable housing providers' websites and LinkedIn profiles that showed terms associated with diversity and equity — then canceled millions of dollars in contracts with those groups.
That funding was just reinstated on appeal: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
That funding was just reinstated on appeal: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Details from Karl Marx-Hof
April 7, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Details from Karl Marx-Hof
In Vienna studying social housing. Starting with the grandma of them all.
April 7, 2025 at 2:22 PM
In Vienna studying social housing. Starting with the grandma of them all.
Relman Colfax founder John Relman on the attacks on lawyers and why to fight. www.commondreams.org/opinion/big-...
Big Law Is Winning in Court—Now Is Not the Time to Fold | Common Dreams
The law firms fighting back against Trump’s executive orders are winning, and those cutting deals with the White House are suffering irreparable damage behind the scenes.
www.commondreams.org
April 7, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Relman Colfax founder John Relman on the attacks on lawyers and why to fight. www.commondreams.org/opinion/big-...
And … the HUD website is down.
March 24, 2025 at 4:54 AM
And … the HUD website is down.
Reposted by Shamus Roller
Many conservatives who fought against cancel culture on college campuses and championed free speech are now behind a growing crackdown on political expression at universities, in ways that try to sidestep the Constitution’s free-speech guarantees.
Republicans Once Championed Free Speech on Campus. Now, Not So Much.
President Trump and state politicians are pushing new laws and policies that crack down on curriculum, protests and speakers.
www.nytimes.com
March 20, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Many conservatives who fought against cancel culture on college campuses and championed free speech are now behind a growing crackdown on political expression at universities, in ways that try to sidestep the Constitution’s free-speech guarantees.
Reposted by Shamus Roller
Chris Bergquist worked in HUD’s Fair Housing office.
One of his first cases: a disabled woman who couldn’t shower because her landlord refused to make her unit wheelchair accessible. His team forced compliance.
Now he’s been fired in Trump’s purge—as Fair Housing staff face 76.5% cuts nationwide.
One of his first cases: a disabled woman who couldn’t shower because her landlord refused to make her unit wheelchair accessible. His team forced compliance.
Now he’s been fired in Trump’s purge—as Fair Housing staff face 76.5% cuts nationwide.
Before the mass firings, this Georgia-based federal worker prevented housing discrimination in the Southeast
Included in the ongoing purge of federal workers by the Trump administration were employees at the Atlanta regional office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. One federal worker's...
www.wabe.org
March 14, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Chris Bergquist worked in HUD’s Fair Housing office.
One of his first cases: a disabled woman who couldn’t shower because her landlord refused to make her unit wheelchair accessible. His team forced compliance.
Now he’s been fired in Trump’s purge—as Fair Housing staff face 76.5% cuts nationwide.
One of his first cases: a disabled woman who couldn’t shower because her landlord refused to make her unit wheelchair accessible. His team forced compliance.
Now he’s been fired in Trump’s purge—as Fair Housing staff face 76.5% cuts nationwide.
What’s at risk with CFPB: “Last week, the agency’s consumer response team was called back to work to tackle a backlog of 16,000 complaints, including dozens from homeowners facing imminent foreclosures.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/b...
Left for Dead, the C.F.P.B. Inches Back to Life
Court orders have paused, and at times reversed, the Trump administration’s efforts to shut down the consumer watchdog agency.
www.nytimes.com
March 15, 2025 at 4:04 PM
What’s at risk with CFPB: “Last week, the agency’s consumer response team was called back to work to tackle a backlog of 16,000 complaints, including dozens from homeowners facing imminent foreclosures.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/b...
Reposted by Shamus Roller
JD Vances housing line has been well known and he said it at the VP debate. He thinks the solution to the housing shortage is to deport millions and build sprawl on federal protected land. Anyone retweeting him is just a right winger MAGA dude hiding behind the seemingly nonpartisan YIMBY brand.
seeing other YIMBY accounts be suckered by JD Vance’s obvious BS has been truly pathetic
JD Vance talking about housing as a supply issue while part of the Tariffs and Construction Worker Deportations admin is basically the whole NatCon shtick writ large: you accurately diagnose the problem, talk eloquently about it’s impacts, then enthusiastically commit yourself to being part of it.
March 13, 2025 at 1:13 AM
JD Vances housing line has been well known and he said it at the VP debate. He thinks the solution to the housing shortage is to deport millions and build sprawl on federal protected land. Anyone retweeting him is just a right winger MAGA dude hiding behind the seemingly nonpartisan YIMBY brand.
Reposted by Shamus Roller
NEW: Biggest Federal Employee Unions Says Shutdown is Preferable to Elon/Trump CR talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/bigge...
Biggest Federal Employee Unions Says Shutdown is Preferable to Elon/Trump CR
Federal workers obviously don’t like government shutdowns. Most of them are furloughed....
talkingpointsmemo.com
March 13, 2025 at 1:14 AM
NEW: Biggest Federal Employee Unions Says Shutdown is Preferable to Elon/Trump CR talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/bigge...
Reposted by Shamus Roller
Trump's unprecedented retaliatory efforts against the Perkins Coie law firm have triggered the EVEN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL alarm, whose editorial page notes that Trump's actions "breaks a cornerstone principle of American justice going back to John Adams and the Founders."
Opinion | Trump, Perkins Coie and John Adams
The President breaks a bedrock legal principle by targeting the law firm for representing clients he doesn’t like.
www.wsj.com
March 12, 2025 at 12:21 AM
Trump's unprecedented retaliatory efforts against the Perkins Coie law firm have triggered the EVEN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL alarm, whose editorial page notes that Trump's actions "breaks a cornerstone principle of American justice going back to John Adams and the Founders."
My friend Dzovag’s beautiful piece about serving veterans as a doctor for the VA and why that can’t be summed up in bullet points. (Gift article )
Elon Musk wants me to justify my VA job? Here’s what I do to care for California veterans
I work as a part-time doctor for the VA, treating the men and women who have served our country. The work I do can’t be distilled in bullet points.
www.sfchronicle.com
March 8, 2025 at 11:00 PM
My friend Dzovag’s beautiful piece about serving veterans as a doctor for the VA and why that can’t be summed up in bullet points. (Gift article )
Reposted by Shamus Roller
Trans people have long warned that most of the victims of anti-trans laws and policies would be cis women and girls who don't have the "right look."
Walmart called the police on a cis-woman using the women's bathroom.
Even after proving she's a woman, "one deputy continued to question her appearance, insisting she 'looked like a man.'"
😡 😡 😡
Even after proving she's a woman, "one deputy continued to question her appearance, insisting she 'looked like a man.'"
😡 😡 😡
Cis woman confronted by police officers in Arizona Walmart restroom for looking too masculine speaks out (exclusive)
“The only men in the women’s restroom were the cops,” Kalaya Morton said.
www.advocate.com
March 8, 2025 at 3:30 AM
Trans people have long warned that most of the victims of anti-trans laws and policies would be cis women and girls who don't have the "right look."
"Calvin Bentley still recalls how he felt when he finally moved his wife and 7-year-old son into a public housing development in Kansas City, Missouri: 'Liberated.'”
“Let’s just be real, if you really don’t have much housing, you probably don’t have much money to eat either,” Calvin Bentley said. “And if you were driving, you probably don’t have money for gas either.”
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
Family fears federal housing cuts could jeopardize their Missouri home
The Department of Housing and Urban Development helped Calvin and Symone Bentley put a roof over their heads, but DOGE downsizing is making them nervous.
www.nbcnews.com
March 7, 2025 at 6:16 PM
"Calvin Bentley still recalls how he felt when he finally moved his wife and 7-year-old son into a public housing development in Kansas City, Missouri: 'Liberated.'”
“Let’s just be real, if you really don’t have much housing, you probably don’t have much money to eat either,” Calvin Bentley said. “And if you were driving, you probably don’t have money for gas either.”
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
Family fears federal housing cuts could jeopardize their Missouri home
The Department of Housing and Urban Development helped Calvin and Symone Bentley put a roof over their heads, but DOGE downsizing is making them nervous.
www.nbcnews.com
March 7, 2025 at 6:12 PM
“Let’s just be real, if you really don’t have much housing, you probably don’t have much money to eat either,” Calvin Bentley said. “And if you were driving, you probably don’t have money for gas either.”
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...