Put an end to “affordable housing”
It’s past time we stopped talking about “affordable housing.”
Not because we don’t have way, way too many people without any place to live, and not because way, way too many people are paying way, way, way too much of what little money they make to keep a leaky roof over their heads.
No, we need to stop jabbering about “affordable housing” because it’s little more than a feel-good waste of time.
Why?
Because “affordable” applied to housing is a weasel word. Advocating for “affordable housing” is a way for us to feel virtuous and socially responsible while committing ourselves to all but nothing.
Talking about “affordable housing” invites and validates the smug comeback, “Given enough money, any housing is affordable.” Quickly followed by the argument that building McMansions and super-lux rentals is a legitimate counter to homelessness and shelter insecurity – as the affluent move up, the destitute move in…
Or so they say.
Over-filled shelters, tent cities and ragged folks napping int the library attest to how well that’s been working.
Let’s be specific and truthful. Let’s call things by their right names. If our concern is for working people, poor people, people without resources let’s make sure our language and focus is on their immediate and ongoing needs. If that is our concern, let’s honestly speak of the need for low-income and no-income housing — housing priced to provide basic safe and dignified shelter for individuals and families whose resources are inadequate to provide life’s necessities in a competitive economy.
This requires a commitment not only to provide the physical structures, but the economic and social structures that under- and unresourced people require to make housing “affordable.” If a person is coming up short for food, shoes, rent and bus fare — putting up another apartment building isn’t going to address their needs. If a person’s mental health needs or chemical dependency issues aren’t addressed, putting them in an apartment only to be evicted six months later is doing no one any real service.
Add to that, the economic reality that rental units priced at a rate low enough to be affordable by poor people will be money-losers for the landlord reinforces the need to address this issue with more than plans for bricks and mortar in a conventional rental market.
Also, we need to grapple with the reality that there are individuals whose personal habits and disabilities make them virtually unhouseable in a conventional setting. A person who shits on the floor and howls at the moon can’t be the person others are required to live with or rent to. There must be a willingness to acknowledge that not all personal problems are solvable – while we continue to search for ways to solve them.
Yeah, there’s nothing easy here, but summer is short and winter is coming. Time to put up or shut up.
Giving – and that’s the right word – people safe, comfortable, dignified places to call home is going to cost us. Fortunately, for the most part it will only cost us money – and, as a community, we have plenty of that. Let’s be honest with ourselves…if the compassion in our hearts were as great as the balance in our investment accounts nobody would be talking about a mom and her two kids living in a 20-year-old Toyota in the corner of a Walmart parking lot.
What it comes down to, I guess, is how much are we willing to pay not to have to drive past families living in tents, women sleeping in the Post Office, and veterans panhandling in the mall parking lot. How many bucks will we hand over to salve our consciences? To make our lives less morally inconvenient?
Because winter is coming…coming, no matter where we live.
Rochester Post Bulletin 9/19/2023