Housing

The Hill -  President Trump cancelled the signing of a bipartisan housing bill on Wednesday, saying he would not sign the legislation until the Senate passes the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act. 

“Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. 

The development underscores the tension between Trump and Senate Republicans on the SAVE America Act.  Trump has pressured Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-N.D.) to abolish the filibuster in an effort to pass the legislation, something Thune has so far refused to do.

Congress last night passed the largest housing bill in decades. The 21st Century Road to Housing Act passed in the House 358 to 32. The Senate approved it on Monday with similar overwhelming bipartisan support. The measure now heads to Trump's desk for his signature. The bill seeks to address the U.S.'s lack of sufficient housing to meet demand. Realtor.com estimated that last year, the U.S. was short by more than 4 million housing units.

The Guardian  - Tenants at apartment complexes operated by Greystar, the largest owner and manager of apartments in the US, don’t just pay rent. They pay a mass of fees that many renters have never heard of before. These add-ons include “boiler management fees”, “variable refrigerant flow fees”, “solar rebill” fees, even “lifestyle fees”.

Tenants and lawsuits in multiple states call many of these fees inflated, illegal, predatory or overwhelming. “A fee for this, a fee for that was just crazy to me,” Nichole Collins, a former tenant at a Greystar-managed building in Colorado, said. “I had never experienced that before.”

Long lists of fees are common at buildings operated by Greystar, a private-equity backed conglomerate that owns or manages more than 1 million apartments across the US. According to tenants, housing attorneys, public officials and court claims, this tangle of extra charges fattens the company’s bottom line, increases renters’ risks of eviction and undermines fair competition in the apartment market by muddying the real price they pay for shelter.