Writing about affordable housing when our democracy is crumbling all about us may seem like whistling in the dark. But the lack of affordable housing is one of the reasons why people are so upset and have given opportunity for authoritarian to claim they can solve all our problems. So I am writing about affordable housing today.
Affordable housing has been an interest of mine for most of my adult life. One of my first jobs out of college was with a housing and redevelopment authority in a small Midwestern city. A good deal of my career has been involved in advising smaller communities about comprehensive economic development. I spent a few years dealing with homeless issues in New York City and ten years as a commissioner of a housing authority in a small western city. I am by no means an expert. I am only a Country Parson, but affordable housing has become a campaign issue once again, so I decided to offer a few thoughts on the matter. Take them for what they’re worth.
Affordable housing continues to be an issue candidates promise to address, but governments seldom do much about. It’s difficult to gain momentum toward solutions because governments at every level and different elements of the private sector are able to affect slim portions of the problem. It leads to what can only be called a disorganized build-a-house-without-a-plan, and no one is in charge of the whole project.
The federal government has a few powerful tools at its disposal if funded generously. The so-called Section 8 voucher programs fund local housing authorities to issue vouchers for rental housing to low-income persons. The vouchers are used to pay for housing in the private sector from landlords generally offering low-quality, poorly maintained properties.
A second federal program can be used to make the voucher system work much better. Tax credit financing is a program that allows local housing authorities to raise capital from the private sector to build housing and rent it to voucher holders. Large corporations and other institutions earn tax credits for investing in housing authority projects. It’s a complicated program beyond my ability to describe here, but it gives housing authorities the resources needed to build quality low-income housing managed for the good of the community and tenants. It reduces reliance on slumlords and tends to improve the quality of private sector rental housing.
There are other federal programs, but these two provide the most help for the most people when they are well funded and the money goes to competent, well-managed local housing authorities operating in communities of goodwill.
State governments sometimes have low-income housing funds of their own that can sometimes be yoked to federal programs, which can sometimes work well together. The larger state role is played by uniform statewide building codes. On one hand, they ensure safe, durable construction practices that no one wants to weaken. On the other, they can be inflexible to the point of disallowing less expensive methods and materials of equal or better quality.
Local governments have the largest and most important role to play. Zoning can improve the rental market by permitting mixed commercial and residential areas, mixed single- and multi-family areas, reducing minimum lot sizes, and the footprint of buildings on them. It can streamline permitting to be more helpful and less burdensome. It can require builders to include smaller, more affordable houses amidst others in large developments. It can stop surrendering tax credits to builders who demand them or else. It can enable a creative, bold, well-managed housing authority to use every tool at its disposal to make quality low-income housing available to all who qualify. It can hold landlords accountable for the quality and maintenance of their properties.
Most importantly, local governments can stop the informal segregation of neighborhoods by race and income. Mixed neighborhoods work very well, and some segregation will occur naturally, but the city need not aid and abet it.