By: Nerise Melarkey
Experts report that a lack of affordable housing is the biggest cause of homelessness. It was reported that only around 35 units of housing out of every 100 qualify as low-income housing across the country. In Multnomah County, it is even worse, with about 28/100 units qualifying. This epidemic could easily be mitigated by the building of more affordable housing options. Around the Portland metro area, you can see dozens of new apartments and condos being built. Many of these will be more expensive to rent than existing housing. With so many residents of Multnomah and Washington counties on the street, we must ask ourselves why more unaffordable housing is being built when the need for low-income housing is so high.
Racial and socioeconomic discrimination may come into play. The processes of banking and mortgage lending are historically discriminatory, redlining many groups from home ownership. These types of policies and discrimination on a corporate level can have devastating effects on the ease with which someone can buy a home or get into stable housing, thus perpetuating the homeless crisis. On average, ¾ households that are eligible for federal housing assistance do not receive it due to a lack of program funding. The chronic lack of funding for rental assistance programs causes many people to be unable to afford rent or get into a home. The NIMBY mindset (Not In My Backyard) actively stands as a significant barrier to the development of affordable housing. Many housed residents report worrying that the presence of low-income housing in their neighborhood will lead to increased crime. The issue with this mindset is that individuals experiencing poverty and homelessness are once again being blamed for their situation, while the processes that perpetuate it are being ignored. Providing housing for these individuals is imperative to ending the crisis of homelessness. Affordable housing is necessary to the improvement of our community and the quality of life for all of its residents.
Links to affordable housing programs and services:
https://www.washingtoncountyor.gov/housing
https://multco.us/info/affordablesubsidized-housing-resources
Reference:
https://endhomelessness.org/a-shortage-of-affordable-housing/
No comments:
Post a Comment