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Celebrity chef Nini Nguyen's debut cookbook is alive with color, but also the memories and traditions of her elders captured in its pages. Read about her journey from tailgating to a Michelin three-star restaurant and check out her recipe for Hà Nội-style vermicelli with grilled pork (Bún Chả Hà Nội), AKA "The Obama."
https://streetlightnews.org/nini-nguyen-cookbook/
Today Grants Pass, Oregon, the city behind a landmark Supreme Court ruling on camping bans, is directing unsheltered residents to new city-funded camps. Service providers are concerned that the camps don't provide water, and questions loom as to the costs and total scope of the program.
The program is underway, although an injunction limits the city’s camping ban enforcement
A new Tennessee law allows cities to offer zoning incentives in exchange for attainable housing, and so far Chattanooga is the lone city making moves toward an incentives program. Staff for cities like Memphis are skeptical that developers will go for the incentives because the law requires builders to provide affordable units in perpetuity.
The law allows cities to offer developers zoning incentives in exchange for attainable housing
After winning the most impactful Supreme Court case on homelessness in decades, the city of Grants Pass, Oregon is moving forward with a plan to start four city-funded campsites. But city staff haven't pinned down the total costs to start the camps or whether or not they'll provide drinking water to people staying there.
Initial plans for the sites don’t include providing drinking water
Try columnist Jacob Threadgill's patented baked oatmeal recipe and read about spices' nutritional benefits
Spices take little real estate on your plate, but they make a big impact on nutrition
In Boise, the city’s housing-focused leadership isn’t interested in updating its camping ban policy, opting to stay the course with years of steady investments in homelessness prevention and affordable housing.
After a Supreme Court ruling cleared cities and states to enforce camping bans, Boise’s 2021 ban seems likely to stay as is
A Supreme Court case thrust Grants Pass, Oregon, with a population of about 40,000, into the spotlight for its approach to homelessness. That strategy emphasizes camping bans, rather than investments in homeless prevention and other services, according to city records. This year, the city spent $41,000 on homeless services using federal development grants, while more than $76,000 from the grants was earmarked for administrative costs.
After winning its Supreme Court case, Grants Pass, Oregon is developing a new camping ban and trying to manage residents’ expectations
Climate change is pushing up summer temperatures, which led to a record-breaking number of deaths due to heat in the United States last year. Cooling centers are a summer lifeline, but residents often don’t know about them or have trouble accessing them. And some cities, like Oklahoma City, don't organize a cooling center network, leaving the job to nonprofits and businesses.
Cooling centers are a summer lifeline, but residents often don’t know about them or have trouble accessing them.
Save space in your kitchen by investing in the Swiss Army knife of cooking equipment, a Dutch oven. Plus: Columnist Jacob Threadgill's recipe for Four Chile Horseman of the Pozole Apocalypse
Save space by investing in the Swiss Army knife of cooking equipment, a Dutch oven
Today, a Supreme Court ruling gave a green light to camping bans that criminalize homelessness.
In City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson, justices ruled camping bans criminalizing homelessness don’t violate the Constitution
A proposed HUD rule could make it easier for people with criminal backgrounds to get housing assistance, but it wouldn’t apply to housing choice vouchers.
The rule would limit lookback periods to three years for people seeking housing assistance
In the 90s, there was nothing quite like hearing the opening notes of Aaron Copland’s “Hoedown” and the buttery voice of actor Robert Mitchum saying, “Beef. It’s what’s for dinner.” Columnist Jacob Threadgill remembers the Beef Council campaign, writing: "It became a meme for us before we knew what a meme was, using it to crack each other up when the conversation wasn’t even about the menu."
But maybe those ads worked too well. Americans tend to eat more meat than they nutritionally need, and switching to a flexitarian diet can help save money. Read on about how to go plant-based and check out Jacob's recipe for vegetarian pira caldo:
Maybe those beef ads from the 90s worked a little too well.
Service providers say the No. 1 reason older people are becoming homeless is because of rising housing costs that are outpacing fixed incomes.
Many communities don’t have shelters or other housing programs tailored for older adults experiencing homelessness
Service providers say that giving unsheltered people fines and criminal charges will make it harder for them to get housing later. Camping bans also make it harder for outreach workers to find people who were previously living in cleared camps, sometimes causing their clients to miss housing opportunities.
Service providers worry the laws will set back efforts to reduce homelessness
"The more we learn about quantum mechanics, the more I believe we’ll find that if you make something with love, people can feel it," writes Jacob Threadgill in his new column for Streetlight.
Read tips on eating well for less in Streetlight’s new monthly column
At Streetlight, we want to help answer your burning questions about housing and criminal justice. So what have you been wondering about? What mysteries could a reporter help you solve?
Tell us in our brief survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScFuXQFZvuhtNKrTfl4qXzFreX-AbqIFTMHPOpWiMabIAH8qQ/viewform
“There’s a growing apathy, a growing sense of frustration and hopelessness for people who are on the street,” said April Doshier, executive director of Food and Shelter in Norman, Oklahoma. “That comes from, not just that inability to find a safe place to sleep, but the things that they hear, the vitriol on social media that plays in and impacts them.”
Homelessness is growing faster than the nation's shelter resources, straining service providers in communities like Norman. Read more and look up your community's shelter gap in our latest story.
Look up your community’s shelter gap with Streetlight’s new data analysis
More communities and states are passing laws that criminalize homelessness, especially bans against camping on public property. But what if there’s nowhere else for unsheltered people to go?
That's a key question in a Supreme Court case that could change how communities police encampments.
In Grants Pass, Oregon, a camping ban aimed to push unsheltered people “down the road”
As flooding grows more common, many renters don't have flood insurance
Many renters don’t have flood insurance
In Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where rent’s twice the national average, voters rejected an affordable housing development this week
A local initiative against the development plan argued it was “overkill” and would create excessive traffic
Many Americans are struggling to pay rising electricity bills. Missed payments can lead to power shutoffs, evictions and high-cost deposits.
One thing that could help? Community solar programs that don't require high start-up costs or rooftop panels. People who subscribe to a community solar program typically receive a credit on their electric bill for their share of the power the system generates. New federal funding aims to expand access to these programs to more low-income consumers.
New federal funding aims to bring solar energy to more low-income consumers
Hospitals, the US Forest Service, Walt Disney World and other employers are investing in workforce housing
Employers and cities are looking for ways to address the workforce housing shortage
Next month, the US Supreme Court will hear a case that could change how some communities police homeless camps.
Service providers say camping bans make it harder to find clients and increase arrests of unsheltered people
Last year, climate disasters displaced an estimated 2.5 million Americans, according to the US Census Bureau. Places with frequent disasters have higher rents, which tend to go up after a disaster.
Some communities are using zoning to build more affordable housing and reduce threats from climate change
Pell Grant access is expected to increase to more prisons, but it’s taking a while.
Pell Grant access is expected to increase to more prisons, but it’s taking a while
Evictions and domestic violence cases are expected to again top legal aid programs’ caseloads once their 2023 data is in.
High need and funding for eviction assistance has pushed up legal aid programs’ housing cases
A record number of renters couldn't afford housing last year.
To cover rent, Americans are spending less on food, medical care and other living expenses
Here's an example of how low and middle-income renters are being pushed out of their communities due to the high cost of housing.
Most landlords require their tenants to earn enough so that their rent is a third or less of their income. To meet that rule in Atlanta, where apartments rent for an average of $2,000, a tenant would need an annual income of at least $72,000.
Learn more in our story about tenant screenings:
Tenant screenings influence the makeup of communities as they force Black and low-income renters into more segregated neighborhoods
A third of Oklahomans have a debt in collection, and that debt can make it harder to rent or buy a home.
Poor credit histories and debts owed to landlords or utilities can limit renters’ housing options
Corporate landlords are driving up housing costs in Tennessee, where rents are soaring. Tenants of recently purchased apartments say higher rents and fees limit what they can save, delaying their goals for homeownership.
Renters say money they’d planned to save for a home is going toward rent increases
Oklahoma City, OK
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Thank you to The Martin Duprass for introducing Streetlight to the Awkward Gawker. One of the best things about journalism (and streetlights) is how their light shines on in the darkness, even if that can be a little...awkward. We wish our readers and donors the best of everything in 2023. And we hope you can join us on Saturday for Light It Up 2023: (with Nia Moné/Spence Browne featuring The Sarafina Byrd Trio/David Nghiem)!
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