🏡 In YOUR Opinion, What Would Solve The Housing Crisis?

[Anonymous]

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EACH year there are more HOMELESS age 50+ ending up on the street! 😭

It could be anyone of us or folks we know and care about.

Nicole 🏡 (Housing Forum)

[jrmeans1]

""The Housing Crisis" is a broad topic that envolves so much money, and employs so many people that makes it overwhelming to grasp.  There are so many moving parts.  However, while we await comprehensive audits on the systems we can do thing to relieve the suffering:

I believe the first thing is to stop pretending there are not people intentionally making housing market situations bad.  And stop ignoring people who are intentionally driving people into and keeping people in a status of homelessness. 

Serious Efforts must be stepped up to overcome those people sabotaging housing progress.  Then we have to get everyone housed somewhere, before we can consider whether it is the best housing match for them.  We can't continue to tell 2-3 million homeless people to wait for the construction of more affordable housing, that most of the homeless won't get in even after the construction.  That is one of the cruelest situations I have witnessed over the years. 

I have seen the miracles our governments do after major natural disasters; and after COVID-19 hit getting an entire population vaccinated; and after wars rebuilding entire communities.  We merely need the same leadership and citizenship focus and commitment to fixing the housing crisis!  There are some good plans out here, they need to be implemented and not divested.        

[njsherman]

Seniors now account for around one quarter of homeless in some big cities! The "silver tsunami" of retiring Boomers and the climbing cost of housing/low supply is expected to make those numbers increase even further. But HUD (who tracks the statistics on housing and homeless) doesn't recognize seniors & disabled (I would group them together) as a category separate from "Single (able-bodied, work-able) Adults", so the numbers are obscured. They only recognize three general categories: "YYA--Youth & Young Adults" (grouping 18-26 yr olds separately from other adults), Families, and "Single Adults" (27-100+); they also pay attention to veteran homeless, but not disabled or other vulnerable groups.

I have been a housing advocate for low income, seniors, disabled, women, and others for the last 18 yrs. The "affordable housing" "system" is Byzantine, even social workers don't fully understand it or know about all the options. Nonprofit housing providers are often poorly administered, patronizing and thoughtless toward clients/renters, and people often end up in housing that isn't appropriate with neighbors they don't want to be around &/or in unsafe or inconvenient areas (uphill from bus, no groceries nearby). It's a mess.

Learn your options, get on the rental wait lists even if you think you won't need them, do whatever it takes (including moving to a city/area far away with cheap rent) to avoid becoming homeless or stuck in a rental you don't want to be in.

[jrmeans1]

Interesting comments.  Have you as an housing advocate discovered any effect ways to monitor the "waiting list", or are we simply at the mercy of the housing authorities and housing providers to play fairly?

[SpringIsHereVA]

@jrmeans1 , I use to BELIEVE in Housing Assistance until I was "homeless" for 13 months. Yes, I could have moved back to Florida and burdened my only child. No, I stuck it out in the Roanoke Rescue Mission here in Virginia and SAVED. Because I was age 60, NOT a criminal or an addict, NO domestic violence and had worked ALL MY LIFE - I got ZERO housing assistance. I saved $5,000.00 which was all spent by the time I moved into my Studio Apartment in August 2018.  👵

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[*** @jrmeans1 wrote:

Interesting comments.  Have you as an housing advocate discovered any effect ways to monitor the "waiting list", or are we simply at the mercy of the housing authorities and housing providers to play fairly? ***]

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[jrmeans1]

I have seen and experienced that treatment too; certain systems punish people for not having extreme problems, so they don't get assistance for long periods of time, and consequently they develop those extreme problems that could have been avoided with minimal assistance.  It's a flaw in the system that have been exploited for job security.

[Anonymous]

(2 comments) Whether we rent or own OUR housing, WE need to feel SAFE! 👍

Nicole 🙃

[njsherman]

Renters with an income that is at or below 60% of their areas Median Income should look for subsidized or (below Market Rate, rent-capped) Tax Credit apartments. 

www.affordablehousing.com is the best resource for learning about affordable rentals in general (explore the website & read about the different housing programs the gov't runs) and they have Section 8 and other "low income housing" listings. You can sign up for email alerts for Sec 8 wait list openings in any city(s)/state(s) you wish.

(P.S. Think you're not "low income"? Google your city or county name, "2023", and "AMI" to find out the current Area Median Income. If you are in a large urban area, chances are your income is 80% of AMI or lower. Congrats--you are considered "Low Income" and will qualify for most "affordable housing" programs although you may have to wait years for it! If you are at or below 40% I think (easy if your only income is from Social Security), you are "Very Low Income" and will have priority on subsidized housing wait lists.)

[Tempest332]

Right now supply & demand, & costs fueled by inflation.

I just got a letter form my County Auditor, asking me to accurately describe my dwelling so they basically can increase my taxes by first half of 2025. All the houses in the neighborhood are basically cookie cutter, so everyone should have pretty much the same tax value, but they will price by your description, & I imagine there will be many different answers & definitions.  I always paid more than my neighbor, though her place has been updated, went to argue that fact the tax base should be the same on all the houses without turning in upgrades about 15 years ago & they ended up lowering both of our taxes slightly.  They just did a re-evaluation in '21, next one in '26 I believe.  

 Always trying to find a new way get their hand in your pocket, prosperity by taxation.  

[EricC28201]

Good topic @Anonymous .  It is astounding that for all the talk about philanthropy, and after hundreds of thousands of generations living in what we call civil society, our culture values Competition and the hoarding of worldly assets (which is obviously a form of mental illness) above universial provision of the first 2 levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of human needs.

It's more duplicitous than anything else.  A person hoards old newspapers, they're mentally ill.  A person hoards worldy assets to the detriment of fellow human beings they are elevated to positions of influence so they have better access to hoard even more.  It seems a self respecting, sentient species would have evolved a culture that distributes the necessities far more equitably.  In fact, examples of such cultures (not political ideologies) exist today, but they are marginalized at best and demonized at worst by the psychopathic cultures of the hoarders.

Our so-called leaders need to emulate those of some of the cultures they dismiss as primitive.

[jrmeans1]

Sounds as though you have been thinking about the big picture.  Would be helpful if you shared some details about those cultures you mention "doing things right".  We need to see and hear about good examples to know it's possible in this kind of world.

[Tempest332]

So all hoarding is a bad thing?  I would rather refer to them as "collectors", & as long as it does not turn into rotting food, garbage, or many animals (dead or alive). 

Your statement implies becoming minimalists?

Many of us did have parents/grandparents that went through the depression, so some of these ideals have been instilled on us, such as using items till they are useless, repurposing, etc.  

[Anonymous]

(2 comments) Well, on a personal level, I need the rent on my cute Studio Apartment to stay the same. EVERY April we get slapped with INCREASES for a property built in the 70's and NOT being updated or maintained.

Nicole 🙃

[DirkB349973]

Between my home insurance and property taxes, something goes up every year. What are you gonna do? It's always something, eh @GailL1?