Daniel Kanter

No Home for Affordable Housing

After the Obama Administration announced their proposed budget in February, the National Alliance to End Homelessness praised the "improvements for homeless assistance” and investment in "proven methods to end homelessness, including housing vouchers and prevention strategies.”

The Administration’s commitment to shows a marked improvement over past years, but the dual problems of homelessness and a dearth of available affordable housing rage on. And while unemployment numbers remain high at 9.7 percent with 46 percent of jobless individuals unemployed for six months or longer-- the highest proportion since the records started in 1948-- more and more people are finding themselves without shelter. Perhaps the increase of those in need has prompted some increased fervor for affordable housing. For the first time in over a decade, the Chicago Housing Authority opened its waiting list for public housing yesterday. Still, the demand exponentially exceeds the supply: on Monday alone, 60,000 people applied for spots on the waiting list, which will be taking applicants until July 9th. Then the list will be whittled down to 40,000 people--who will then join the 5,000 remaining on the list since 1999.

Affordable housing remains controversial when plans for new units arise at the city level. Take the recent story out of Charlotte, NC: The Charlotte-Mecklenberg Housing Partnership proposed a plan for the construction of 90 affordable housing units. Characteristic of the affordable housing debates that routinely accompany such proposals, residents were strongly against the plan, citing crime, traffic, overcrowding in schools, and a decline in the property values of their still-developing community. Neighborhood leaders hired an attorney to fight the proposal. Ultimately, the plan was rejected by the City Council because the proposed development violated a rule against low-income housing sites situated within a half-mile of an existing site. City Council member Warren Turner said he supports affordable housing but that the district already has “more than our share of affordable housing.” But doesn’t a homeless population of 8,000 in Charlotte alone indicate that, essentially, nobody has their fair share of low-income housing?

According to a 2005 MIT/Center for Real Estate study conducted in Massachusetts, affordable housing projects have no adverse effects on property values. And it stands to reason that in these difficult economic times, affordable housing development would provide some much needed construction jobs. Yet this is the third time in a year that attempts to find a site for the affordable housing units in Charlotte have failed. Many people, including opponents of the Ayrsley plan, like affordable housing in theory-- as long as it’s not in their neighborhood. Perhaps it’s time for communities like Ayrsley to admit that their arguments against affordable housing are probably motivated by something other than what they’re willing to say aloud.

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Posted at 4:23 PM, Jun 15, 2010 in Housing
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