HUD Report Shows 16% Increase in Unmet Housing Needs of Nation's Poorest Families

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/0525-04.htm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 25, 2007
10:36 AM


CONTACT: NLIHC
Nicole Letourneau 202-662-1530 x227
[e-mail]

HUD Report Shows 16% Increase in Unmet Housing Needs of Nation's Poorest Families:
Major Federal Recommitment to Low Income Housing Needed


WASHINGTON - MAY 25 - A significant increase in the unmet housing needs among very low income renters in the U.S. underscores the urgency for Congress to rebuild important federal housing resources which have been under funded for many years, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC).

Affordable Housing Needs 2005: Report to Congress, a biannual report released yesterday by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) shows a substantial increase in unmet housing needs among the nation’s very low income renters. The number of households with “worst case housing needs” jumped from 5.18 million in 2003, the year covered in the last report, to nearly 6 million in 2005, a 16% increase.

HUD defines households with “worst case needs” as unassisted renters with incomes below 50% of area median income who live in substandard housing and/or pay more than half of their income for housing. Unassisted renters are renters who do not receive any federal housing aid.

NLIHC President Sheila Crowley said a substantial increase in funding for federal housing programs is necessary to make up several years of neglect of serious housing problems by the Administration and Congress.

“An increase of 800,000 households with ‘worst case needs’ in just two years provides quantitative evidence for what millions of low income families already know - the vaulted American housing market does not work for them,” Crowley said. “And the federal government has failed to intervene to assure the most basic of human needs - safe, decent and affordable housing - for all its citizens. This severe housing shortage means that the benefits from good, affordable housing, including educational achievement, better health, successful employment, optimal child well-being and high functioning neighborhoods remain out of reach for a large and growing number of households.”

NLIHC calls for the establishment of a National Housing Trust Fund to build or preserve 1.5 million rental units affordable for the lowest income families over 10 years, the addition of at least 100,000 new housing vouchers a year for at least 10 years, restoration of funding needed to preserve and improve the nation’s public housing stock, and expansion of federal programs to end and prevent homelessness, among other measures.

“In the absence of a renewed commitment to federal housing programs, the 10-year plans to end homelessness that the Administration is pushing state and local governments to write are not worth the paper they are written on,” said Crowley. “I hope this report convinces policymakers that housing for low income families must be a priority again.”

According to the report, worst case needs are most prevalent among extremely low income households, defined as households earning less than 30% of area median income. In 2005, 72% of these households had a worst case need, up from 66% in 2003. Moreover, in 2005, there were only 35 affordable, available and physically adequate homes for every 100 extremely low income renters, compared to 40 in 2003.

Other key findings in the report include:

· The composition of households with worst case needs is diverse, including 1.29 million elderly households, 542,000 households headed by a non-elderly person with a disability and 2.32 million families with children, the group with the largest increase from 2003 to 2005.

· All regions of the country were affected. Cities, suburbs and non-metropolitan areas all experienced increases in the number of households with worst case needs, with 14.9%, 5.3% and 51% increases, respectively.

· 91% of households with worst case needs experience severe rent burdens (pays more than 50% of income for rent), while another 4% experience severe rent burdens along with substandard housing.

Affordable Housing Needs 2005: Report to Congress uses the latest available data from the 2005 American Housing Survey. The report does not include data from the latter part of 2005, so increases in unmet housing needs are not attributable to the devastation caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The full report can be found here: http://www.huduser.org/publications/affhsg/affhsgneeds.html

NLIHC is a Washington DC-based national policy and advocacy organization dedicated solely to ending America’s affordable housing crisis.

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[msongs]

1. a problem caused by swelling population - condoms/birth control pills 4 everyone nt

[alarimer]

2. Around here, people lobby against low income housing

because it will "lower property values". Forcing them to live in high-crime areas. I fucking hate suburbanites.

[ariesgem]

6. Here in Pasadena, CA they're on a mission to get rid of low income residents

The majority of Pasadena is now geared toward the upper income population. It use to be a diverse population of poor, middle-class and rich. The city's current agenda is building new luxury condos & apartments, high-end restaurants & boutiques that are not affordable to most. Now the City has their eye on a small section of Pasadena that for generations has been lower income and predominately black & latino in the northwest area. The real estate developers (with the City's blessing) are going into these areas buying up entire blocks and building these luxury condos & apartments. It's as if the city without shame, are purposely assing-out low-income residents.

[alarimer]

8. It is a real shame

It is good to revitalize downtown areas but it isn't fair to drive out the people that were living there in the process.

You see this happen in the west too, places like Montana and Wyoming. Even Marfa, Texas. Rich people (a lot of them from California it seems) move in and buy up property to build vacation homes. In the meantime, property values go up so much the people who live and work in these towns cannot afford to live there.

[butterfly77]

3. They will begin to care if ...

they are hit by a tornado,hurricane or some other disaster which may wipe out everything and they begin to find out how hard it really is to find affordable housing.

[Nicole]

4. Shameful

“And the federal government has failed to intervene to assure the most basic of human needs - safe, decent and affordable housing - for all its citizens."

That pretty much says it all. :(

[Sapphire Blue]

5. Shameful indeed.. and this says more:

NEW REPORT DOCUMENTS CORRELATION BETWEEN HISTORIC CUTS TO FEDERAL HOUSING PROGRAMS AND CONTEMPORARY MASS HOMELESSNESS

Communities call for the new Congress to take a new approach to addressing and ending the national crisis of homelessness

~ excerpt ~

"Without Housing: Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness and Policy Failures,” documents the correlation between these trends and the emergence of a new and massive episode of homelessness in the 1980s which continues today. It particularly focuses on radical cuts to programs administered by the US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), which administers funds for rural affordable housing. Available online in PDF format, the report also demonstrates why federal responses to this nationwide crisis have consistently failed.

Created in partnership with five other organizations, the report uses federal budget data and other sources to document that:

HUD’s budget has dropped 65% since 1978, from over $83 billion to $29 billion in 2006.

The Emergency Shelter phenomenon was born the same year that HUD funding was at a drastic low point. In 1983, HUD’s budget was only $18 billion, the same year that general public emergency shelters began opening in cities nationwide.

HUD has spent $0 on new public housing, while more than 100,000 public housing units have been lost to demolition, sale, or other removal in the last ten years.

Federal housing subsidies are going to the wealthy. In 2004, 61 percent of these subsidies went to households earning more than $54,788, while only 27 percent went to households earning under $34,398.

More than 600,000 identified homeless students went to public schools in the 2003-2004 school year, according to the US Department of Education.

Federal support helps homeowners instead of poor people. In 2005, federal homeowner subsidies totaled more than $122 billion, while HUD outlays were only $31 billion – a difference of more than $91 billion.

According to Paul Boden, executive director of WRAP, “The Administration’s current ‘Chronic Homeless Initiative’ is just the latest in a series of inadequate flavor-of-the-month distractions from the real problem. It does nothing to address the huge cuts to federal affordable housing funding that caused mass homelessness. Housing is a human right, which a democracy should advance, not restrict.

Those on the frontline of homelessness – homeless people and the providers who serve them – are drowning in a sea of blame. We have joined together to speak truth to power: until federal affordable housing programs are restored and expanded, homelessness will continue to grow.”

http://wraphome.org/wh_press_kit/press_release_wrap.html

Without Housing, the Poor Will Perish
by Janny Castillo



"Wet Night On Sutter Street." In this painting by Christine Hanlon, a homeless person sleeps outside a fancy clothing store on a rainy night while well-dressed mannequins are dry and warm inside.

"The government pegs homeless persons as dysfunctional human beings in need of rehabilitation. This report says, 'I don't care how many life-skills trainings you give me; if I don't have a place to live, I am going to be homeless."
-- Paul Boden, WRAP Executive Director

"Until this government invests billions of dollars more a year in housing for the poor, homelessness will increase and deaths will increase."
-- Terry Messman, Street Spirit editor

According to a U.S. Department of Education report, more than 600,000 identified homeless students attended public schools in the 2003-2004 school years. These children are invisible. They will not be seen on rooftops in flood waters, trapped and afraid. Their desperate faces are not plastered across our televisions, moving the country to do something, anything, to help. They are survivors of a different and more subtle catastrophe than Katrina.

On November 14, 2006, a group of homeless advocates met in front of the Federal Building in San Francisco to announce the release of a report written by the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) entitled, "Without Housing: Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness and Policy Failures." Juan Prada, director of the Coalition on Homelessness, organized the event. The 80-page report documents 25 years of federal housing cuts that have resulted in "a new and massive episode of homelessness."

"Those on the front line of homelessness -- homeless people and the providers who serve them -- are drowning in a sea of blame," said WRAP Executive Director Paul Boden. "We have joined together to speak the truth. Until federal affordable housing programs are restored and expanded, homelessness will continue to grow."

http://www.thestreetspirit.org/Dec2006/nohome.htm

"We Accuse the Federal Government for allowing thousands of people to live without homes
by Joanna Letz, POOR Magazine



~ excerpt ~

At noon on Tuesday November 14th, in front of the Federal Building a press conference was held as part of the release of the Western Regional Advocacy Project's (WRAP) report called, "Without Housing: Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness and Policy Failures.” In seven cities across the country similar press conferences were held, including ones in Seattle, Washington, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

(snip)

The report documents federal funding for affordable housing over the past twenty five years. Specifically the report looks at the cuts in funding toward the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as well as rural affordable housing administered by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The government, and the people of this country, who are in positions of power are benefiting from a system of myth-making. WRAP's report highlights some of these myths and the ways these myths are causing more homelessness. One of the myths the report calls out is the myth that poor people and homeless people are the ones to blame for their situations.

The report says, "..public policy debates and media representations rarely address the systemic causes of homelessness; instead they often portray homelessness as a problem with homeless individuals.." It is a systematic problem that is forcing more and more people onto the streets. WRAP's report says, "..we focus primarily on what we consider to be one of the most important-- if not the most important-- factor in explaining why so many families, single adults, and youth are homeless in the United States today: the cutbacks to and eventual near elimination of the federal government's commitment to building, maintaining, and subsidizing affordable housing."

"The report should be re-titled, I accuse the federal government," Terry Messman, editor of Street Spirit began to speak to the crowd, " I indite this nation.. Gilbert Estrada died on the street less than three weeks ago. I indite this country for leaving Gilbert Estrada.. and for leaving children and elders on the street. I accuse the federal government for allowing thousands of people to live homeless. There is massive homelessness. It is a direct act of theft..This government lets people die on the streets. Homelessness and deaths will continue until we get affordable housing. I accuse."

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/11/17/18330686.php

If anyone cares enough to call their Senators & Representatives & tell them to do something about it, to fund federal housing programs...

HERE IS A LIST OF TOLL FREE CAPITOL HILL SWITCHBOARD NUMBERS:


1 (800) 828 - 0498

1 (800) 459 - 1887

1 (800) 614 - 2803

1 (866) 340 - 9281

1 (866) 338 - 1015

1 (877) 851 - 6437

[Nicole]

7. Thanks for the additional info

I've been calling, emailing & sending snail mail. Unfortunately I have the two worst senators in the US so I doubt if it's doing any good. I keep at it though.

[intheflow]

9. Probably close to 100,000 rental units lost in Katrina and Rita alone.

And of course having the rent-controlled apartments dy up hasn't helped, either.

[mmonk]

10. Yes.

And many municipalities are trying to limit and reduce affordable housing for the poor. It's a real shame.