CityLab
18 September 2020
Text / 800-1500 Words
San Francisco, California, United States
Soon after the federal government imposed a second moratorium on evictions, SixFifty, a tech firm, released Hello Landlord, a mobile app for tenants to generate a legally compliant form letter invoking the law with their landlords to block a threatened eviction. In the first nine days after its release, the app was used by more than 200 people. The free service is an example of what's called lawtech: technology giving access to legal information to individuals and small businesses. Hello Landlord asks 19 questions that serve to automate what a tenant's lawyer might do – if only the tenant could afford one.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/11/the-next-wireless-revolution-in-light
Tina Rosenberg
The New York Times
11 September 2013
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Phone lines in Africa and South Asia would never have gotten to the poor - but these places have leapfrogged over last-century technology and gone straight to mobile phones. Now the same thing is happening with off-grid solar power: the fastest -- perhaps the only – way to power the poor.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/the-benefits-of-mobile-health-on-hold
Tina Rosenberg
The New York Times
13 March 2013
Text / 1500-3000 Words
The mobile phone is doing more than revolutionizing communication. It has the potential to improve many aspects of life in poor countries: commerce, health, agriculture, education - public health, especially, is being revolutionized by governments taking advantage of the mobile revolution by texting advice or sending voice messages to pregnant women, texting reminders to AIDS patients to take their meds, tracking the spread of diseases, allowing community health workers to keep records electronically and variations on all these themes.
http://blog.ted.com/crisis-text-line-nears-2-million-messages-answered
Kate Torgovnick May
TED Blog
6 May 2014
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Crisis Text Line provides counseling services via text, a medium with which teens are sometimes more comfortable. The approach complements the work of counselors and collects data for research purposes.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/foreclosure-is-not-an-option
David Bornstein
The New York Times
6 December 2010
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Foreclosure affects millions of homeowners and millions more owe more on their mortgages than what their homes are worth, but Empowering and Strengthening Ohio’s People (ESOP), offers assistance. As a free service to borrowers, ESOP holds lenders accountable with fair lending agreements, creates constructive communication, and ultimately saves homes.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/05/29/guiding-poor-families-to-a-fair-day-in-court
David Bornstein
The New York Times
29 May 2015
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Millions of families of arrested individuals do not know what to do to help, how to obtain a lawyer, or what the process entails in the court system. Created by Albert Cobarrubius Justice Project, participatory defense is a type of community organizing that teaches and empowers people who face criminal charges. Individuals know how to work with attorneys in order to navigate the system and ultimately feel equipped to become drivers of their own change.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/when-lenders-wont-listen
David Bornstein
The New York Times
10 December 2010
Text / 1500-3000 Words
In part, miscommunication between bankers, brokers and homeowners created the 2008 economic crisis. Protection laws mandating better labeling and trusted third-party intermediaries could improve communication and help prevent another crisis.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/07/pregnant-mothers-are-getting-the-message
David Bornstein
The New York Times
7 February 2011
Text / 1500-3000 Words
An average of 28,000 children born in the U.S. each year die before their first birthday – and many more face disabilities and serious life-long health problems, often because they are born prematurely or at low birth weights. A free service, text4baby, delivers crucial health advice via text message to pregnant women and new mothers.
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/news/a36907/prisoners-reentry-programs
Jean Friedman-Rudovsky
Cosmopolitan
25 February 2015
Text / Over 3000 Words
A Department of Justice study reported that about 75 percent of those released in 2005 were rearrested, and women prisoners often have a harder time re-entering society after release. A New Way of Life (ANWOL) is a Los Angeles transitional living facility that has helped more than 750 women stay out of prison by offering housing, case management, mental health and substance treatment, and job training.
http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-08-26/aleppo-cell-phones-are-helping-some-desperate-syrians-find-clean-water
Joyce Hackel
Public Radio International (PRI)
26 August 2015
Radio / 5-15 Minutes
In war zones, people have a difficult time finding clean water and safe areas to inhabit. Social media, smart phones, and technology applications are aiding in people’s survival. In Aleppo, Syria, the International Committee of the Red Cross posted a map on Facebook to show alternative sources of clean drinking water that reached approximately 140,000 people.
http://www.citylab.com/housing/2015/07/berlins-brand-new-rent-control-laws-are-already-working/398087
Feargus O'Sullivan
CityLab
9 July 2015
Text / Under 800 Words
To address the increasing unaffordability of housing in Berlin, the city introduced a new rent control law to prevent rates from exponential growth. The city has also outlawed vacation rentals in certain zones of the city and created a program that aims to have 30,000 new rental properties available over the next decade.
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