Affordable Housing – Major Problem For City Leaders

Commentary, by Mary Scott Nabers

Population growth is requiring more firefighters, policemen, teachers and EMS workers. City leaders prefer that these people live close-in, but that is problematic because urban homes, condos and apartments are expensive – often too expensive for city employees.

The employed people who are unable to find affordable housing are joined by thousands of families facing worst case housing needs because of low wages or no wages. Low-income public housing is quickly moving to the “highest priority” lists of city, state and federal government leaders.

In Texas alone, the number of families facing dire housing needs (those who pay more than half of their income for housing or live in inadequate housing) is growing three times faster than affordable housing is being created, according to the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service. There are currently 650,000 households in Texas that fit into that category.

Texas is not alone. The lack of affordable as well as low-income public housing is a nationwide problem. But, government officials, many with the help of state and federal grant funds, are chipping away at the problem.

In Galveston, a groundbreaking ceremony was held recently by the Galveston Housing Authority. City leaders announced construction of the first of two mixed-income housing developments. This is one of many efforts by the city to rebuild public housing facilities that were demolished by Hurricane Ike six years ago.

The Corpus Christi Housing Authority is renovating a housing complex where apartments have been vacant for a decade. About 1,000 people are on a waiting list for low-income housing and the city is exploring ways to finance a $5.3 million renovation of the existing complex. City officials hope to get a $500,000 commitment from the city and then seek $3.5 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

HUD funding sometimes comes through its Home Investments Partnership Program that provides grants for building, buying and/or rehabilitating housing for rent or homeownership. It’s the federal government’s largest grant program designed exclusively for creating low-income affordable housing.

Some states are attacking the inadequacy of low income housing in new ways:

• A public housing project, designed as a mixed-income community, is under construction in Washington, D.C. The complex will feature 327 homes, only 80 of which will be for sale, while the rest will be low-income rentals.
• New York Mayor Bill De Blasio has publicly committed to build or preserve 200,000 affordable housing units over the next 10 years. His administration also hopes to rehabilitate and preserve 165,000 city-owned housing units. There are 1 million New York residents in need of low-income housing, but the city has less than half that many available.
• In San Francisco, where housing of any kind is at a premium, the mayor has pledged 30,000 new housing units by 2020. Currently, there are 47,000 families on a waiting list for housing assistance. The city has imposed a fee increase on commercial construction to help fund the city’s affordable housing projects.

Housing needs are great and growing. There is little reason to think this trend will change anytime soon.

Mary Scott Nabers is the President & CEO of Strategic Partnerships Inc. and this originally published and is reprinted here through a news partnership  |  @CorridorNews