Soldiers and Families Struggling to Live Affordably
by Tony Chavira
(a nice, small little community)
Two related articles today about the effects smartly-planned affordable housing can have on populations that really just need a nice place to live. First off, the Washington Times has an article that comments on the deplorable state of homelessness among our recently returned veterans:
On any night, more than 130,000 veterans find themselves with no place to call home. Seven percent are women. Ending veteran homelessness starts with understanding why they become homeless.
At its core, homelessness is caused by a gap between income and the cost of housing. Given the diminished stock of affordable housing, people at the bottom of the wage scale are at greatest risk for homelessness. A minimum-wage worker cannot earn enough to pay for a two-bedroom dwelling anywhere in the United States.
Despite greater opportunities for education and training that arise from their military service, many veterans also struggle to make ends meet. Researchers report that nearly half a million veterans pay more than 50 percent of their income for rent.[...]
Housing vouchers are a proven solution, as are investments in education and job training. Such well-recognized supports are part of a five-year, $3.2 billion initiative by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to end veteran homelessness. The challenge is to ensure that vouchers fully pay for decent housing and that funding is available for preventive measures such as rapid rehousing.
Affordable housing is essential to the solution, but not sufficient. Social networks, including services and supports, play a critical role in anchoring people in housing and the community. This is especially important if a veteran is struggling with medical, mental health or substance use issues.
I also like that this article makes the critical point that soldiers want to return from war and make their way in America. They're not social-service leeches or dead weight. They're our veterans, and they want to earn their wages, live in their homes and begin their lives and savings with the help of their families. But how, when they can barely afford a roof over their heads? If we can't provide valuable social services to our servicemen, what exactly are they fighting for except the idea of a country that doesn't support them?
With that in mind, City Parks Blog has a great post about small urban parks providing a much-needed focal point to affordable communities. In fact, one such neighorhood in Portland has actually compelled the local school district to provide an elementary school, and is also triggering the development of new affordable housing:
We wrote before on how small urban parks can help draw families into compact neighborhoods, specifically mentioning the great parks of Portland’s Pearl District.
And now we learn that Portland Public Schools is looking to create an elementary school in the Pearl District because people like it so much. As DJC reports, “Developers are realizing that families with children want to live in the Pearl. They’re not moving out as their families grow.”
In addition to parks, the Portland Development Commission has worked to create affordable housing in the area. A local developer commented that at one point, there had been about 6,000 new units built since 1994, and 1,800 of them are affordable housing.
I see a fantastic problem-solution relationship between these two articles: we already know about the plight of homeless veterans, we already know that communities with affordable housing are vastly improved with small parks, and we already know that these small neighborhoods are so successful that people actually want to stay in them and raise their children. If only governments could focus their efforts on developing small, similarly-integrative communities with an eye on affordability and services for the residents, you may see more veterans returning from war with a lot more relief than grief in their eyes.
Maybe I'm being a little too optimistic, but honestly I don't care.
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