Our Precious Way Life and other Fairy Tales

 

I was gratified to see that yesterday’s topic resonated with so many readers. The responses confirm the degree to which the housing shortage has squeezed all kinds of people in our community. At the risk of repeating myself, the point of writing about this for me is not to put the focus on “now our kids can’t get apartments!” 

The most appalling housing insecurity and injustice is and has been experienced by Black and Hispanic residents. And, for far too long, their needs weren’t considered reason enough to push for a reasonable quantity of rental housing. 

The end result is that there isn’t enough rental housing for anyone who needs it and - - surprise! - - our choices as a community eventually impact us, too. 

Towards the end of the day I discovered that I wasn’t the only person to write about the coalition of community groups working with the Horizon Foundation on Housing Justice. I refer you to the post on the HoCo APFO Facebook* page. (It’s not long. You have time.)

It took me a minute to realize that we were writing about exactly the same thing. They use as their jumping-off point the Bright Minds Foundation event to collect school supply donations for those who can’t afford them.

HoCo APFO: Stuff a Bus?

…Yet there is a growing list of non-profits that are aligning this fall to convince residents to reduce or eliminate school overcrowding protections which may literally stuff the bus. 

The marketing goal is to gather support to exempt or eliminate Adequate Public Facilities Ordinances to potentially accelerate lower cost development.

Wait a minute. Let’s back up the bus here. (Pause for beeping.)

I wrote about the Housing Justice initiative this way:

Whether they are your kids our someone else’s - - and no matter how old they are - -  the reality is that more and more people are working multiple jobs, don’t have healthcare or retirement benefits, and can’t find adequate, stable, affordable housing. 

HoCo APFO writes about it this way:

…but what is not being communicated is that the majority of the effort to reduce development hurdles comes from hobbling the mechanism to ensure schools are adequate rather than "Stuffed". 

Do you see the difference?

It’s interesting that HoCo APFO uses the Stuff a Bus image to sell its readers on a concept of growing scarcity of resources. The suggestion is that these people will overcrowd our school buses and our schools.  It’s just a hop, skip, and a jump to “we must fight to protect our way of life” sorts of arguments.

But what is not being communicated is that the need to stuff a bus full of school supplies is created largely by inadequate housing.

Imagine that the whole pie is a family’s total income. The sections are expenditures they are required to make: food, housing, medical, clothing, etc. If, as in Howard County, the cost of housing takes up too big a chunk of the total, it will render the family unable to meet other obligations. Like school supplies, for instance.

In this way, housing insecurity is actually creating poor people. If the amount of money spent on housing were in a reasonable range in relationship to income, the pie chart would change. Families would be able to buy school supplies, among other things. Making sure that we have opportunities for housing available at different price points is crucial to resetting those pie charts, if you get my analogy.

- - Pie, Village Green/Town², 8/9/2019

Housing shortages inflate the rents of existing properties. Period. You’ve probably heard of being “house -poor.” There’s also such a thing as being “apartment-poor.” Our housing policies in Columbia/HoCo have created a chronically apartment-poor class throughout the county. 

HoCo APFO expresses approval for the school supply donation efforts. It does not express approval for actions that would lessen the need for the donations.

Interesting 

Of course it’s not an either/or. We will always have community members who need a boost. But it should definitely be a both/and. Howard County can both help students get a good start for the school year and address issues of housing insecurity which put their families in such precarious financial situations.

But not if we continue to frame it as a threat to our way of life.

Village Green/Town² Comments 

*A word to the wise: the HoCo APFO page calls itself a Community under Facebook rules but it doesn’t entertain conversation. It’s a one-way street. I also have no idea who writes it. They are big on transparency over there but not when it comes to themselves.