The Housing Situation
August 21st, 2008In the U.S., there are 9,022,000 extremely low income renter households and only 6,746,000 homes renting at prices these households can afford, paying the standard of 30 percent of their income for housing… This lack of affordable housing forces 74 percent of extremely low income renters to pay more than half of their incomes toward their homes, compared to 26 percent of renters in any income group. It’s clear that the private housing market alone is not going to address the problem without being forced to. So, Hartman argues for a constitutional right to housing, a goal that may seem unreachable. But, he notes, so were rights to voting, freedom from bondage and to organize. But why this right? Because:
Housing is more than four walls and a roof: It is part of a neighborhood and community, providing opportunities for positive social interaction and safety from crime. Housing location affects access to quality schools, jobs and community services. Hartman notes that in the preamble to the 1949 Housing Act, Congress asserted the National Housing Goal, which called for “the implementation as soon as feasible of a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family.” Needless to say, Congress has not acted on this goal with any alacrity. In fact, it has become a non-issue. It needs to be one. Said Hartman: We need to make politicians and candidates—for local, state and federal offices—speak to the housing problem and commit to effective ameliorative programs. And that in turn requires grassroots pressure.
We need to emphasize housing’s links to problems in the areas of health, education, income support, food, crime, employment, immigration, economic and community development. In doing so, we will create coalitions of social justice activists whose power will grow exponentially. Those should be the headlines about housing, not the ones about the fortunes of speculators. We who worry about our home values ought to recall that merely having a home is something denied to too many.
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