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Weaponized Shelter

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Weaponized Shelter

Archive

Archive of stories in "Weaponized Shelter"

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Cory Doctorow

·

Dec 12, 2024

The housing emergency and the second Trump term

Weaponized shelter gave us Trump II; can we fix it despite Trumpism?

A modest pink bungalow in the southwestern style. Its roof is askew, and a mushroom cloud emerges from behind it. The sky around it is filled with menacing storm clouds.

Cory Doctorow

·

May 22, 2024

How finfluencers destroyed the housing and lives of thousands of people

The real estate speculator bezzle has a very ugly third act.

The exterior of Timber Ridge Apartments in Houston, a two story apartment block. The curb in front of the apartment block is mounded with overflowing dumpsters stacked three high, nearly obscuring the apartment building; these are ringed with chest-high piles of split garbage bags. Superimposed on the image, in needlepoint sampler font, is the legend HOME SWEET HOME.” Image: Boy G/Google Maps (modified) https://pluralistic.net/timberridge

Cory Doctorow

·

Dec 13, 2023

Housing is a labor issue

The eternal labor September bodes well for the American housing crisis.

A 1930s Mayday parade, fronted by three white men in old-timey suits and a Black woman in a smart coat and hat. The banner behind them has been altered to read ‘THE RENT’S TOO DAMNED HIGH — Organize the Unorganized.’

Cory Doctorow

·

Jul 12, 2023

Why are so many Californians homeless?

It’s not “homeless migration.”

Why are so many Californians homeless?

Cory Doctorow

·

Jun 5, 2023

Wall Street Journal goes to bat for the vultures who want to steal your house

When the editorial page leaks into the news.

Wall Street Journal goes to bat for the vultures who want to steal your house

Cory Doctorow

·

May 16, 2023

Rent control works

30-year, federally guaranteed fixed-rate mortgages = rent control for homeowners.

A beautifully laid dining room table in a luxury flat. Outside of the windows looms a rotting shanty town with storm-clouds overhead. Image: ozz13x (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shanty_Town_Hong_Kong_China_March_2013.jpg Matt Brown (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dining_room_in_Centre_Point_penthouse.jpg CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Cory Doctorow

·

Apr 15, 2023

SVB bailouts for everyone — except affordable housing projects

Even the shareholders got billions.

A glass-and-steel, high-tech office building. Atop it is a cartoon figure of Humpty Dumpty, whose fall has been arrested by masses of top-hatted financiers, who hold fast to a rope that keeps him in place. At the foot of the office tower is heaped rubble. On top of the rubble is another Humpty Dumpty figure, this one shattered and dripping yolk. Protruding from the rubble are modest multi-family housing units. Image: Lydia (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vicroft_Court_Starley

Cory Doctorow

·

Jun 3, 2022

House sales are cratering but inventory is soaring

You are the sucker at the table.

A Spanish Mission-style bungalow with a FOR SALE sign out front; it is sinking into a dark and stormy ocean. Image: Tony Mariotti (modified) https://www.rubyhome.com/ CC BY 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Cory Doctorow

·

Feb 8, 2022

Wall Street’s landlord business is turning every rental into a slum

And they’re using public money to do it.

A rotting apartment living room; the Wall Street ‘Charging Bull’ statue is in one corner; from one of its horns dangles a sign reading ‘FOR RENT WALL ST.’ Image: Sam valadi (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/132084522@N05/17086570218/ Carlos Delgado (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wall_Street_-_New_York_Stock_Exchange.jpg CC BY 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Cory Doctorow

·

Nov 24, 2021

Spaniards fight Wall Street landlords

When margins and misery are correlated.