Almost everyone can agree that the cost of housing is sky-rocketing out of control. To start seeing a change, we HAVE to solve our national housing shortage.
In this guest blog, Julie Lowe explains the reality of a world where unhoused and low-income folks continue to be priced out of homes in their community. While resources and education are helpful tools to help transition folks away from being housing-insecure, these tools can only do so much without abundant housing options.
To make homes affordable for all of us, we must embrace creativity and abundance. Now is the time to act if we want to begin to create a future where we can all have a place to call home, no matter what our wages are. Julie breaks down the weight of the problem and what is at stake if we don't solve it in her guest blog.
This guest blog has been edited for clarity and length.
I am the Executive Director of Talbot Interfaith Shelter, a homeless shelter and transitional housing program in Easton, MD. I am deeply aware of the serious crisis for low-income people in the US looking to secure housing they can afford. We all need to take action!
Low-income housing has always been a challenge to find, but since the COVID-19 pandemic, the availability has been meager to none and the costs have gone sky-high. Since the breadwinner(s) in a family would now need to have a full-time job paying upwards of $22 per hour to support a two or three-bedroom apartment or home in our area while remaining within the 30 percent of income recommendation, our guests who graduate our Transitional Housing Program cannot afford to move into current market rate housing.
Some resources are intended to help with affordability. However, there are not enough vouchers to satisfy the need, and the application process is difficult when vouchers open up a few here and there. If you do not have an advocate or do not know when the voucher program opens, you will be left "out in the cold," literally. Other subsidy programs have onerous eligibility requirements and application fees. These barriers make it extremely difficult for a single-parent family to access available resources when they are focused on trying to cobble together enough work to keep the family afloat.
Because of these challenges with accessing affordability, after our two-year program there is nowhere for our participants to go once they’ve "graduated." Even though we provide education in budgeting, money management, and other life skills, there are just not enough affordable housing opportunities for these good people to move into.
As each year goes on, this will only become worse. There is too large of an unhoused population right now. If we do not change the way housing is managed in this country…change some legislation, tax codes, and educate the populace about this crisis, I cannot imagine the horrible condition millions of people of all ages will be forced to live in. There are models in this country that are working (Austin TX Loaves and Fishes, for example) where shared community spaces with tiny houses, container houses, & 3-D printed houses are offering privacy and a sense of community at the same time. While scattered site low-income housing is my favorite model, it is very difficult to get any traction with that in communities where concern about their property values, etc. are first and foremost in the members’ minds.
I am committed to advocating for affordable housing in any way I can, and I've enjoyed learning about how the YIMBY movement seeks to help solve this problem.