Start talking about affordable housing solutions

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

What image pops into your mind when you hear “affordable housing”?

Is it of a large complex of run-down apartments occupied by the poor and unemployed who rely on government subsidies for their housing? If so, we encourage you to consider a more accurate picture of what affordable housing really is.

First, affordable housing is not only located in large apartment buildings and not necessarily subsidized. It can be a market-rate duplex or modest apartments over a commercial first floor, or even a detached single-family residence. These all can be “affordable” if you don’t have to make above-average income to live there.

Second, the people who need affordable housing aren’t just the chronically poor and unemployed. They are the college graduate working 40 hours a week as a dental assistant or pharmacy technician. They are people who you meet and interact with every day like the barista you just got coffee from, the grocery store clerk stocking the shelves, and the staff at the day care or elementary school where you dropped your children off at this morning. All these people, working full time at good jobs in your community would benefit from living in affordable housing if they could find it.

In Snohomish County in 2016, 1 in 5 renters paid more than half of their monthly income on rent. Those households live paycheck to paycheck and risk eviction or foreclosure if the unexpected happens, such as a car accident, death in the family, illness or loss of a job. Having housing that is affordable in our region not only aids those who are already homeless, it also prevents more families from becoming homeless.

Rent costs in Snohomish County rose by 35 percent from 2013 to 2017 because in that same approximate time period “only” 10,500 new housing units were built while about 16,000 new households called Snohomish County home. When demand exceeds supply prices go up.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/commentary-start-talking-about-affordable-housing-solutions/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=7dd776b0c2-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-7dd776b0c2-228635337

[KT2000]

1. On the Olympic Peninsula

the only homeless shelter has closed due to lack of funds. Rents are going up here too, with limited rentals. This society does not work if people cannot afford housing. People are sleeping wherever they can find a hidden place - under buses, in the parks, etc.
The wealthy need a world where workers are there to serve them for all their needs, but care less about their living conditions. "Market conditions" rule, not humanity.