Barbara Samuels
@bsamuels72.bsky.social
320 followers 240 following 1.2K posts
Unleashed, not retired. Fair Housing & Affordable Housing attorney. Orioles, Ravens true believer. WV mountains, Cape waters, but Baltimore is still home. Repost is not endorsement etc
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Reposted by Barbara Samuels
hunterw.bsky.social
NEW: I took a long look at the Proud Boys and found some of their most extreme chapters are sharing ICE recruiting materials on encrypted apps and even suggesting members have joined up. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/in-the-...
The first
Antifa
Counter Terrorism
Task Force
Trump already gave so many of us jobs with ICE. We may have to start recruiting soon to fill all these spots.
bsamuels72.bsky.social
Truth. Principally a problem w/ LIHTC housing, despite federal law those owners pledge not to discriminate against voucher renters as a condition of receiving the tax subsidies.
Especially harmful in states/localities where LIHTC is only housing required to accept voucher families.
crankyree.bsky.social
“Many ‘affordable housing’ complexes accept public subsidies while imposing exclusionary credit and debt requirements that effectively bar Section 8 tenants and low-income families. This practice circumvents fair housing, weaponizing credit scores as a proxy for class and race discrimination.”
a woman holding a megaphone and a sign that says " you can 't deny us "
ALT: a woman holding a megaphone and a sign that says " you can 't deny us "
media.tenor.com
bsamuels72.bsky.social
Single, young, ambitious upper middle class young people if they have help from parents and/or little student loan debt. Its another story for striving bright young people from lower income families who have to make it on their own & have student loan payments the size of a mortgage.
Reposted by Barbara Samuels
jemillerbalt.bsky.social
This can happen in any neighborhood--and increasingly so.
Local authorities need to start charging the federal agents who assault citizens.
Just as they do with local police officers
strictlychristo.bsky.social
Federal Secret Police and plainclothes ICE agents kidnap multiple people from a neighborhood in Chicago. They then deploy teargas and brutally beat neighbors who come out to express their concern.
bsamuels72.bsky.social
Tell Hegseth & Stephen Miller too.
bsamuels72.bsky.social
This SCOTUS has radically turned the 14th Am on its head. It was never intended to make remedies for slavery and subjugation of descendants unconstitutional. Just the opposite. Passed in the aftermath of the Civil War it was intended to empower Black political participation especially in the South.
bsamuels72.bsky.social
If only, but w/o intentional measures (e.g. IZ, subsidy, faly sized units & affirmative marketing), 100% market rate new builds are not mixed income. And sadly, some of the anti-IZ rhetoric on here is nearly as angry & unhinged as the NIMBYs.
Reposted by Barbara Samuels
kevincross.bsky.social
“Legal research services including LexisNexis and Westlaw have their own AI products, but they’re trained on verifiable databases and are more reliable, Sloan said. At the same time, Sloan said, lawyers should use AI for gaining background information at most — and maybe not at all.”
bsamuels72.bsky.social
Planners have defaulted to building apartments in unhealthy commercial/industrial zones previously considered undesirable will avoid NIMBY reaction to apartments in white residential areas. Its not “pro-housing”— its a new form of exclusion & segregation.
Reposted by Barbara Samuels
yonahfreemark.com
HUD’s ability to enforce fair housing laws was further gutted by the administration’s actions yesterday.

This is on top of the agency’s firing of 70% of its fair housing attorneys since January.

This will allow discrimination by race, sex, and disabilities to become more common—and go unpunished.
Reposted by Barbara Samuels
yonahfreemark.com
Appears the Trump admin’s reduction in force has hit housing hard this evening.

Reports that all CDFI fund staff have been let go. HUD appears to have lost 442 staff.

Yet another federal cut that will make providing affordable housing in the US all the more challenging.
Reports that all staff of CDFI Fund have been let go Reports of cuts of 440 staff at HUD.
bsamuels72.bsky.social
Orioles traded this guy to Seattle. Could have used him in the bullpen this year.
bsamuels72.bsky.social
We know Trump doesn’t read. So he only knows what a few handlers (principally Stephen Miller) want him to know & think, almost certainly in the form of highly doctored video clips. And we can see Miller is a strange & bitter man, who seems to be getting angrier & more controlling by the day.
bsamuels72.bsky.social
Can people who voted for Trump for a third time, knowing full well of his intent to impose tariffs (who experienced them in his first term) really be described as as collateral damage? Seem more like lemmings choosing to go over the cliff.
bsamuels72.bsky.social
For those too young to remember Agnew, he was prosecuted for taking bribes as Baltimore Co Exec. The landed gentry in “the Valleys”got Agnew to support their plan to reserve 2/3 of the County for the well-to-do. Known as the Urban Rural Demarcation Line, the URDL boundaries are unchanged since 1969.
bsamuels72.bsky.social
Not really. Jays are big market big spenders more like Yankees & Dodgers. Brewers & Rays do a lot w/ far less payroll. Orioles to trying to emulate, but front office has yet to get it right.
Reposted by Barbara Samuels
fairsharehousing.bsky.social
Building upon the Mt. Laurel Doctrine, responses from recent poll show NJ Voters support comprehensive housing reform #morehousingoptions #zoningreform #greathomesforallNJ
bsamuels72.bsky.social
See all those white dots? Those are big houses on 2 acre lots & septic in a “desirable” suburban type n-hood of Owings Mills. OM was designated by Baltimore Co as a “Growth Area” circa 1980 w/ huge public $ spent on Metro & I-795. So why is this eastern side of OM still outside the URDL & w/o sewer?
Reposted by Barbara Samuels
danimmergluck.bsky.social
Ummm. not ok. Mark is the historian of fascism and Rutgers faculty member whose life was threatened by right wing actors.
mark-bray.bsky.social
“Someone” cancelled my family’s flight out of the country at the last second.

We got our boarding passes. We checked our bags. Went through security. Then at our gate our reservation ‘disappeared.’
bsamuels72.bsky.social
The developer of Greenleigh has offered to build a Baltimore Co public library there. Greenleigh was built w/ big public subsidies but no affordable housing. A new library w/ mixed income apartments above it sounds like a cost-effective win-win.
yonahfreemark.com
Cities are developing a new approach to developing housing: Integrating it into mixed-use library projects. These investments improve neighborhood vitality, add housing & improve services.

In new research @urbaninstitute.bsky.social, I create a database of such projects & point to success stories ⏬
Aging Libraries Could Offer Cities a Unique Opportunity to Build New Housing While Improving Public Services
Since 2000, more than 1,800 apartment units have been built in combined library-housing developments. These projects not only address local housing needs but…
www.urban.org
Reposted by Barbara Samuels
elikahn.bsky.social
honestly, Democrats acknowledging a housing supply shortage is old hat at this point; they almost all do. the challenge is getting them to say, and endorse in their laws, “there is a conflict between getting more housing built and other worthy aims, and right now more housing is more important”
bsamuels72.bsky.social
How much is due to sources upstream in Baltimore Co? is Everyone living above the URDL just dumps their waste into backyard septic tanks. From from there it leaches into groundwater, the waterways and the reservoirs. After rains E Coli from septic has been found in the Gunpowder.
tanks.to