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Lack of affordable housing essay
Affordable housing research paper
Issues of affordable housing
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Affordable housing refers to housing units that are affordable by that section of society whose income is or below the median household income. For example, affordable housing should address the housing needs of lower or middle income households. And for sustainable communities, it is one that is economically, environmentally, and socially healthy and resilient.. According to the Western Australia Council of Social Services (WACOSS): "Social sustainability occurs when the formal and informal processes; systems; structures; and relationships actively support the capacity of current and future generations to create healthy and livable communities.” As we can tell, all affordable housing, sustainable community, and social sustainability are …show more content…
If housing is not affordable, like in Vancouver, many people are forced to live far away from where they work just so they can have a home. In this way, the further you have to go for the necessary goods, such as food, supplies, or even go to work, the more stressful life is. Why? It is because many of the very basic and needed services are not available nearby, such as hospitals and various other medical services, this forces people from remote locations to travel long distance to have some of their basic needs met. Affordability has many linkages which is what makes it an essential part of planning and supporting a sustainable community. If the community cannot provide a sustainable living environment to those people living in there, how can the community be …show more content…
The housing affordability crisis has been slowly developing over decades. This implies that young households – in particular young families who want to get their feet on the owner-occupied housing ladder, are hardest hit by the crisis. (Housing Supply Working Group) It is clear, historically, that even with significant private sector rental development, there will always be a need for some government role in assisting low-income households with housing affordability and other income problems. The impact of lack in rental supply and the consequent upward the pressure on rents is pressuring on all levels of government for assistance to low income households so that they can afford suitable and adequate housing. And the household formation will be delayed as young people are unable to find affordable rental accommodation if the shortfall units of rental housings keep remaining. (Housing Supply Working
Lastly, housing first is an approach that emphasizes stable, permanent housing as a primary strategy for ending homelessness. ( “Housing First”, n.d.) An evaluation of this strategy in San Francisco found that the number of people living on the streets dropped by 41 percent in three years. More than 1,000 units of "permanent supportive housing" were established, and, of those who moved into such units, 95 percent remained housed. (Chamard, 2010)
The housing market is very unique as unlike other goods and services, houses have permanence, it is a fixed location good causing the rules of supply and demand to be taken to new extremes. In the case of the Toronto housing market we can view in almost real time the role supply and demand play on he ever increasing house prices, additionally the fundamental economic issue of scarcity is made extremely apparent by the limited size of the city of Toronto.
“The housing market will get worse before it gets better” –James Wilson. The collapse of the United States housing market in in 2008 was one of the most devastating moments for the world economy. The United Sates being arguably the most important and powerful nation in the world really brought everyone down with this event. Canada was very lucky, thanks to good planning and proper preventatives to avoid what happened to the United States. There were many precursor events that occurred that showed a distinct path that led to the collapse of the housing market. People were buying house way out of their range because of low interest rates, the banks seemingly easily giving out massive loans and banks betting against the housing market. There were
the cost of living in Toronto has come to a record high, we need to start doing something about it now before no one can afford to live at all. There are more than 30,000 women, men and children in the city's homeless shelters annually. Many of thousands more sleep on the streets or considered the “hidden homeless”. About 70,000 households are on Toronto’s social housing waiting list and on the brink of becoming homeless because of the skyrocketing prices of owning a home in Toronto. The Federal Government and the province have begun a slow reinvestment in housing in past years, the number of affordable housing being built now doesn’t even compare near the levels of the early 1980’s. Habitat for Humanity has been building houses for low income
For centuries people have relied on public housing each year in Canada. Public housing is a known problem that does not get talked about often. Public housing is defined as a federal, provincial or local housing program that is provided for people with low incomes (XXX).
Homelessness can happen to anyone unexpectedly. Many poor people are at the risk of homelessness. The cost of living and trying to find affordable housing can be very difficult. Many who are homeless are in poverty, have a mental illness, or addictions. Homelessness happens from personal, as well as structural factors. Many aren’t able to make enough for rent, as well as, utilities, food, and other expenses each month. More than 6 million Americans pay more than half of their income towards rent (Reamer, 1989). The trend is once someone becomes homeless, it is likely they will be homeless repeatedly. To end homelessness, affordable housing will have to be created because it is peoples largest single expenditure (Anderson, 2013).
This housing affordability crisis is stripping away it’s diversity at increasing rates and I feel that not enough is being done to restore it. Liz Pfeffer article “Is the Bay Area in a Housing Bubble or a Crisis?” describes the situation as, “San Francisco’s chronic problem is a lack of housing for middle and lower-income people. It’s not that they can’t afford it, it’s that it doesn’t exist”. Officials should collaborate on creating solutions to the root causes and offer alternatives that would release some of the pressure. I would suggest promoting micro-homes or smaller scaled homes, limiting foreign investors’s purchases of single-family homes, or expanding campuses of employers to areas that are not heavily populated. It is not too late to restore the balance but it will take collaboration and team work. I am urging these officials and activists to try and save the beloved culture of this area and help retain it as a place where social justice is recognized and
House prices have been affected by the number of people who buy houses to rent out and this has had an impact on younger people wanting to buy homes. Thus, the term ‘generation rent’ has come to the forefront in recent years. In A Century of Home-ownership and Renting (The Open University, 2016) census data presented supports the claim for the use of this term. In the video, they mention levels of home-ownership dropped for the first time since records began. From 69% to 64% in the space of 10 years and the percentage of households privately renting has been on the rise. 11% in 1981 compared to 18% in 2011. In addition, house prices have risen faster than previous years and banks have also restricted lending. These factors have all lead to more people not being able to afford a home of their own, especially at a younger age. So, as house prices rise this benefits the home-owners and allows them to gain more wealth and capital. The distribution of wealth has been affected by changes in these markets. There is evidence to support this claim. Table 3.5 (Investigating the social world 1, chapter 3, p. 96) shows wealth distribution in Great Britain from 2000 and 2005. The table shows results for housing wealth distribution amongst other things. It’s important to look at the look at the lowest and highest percentiles to look at any
Therefore, the supply of housing that is affordable and accessible to low income people should be increased. Plus assistance that allows people to reach adequate stability should be regarded as a good investment in a productive society, in order to attain our objective. First we could start by introducing more productive assistance programs that actually focus on helping those in need of housing assistance. These programs will analyze how long people are homeless, what are their needs, the causes of homelessness, and in all how many are currently without a home. Subsequently, the City of Austin would begin building affordable housing according to the amount necessary.
The American dream was owning a house with a white picket fence. Now this dream is impossible. Individuals and families find it more difficult to find a decent home to rent in a suitable living area. According to Huffington Post, the hourly wage needed to afford a two bedroom apartment in California is at least $26 an hour. This is more than triple the minimum wage. Eviction, relocation, and inflation are the common keywords that associate with affordable housing. I 'm hoping to persuade you to support affordable housing for all. Today, I will be discussing, one, inflation of the housing market that needs to decrease, two, eviction from homes, three having to move to communities far from their work site.
The economic component of the homelessness situation can be broken down into two interrelated parts: housing affordability and a low income rate. The economic recession that followed the financial crisis of 2007 left many individuals unemployed during a time that saw a spike in the price of housing. So not only did the cost of living increase, the rate of income also decreased accordingly. Unsurprisingly, during these same years homelessness rose from 24.2 percent in 2007 to 29.4 percent in 2009 (citation).
The affordability of housing is one of the most critical factors that determine the well being for Californians. Housing affects people’s lives in terms of education, recreation and choices for jobs. On the state level, the cost of housing has important impact on California economy, affecting the extent to which employers are able to hire and retain workers and influencing their preferences on whether to work and remain in California.
Since the mid-1970s, affordable housing has become increasingly difficult to find. This is because Americans are being asked to contribute more and more or their paychecks to their rent and when they become homeless it is difficult to get themselves back into affordable housing. It has been reported that “A full-time worker earning minimum wage cannot afford a one-bedroom unit priced at the Fair Market Rent anywhere in the United States. Nationally a full-time worker must earn $18.32 per hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment at Fair Market Rent.”(National low-income Housing Coalation 2010) Today, our federal minimum wages contributes to our increasing homeless population, while even if you work fulltime making $7.25 isnt even enough to get you off the street. In 1970 there was a...
In President Reagan's own words, homelessness is one problem that we have had, even in the best of times (Reagan). However, economic experts are all in consensus that this is the worse era for the housing market. One...
It involves deprivation across a number of different dimensions – physiological (lack of bodily comfort or warmth), emotional (lack of love or joy), territorial (lack of privacy), ontological (lack of rootedness in the world, anomie) and spiritual (lack of hope, lack of purpose),” (Somerville 384). Finally, the last solution would be to increase government funding for homelessness. The government spends millions of dollars on “treatment first” programs, when that money can be used for the Housing First program (Sanburn 20). According to “The Radically Simple Solution,” from TIME, “Over the past eight years, the total number of chronically homeless people in the U.S. has fallen 30%, from 120,000 in 2007 to 83,000 in 2015— largely because of the success of housing-first programs” (Sanburn 20). It can be expensive, but how is it not worth it? Increasing the amount that can be spent on these programs can be beneficial to communities, the government, and just the people in general. Giving these people a chance at something they do not have can affect them in so many