The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "affordable housing" ...
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Is the City's Affordable Housing Lottery Rigged?
A detailed investigation of the Boston Redevelopment Authority questions how it funds its operations.
Tags: BRA; Boston Redevelopment Authority; funding
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Maxwell Street: The New Moneymakers
This series spotlights the redevelopment of Chicago’s Maxwell Street Market and found a number of surprising details. These details reveal that the housing available for the poor, the poor are unable to afford and most of the housing goes to those who are well-connected and well-off. Also, with help from City Hall, the developers with political connections end up making large profits.
Tags: Mayor Daley; property tax; condos; real estate; homes; University Village; property; city officials; taxpayers; market
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Trouble in the Walls: Contaminated Chinese Drywall
Drywall from China, which has been contaminated, could become one of the” largest consumer disasters in US history”. Gases being released from the drywall are “corroding wires, air conditioners and shorting out electronics, and suspected of causing health problems like severe headaches, respiratory ailments, asthma attacks and nosebleeds”. Many homeowners can’t afford to move and would never be able to sell their homes, so they are trapped with nowhere to turn.
Tags: houses; housing; gypsum board; wallboard; housing market; government; health officials; families; construction; building
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Broken Homes; Shaky Foundation
"The topic of stories is the City of Fort Worht Housing Dept., its long-time director and his cronies and the squandering and misuse of federal housing funds over the years, resulting in the city's failure to provide quality, affordable housing for the city's poor residents as mandated by the city charter and the federal government."
Tags: housing and urban development; Sierra Vista; community housing development organizations; CHDO; Fort Worth Housing Finance Corporation;
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Low-income housing
"The stories focused on the failures of housing programs in Texas to provide safe, decent and affordable housing for the poor."
Tags: housing; economics; state government; property; housing program;
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The High Price of Home Ownership
"In 2007, the housing market was in turmoil. People were losing their homes. Many blamed the homeowners." The authors wanted to see "what role lenders played nto putting unsuspecting homeowners into precarious loans that they could not afford." They found that "not only were lender partially to blame, but there were wide disparities in the race" of who was most affected.
Tags: homeownership; lenders; corruption; racial gap; race; loans; foreclosure; home mortage
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Affordable No More
The Southeastern Economic Development Corp. had been tasked with "redeveloping one of San Diego's poorest neighborhoods," with the goal of building affordable housing. But people with close ties to this public agency abused the system, selling homes for much higher prices than had been approved in the agency's contract, and also "failed to file the proper deeds on the subsidized homes in the project," allowing the houses to be flipped for a profit.
Tags: Southeastern Economic Development Corp.; redevelopment; affordable housing; property flipping; fraud; title registration
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In 2004, the Future of Affordable Housing in the Silk City was . . . SOLD!
Paterson, N.J. mayor Jose "Joey" Torres "sold liens in blighted neighborhoods to a favored developer at a cut rate." The developer (Glen Fishman) would then foreclose on the properties and "flip them for a profit." Non-profit groups like Habitat for Humanity, which had been attempting to construct affordable housing were thus priced out of the market, or had to pay marked-up prices to Fishman for land in the tough neighborhoods.
Tags: property liens; property flipping; blighted neighborhoods; Habitat for Humanity; foreclosure
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Winning Friends and Influencing Commissioners
"This story project revealed how the largest private developer if tax-credit affordable housing in Texas co-opted commissioners serving on the Bexar County Housing Authority by providing undisclosed financial incentives to secure the agency's support for tax breaks needed to build multimillion dollar apartment complexes."
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Stacked Deck
"'Stacked Deck' detailed how a well-intentioned federal program to provide affordable housing to the working poor created the type of political environment that resulted in an FBI investigation of Dallas City Hall. The program requires developers to garner political support from a range of office holders and neighborhood leaders or else lose the millions of dollars in federal funding. With those kinds of stakes, developers have an incentive to curry favor with local politicians in ways that are both legal and illegal."
Tags: housing; FBI; housing developers; politics; bribe; tenants;