It’s time to ensure that no American has to worry about where they and their families will sleep tonight, says housing consultant James Stockard.
There’s a lot of talk these days about how we can make America great again, with politicians, academics and journalists looking for the answers in areas that include increased defense spending, infrastructure investment and job programs. But after spending nearly 50 years consulting on housing at the local, state and national levels, I believe there’s one cornerstone element of a great nation that is being overlooked: decent, affordable housing. Roughly 19 million households in the US earn incomes that are low enough to qualify for housing assistance, but only 24 percent of them receive support because there simply aren’t enough affordable housing units or vouchers.
The US needs to declare a basic right to affordable housing, and then deliver it to the people. This may seem like a dramatic idea. Then again, so was the notion that women be allowed to vote in 1920, or that African-American children be entitled to go to the same schools as white children in 1954, or that people of the same gender be legally permitted to marry in 2014. When America is at its best, when we are truly great, we’ve shown that we are a nation that continues to expand its citizens’ rights and protect their newly-recognized rights.
It’s fiscally smart. Providing permanent housing is, by far, the least expensive way to provide shelter for those who need it, as shown in a nine-city study from the Lewin Group (and research by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the National Alliance to End Homelessness and other groups). Without it, people end up in overcrowded apartments, homeless shelters, hospitals, institutions for the mentally or physically disabled, jails or on the street. Each of these alternatives costs taxpayers substantially more than paying for permanent places to live. For example, $10,000 in public funding covers 10+ months of permanent affordable housing — but only 6+ months in a shelter or one week in a hospital.
It’s socially responsible. Over the course of 40 years as a commissioner of my local public housing authority in Massachusetts, I’ve learned that people who struggle with housing frequently have little time to do anything else. They’re constantly worrying about how to cover the rent, or where they’ll sleep, or what they can do fight off an impending eviction. I’ve heard hundreds of stories from desperate men and women appealing for “emergency admission” because they had lost their job, or were escaping an abusive relationship, or were asked to leave a family member’s home after doubling up with them for six months. (Read Evicted by sociology professor Matthew Desmond for gut-wrenching stories of housing instability in Milwaukee.) As a result, people without stable housing have little time or energy to contribute to their communities.
It gives children a good start in life. The typical child in a family without permanent housing changes schools three or more times a year, according to the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. This means every year they must adjust to three (or more) different teachers, curriculums, school cultures, and groups of classmates. What are the chances that a child will flourish under these circumstances? Some will succeed despite the odds, but most won’t.