Understanding the Difference Between Equity and Equality to Make Affordable Housing Work

Week 8 Affordable Accelerator Impact Hub Austin

When we started in the Austin Affordable Housing Accelerator our company, Blue Zero Homes, had a pretty good idea as to what we wanted to accomplish. As the weeks started to go by our vision changed based on things that we learned and also better understood. That was followed by interviewing homeless people. So now we are half-way through the accelerator and we are confident that we know how we can contribute to providing safe and affordable housing to many people.

We Are Disproportionately Leaving Behind People That Will Shape Our Future

We have heard many times government or organizations say that they want to help bring affordable housing to their city. But you don’t see alot of it happening. Housing for all. We thought we knew what it meant. Until we started to interview some people who are homeless.

Our presumtpion was that by creating affordable housing for “all” we could help tackle the issues of equity, and equality, diversity, and inclusion. What we found was that we were confused. We never made the connection that racial, ethnic, and gender disparities were in fact an “equity” issue.

Housing and community development advocates understand that high-quality, stable housing is central to the health and well being of all families. It helps foster relationships and opportunities in communities and allows families to support positive child development. Research shows that substandard housing, on the other hand, contributes to injury and illness while poor neighborhood conditions can make it harder to play and exercise outdoors, buy healthy food, and access good jobs, schools, and transportation.

Affordable Housing Statistics (Monroe Group)

• There is not a single county in the United States that can fill 100% of its low-income population’s need for safe, affordable housing.
• 46 million people live in poverty in the United States. This number has increased 38% over the last 13 years — the highest rate in almost 60 years.
• More than 11 million Americans now pay more than half their salaries for their monthly income for rent. This rate has increased more than 30% over the last five years, which is also a record high.
• New 2016 data from ATTOM Data Solutions shows 24% of US counties are now less affordable now than last year at 19%.
• 15 million children (or 21% of all children) live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level.
• Poor housing and poor health are tied together, especially with children. When homeless or low-income families have to comprise on housing, their health declines including worsening asthma and allergies tied to poor housing conditions; pests; molds and chronic dampness; lead exposure and increased accidents/injuries from exposed wiring and other needed repairs.
• Millions of Americans are struggling to afford a place to live. In order to afford a modest, two-bedroom apartment in the U.S., renters need to earn a wage of $20.30 per hour. In six states and the District of Columbia they need to earn more than $25 per hour.
• US minimum wage is $7.25/hour. A renter would need to work 90 hours per week to afford a one-bedroom rental home at the Fair Market Rent and 112 hours per week to afford a two-bedroom.
• On average, there are only 28 adequate and affordable housing options for every 100 extremely low-income households.
• 30% of chronically homeless people have serious mental health issues.
• 50,000 veterans are homeless in the United States and 1.4 million are considered at risk of homelessness due to poverty, lack of support systems and poor living conditions

In Booming Economies, It’s Faster To Hire a Software Developer Than Build a New Affordable Housing Development

Ultimately, if we hope to address inequity, whether by race, class, or age, we must address America’s affordable housing shortage. Yet through our fact-finding, research and interviewing people we concluded that the lack of affordable housing doesn’t rank high on public perceptions of pressing national problems, and lawmakers have failed to adequately address it. To gain traction, catalyze stronger investments in community-led solutions, and scale-up programs that work, we need to spark a different conversation.

We have found that most people see housing as an issue of consumer choice. From this perspective, housing is a marketplace where individuals try to maximize value through purchases from producers who are out to maximize profit. This leads people to view housing quality as a simple function of cost: Some people can afford high-quality, healthy housing, and some simply can’t.

We have also found that people see housing affordability in terms of wildly rising costs — like a train that has jumped its tracks and is picking up speed as it careens toward inevitable crisis. This leads to fatalistic views about the ability to address affordability: If housing costs are out of control and destined to climb, then increasing affordability is an impossible dream. Affordable housing becomes almost laughable, unworthy of serious policy consideration, and people direct attention to other social problems they think might actually be solvable.

Next week we discuss how Blue Zero Homes can help create affordable housing today.