reading response 11/07

What I appreciated about the Urban Agenda article was how it highlighted the necessity of community through Clinton’s Breaking Every Barrier plan. The ability to “connect housing to opportunity” reminds us that there’s more needed besides an affordable home. As Solomon Greene, senior fellow at the Urban Institute’s Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center points out, “you’re not going to be able to break the cycle of poverty or promote intergenerational mobility if affordable housing is only located in areas that lack quality municipal services and decent schools or are far away from jobs.” By expanding the accessibility of greater opportunities, you’d be maximizing the effectiveness of “affordable housing” and allowing families to flourish rather than just “get by.”

However another valuable point raised in the article is where the money would come from. At the end of the day, no matter how appealing a plan may sound, the matter of how to fund it will more often than not stop any form of progress. With an estimated $125 billion needed, plus other plans such as implementing a debt-free college program, and fighting climate change, there will most likely be a lot of resistance to get these policies into working order. I’m very wary myself, and have low expectations as to whether or not these plans will actually happen if Clinton is elected.