Apartment Choice

LEWISTON — The city is seeking a large federal grant that would address housing and other issues in the poorest areas of downtown Lewiston , and neighborhood advocates say the funds could go a long way toward implementing goals they've had for years.  If successful in its bid, Lewiston could receive $1.3 million from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development and what's known as a  Choice Neighborhood Planning and Action Grant. The city council approved the application last week, and will commit $237,500 in local Community Development Block Grant funds during implementation if the grant is successful.  The city hopes the funding can lead to long-term changes in the downtown neighborhood , where nearly half of residents live below the federal poverty level . According to 2015 census figures, the median family incomes in downtown census tracts 201 and 203, are $12,417 and $16,047, respectively.  The main purpose of the funds is to plan and execute major housing...

by Alec MacGillis Maryland’s two U.S. senators and four of its U.S. House representatives , all Democrats, sent a letter today to the large real- estate company owned by the family of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump ’s son-in-law and senior adviser, demanding information about the company’s management of 17 apartment complexes it owns in the state. The letter to Kushner Companies came in response to a May 23 article co-published by ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine investigating management practices at the rental complexes, most of which are in the suburbs of Baltimore, as well as an article this week in The Baltimore Sun that revealed additional details . The original story described the highly aggressive legal tactics that Kushner Companies has used to pursue tenants who owed back rent or had left their leases early — even tenants who left the complexes well before the company bought them in 2012 and the years following. In many of the hundreds of cases brough...