Affordable HousingJulian McRae & Aidan Sander

Affordability – A household pays no more than 30% of their income

Housing choices open to people with low to moderate incomes are often limited

The number of households that spending more than 50% of their annual income rose by 16% in 2008, to 18.6 million households, affecting 44.2 million Americans (U.S. Statistics & Research)

The shortage of affordable housing directly affects the quality of life for the millions who spend the majority of their income on housing payments sacrifice the purchase of other essentials, commute long distances to work, and/or suffer overcrowded or unsafe conditions

What is Affordable Housing

Minimum Volume of Habitation◦ Space is limited in cities to meet the demands for public housing. Apartment

buildings are favored (vertical expansion)

Provision of Basic Amenities◦ Sanitation & Basic Water Supply◦ Parks, Schools, and Healthcare facilities within the neighborhood or surrounding

area

Location of the House◦ Can negatively impact a city by increasing the stress on public transportation◦ Effects affordability of the household if located far away from a workplace

Cost of the House◦ Purchase Cost◦ Maintenance cost◦ Sustainability

Criteria of Affordable Housing

Housing quality & housing affordability must continue over the housing’s expected life use (30-50 years)

House always look good at completion but often looks terrible a few years later

Sustainability

1955 1965

1969 1972

Why do we need affordable housing?

Leading cause of homelessness Between 1.6 and 3.5 million

American were homeless at some time during 2008 with 40% being children (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development)

Communities may become uniform without it

Lose the ability to interact with people who may be in different economic or cultural circumstances

Homelessness Uniformity

Why do we need affordable housing?

Hundreds of thousands of American Children have suffered disease, serious injury, malnutrition, and education failure due to living in below standard housing

Poor families move over 50% more frequently than families that are not poor

Among children who move more frequently, 23% fail at least one grade in school compared to 12% who never or infrequently move (Legal Services of New Jersey)

18% of children who move frequently exhibit four or more behavioral problems versus 7% among those who move infrequently or not at all (Legal Services of New Jersey)

High housing costs means that a family will spend less on other necessities such as food, clothing, or childcare

Children who live in bad housing have lower educational attainment and a greater likelihood of being impoverished and unemployed as adults

Health & Stability

History of Affordable Housing Concept of government involvement in housing

arises during Great Depression As millions of Americans lose jobs they are unable

to afford rent In response government passes legislation in the

New Deal, called National Housing Act of 1934

Created Federal Housing Administration Makes housing and home mortgages more

affordable While this act was focused more on

preventing banks from foreclosing on homes, it is the first law which allows government intervention in housing

Law is backbone for future legislation

National Housing Act 0f 1934

Created United States Housing Authority Provided subsidies from U.S. government to local housing authorities to improve living conditions of low-income families. Prior to bills passage, many urban

immigrants live in terrible living conditions, with upwards of 10 people sharing one apartment.

Lack of windows and air circulation poses health threat

Housing Act of 1937

“The explicit purpose of the act was to alleviate present and recurring unemployment and to remedy the unsafe and insanitary conditions and the acute shortage of decent, safe, and sanitary dwellings for families of low income”

By 1942, 175,000 public housing apartments – most in two-to-four-story buildings were constructed in 290 communities.

By 1946, another 195,000 units of "permanent" housing were built in areas where war industry or military bases had created new demand for housing

Housing Act of 1937 (cont)

Provided federal financing for slum clearing programs associated with urban renewal.

Increased authorization for FHA. Gave federal money to build over 800,000

public housing units. Provided funding for research on public

housing. Brought planning to the forefront

Housing Act 1949

“Congress recognizes that housing problems are part of a broader program of urban planning and development, that highways, parks, schools, and business must be planned together with housing”

Combines public housing and planning to achieve better aggregate results.

Created the Urban Redevelopment Agency and gave it the authority to subsidize three fourths of the cost of local slum clearance and urban renewal .

Housing Act of 1949: Planning

Strengthens the need for comprehensive planning.

Modified urban redevelopment and renewal by requiring communities engaged in such activities to adopt code enforcement, relocation, and other measures that would prevent the further spread of urban blight.

Housing Act of 1954

Creates Department of Housing and Urban Development

Gives more money to federal programs Provided rent subsidies to not only low-

income individuals but also to: elderly, disabled, and veterans.

Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965

Known as the Fair Housing Act Banned discriminatory practices in public

housing Authorizes the payment of rental housing

assistance to private landlords on behalf of approximately 3.1 million low-income households. It operates through several programs, the largest of which, the Housing Choice Voucher program, pays a large portion of the rents and utilities of about 2.1 million households

Civil Rights Act of 1968, Section 8

The housing choice voucher program is the federal government's major program for assisting very low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market.

Tenants pay approximately 30% of their rent, with vouchers covering the remainder

Allows more from freedom than having to live in public housing buildings.

Voucher Programs for Housing

Popular building structure of planners during 1940’s and 50’s.

Though high-rise buildings were often not the most cost-effective option, they were typically preferred because the cost of land and relative lack of land in urban areas.

High Rise Buildings

Despite popular stereotype high-rises account for only 27% of public housing buildings in US.

However, these buildings are the most problematic

Typically plain and uniform to advertise the fact that they were public housing

Quality of buildings were also lacking

High Rise Buildings: Projects

Even in contemporary cases where the buildings are well constructed, basics such as floor space, closet doors, and reliable elevators might be lacking

Operational expenses quickly outpaced income and authorities lacked the means to provide day-to-day maintenance, further deteriorating the quality of buildings

High Rise Project Buildings

As a result of the poor quality of the buildings, tenants who had money moved out, creating a neighborhood of destitution.

From 1950 to 1970, the median income of public residents fell from 64 percent to 37 percent of the national median. By 1988, the average income of public housing households was $6,539, one-fifth of the national average ($32,144)

Result

As the income of tenants dropped, crime increased.

Project buildings became notoriously dangerous and crime-ridden.

One study found that in New York the difference between high-rise and low-rise projects was much more significant as an explanation of crime rates than was the ratio of welfare families. The study showed that the number of robberies in a housing project rose proportionately with its height.

Crime and High Rise Buildings

New Jersey NJ is the fourth most expensive state

in the nation for housing costs

If you don’t earn at least $24.54 per hour and work 40 hrs a week, 52 weeks a year, you can’t afford a modest two-bedroom apartment

Fair market value for a two-bedroom apartment is $1276 per month

Using the “measure of housing affordability” that no more than 30% of household income should be use on housing costs, $1276 monthly = $51,000 annually (Burlington County Times)

Popular demand has diminished the availability of affordable housing, as many older apartments have been converted to market-rate rentals and expensive luxury condominiums

Hoboken’s low income residents have had to rely increasingly on the availability of housing in the public housing projects

A Hoboken ordinance stipulates that 10 percent of new housing is required to be available for lower-income families

Hoboken

Hoboken Housing Authority (HHA) Hoboken Housing Authority

(HHA) is the largest provider of low income housing in the city.

Like other older, urban public housing agencies, the HHA has a housing stock that is obsolete, below current safety and environmental standards and costly to maintain:◦ 806 family housing units in 25 buildings◦ Poorly configured buildings◦ Isolated at the back of the city◦ Concentration of poverty◦ Wasteful energy consumption◦ Inability to serve handicapped

residents◦ Lack of opportunity for upward

migration◦ Poorly planned placement of buildings ,

creating outdoor spaces giving rise to crime related safety issues

Hoboken City Council Meeting

People in favor Gives people opportunities to live

in Hoboken Gives developers opportunities to

make contributions to the community

Claims that if the 1986 ordinance for public housing was approved then there would be hundreds of more housing now

It will increase the quality of life by creating parks for kids and increasing accessibility for senior citizens and other people with disabilities

People Against Redevelopment plan should not

go beyond zoning ordinance because it will increase the density of the town

Problematic because it increases taxes and reduces the quality of life

Preserve the affordable housing the city already has by decreasing rent and not by tearing down apartment buildings so people don’t have to lose homes

Affordable Housing NeedsHoboken Housing Authority Vision 20/20 Plan

The Vision 20/20 Plan Over time, the cost to upgrade, repair,

and maintain the existing buildings would exceed the costs of providing new modern, sustainable, affordable housing

The residents would be relocated into new buildings in order to vacate the older buildings one at a time

Each empty building would be torn down for a new residential building that will mirror the surrounding neighborhood

The number of new units will exceed the number of old units ensuring that existing residents would not be displaced and at the same time, providing mixed-income housing options, allowing for the upward mobility within the neighborhood and the de-concentration of poverty

The redevelopment plan also includes◦ Facilities for recreation◦ Transit◦ Early childhood education◦ Charter schools◦ Retail space, shops and restaurants◦ Community program space for job skills

training

http://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/oor/2012-OOR.pdf

http://www.njfuture.org/smart-growth-101/stories/2011-awards/hoboken/

http://affordablehousinginstitute.org/blogs/us/2005/07/sustainable_aff.html

http://www.nj.com/hobokennow/index.ssf/2011/10/suit_alleging_hoboken_developm.html

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/comm_planning/affordablehousing

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-09-01/news/33535403_1_term-affordable-squatter-settlements-and-slums-price-and-affordability

http://cswac.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=28

http://www.lsnj.org/PDFs/criticalshortagehousing100703.pdf

http://www.habitat.org/how/why/us_stats_research.aspx

http://www.hcdnnj.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=592:new-jersey-needs-to-do-more-to-meet-its-affordable-housing-goals&catid=20:in-the-news&Itemid=225

http://ctb.ku.edu/en/tablecontents/sub_section_main_1305.aspx

Works Cited

http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/77/pubhsg.html http://reengageinc.org/research/

brief_history_public_housing.pdf http://rhol.org/rental/housing.htm http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/

public_indian_housing/programs/hcv

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/topics/housing_choice_voucher_program_section_8

Works Cited (cont)