Federal Homeless Policy Update: THE AMERICAN SCREAM: WE WANT HOUSING NOW!
June was National Homeownership month. It served to remind us that it was three years ago when former HUD Secretary Mel Martinez addressed the United Nation’s Habitat Agenda conference in New York, where the United States emerged as the only country not to recognize housing as a fundamental human right. While the Secretary’s speech that day provided an important lens into the Bush Administration’s thinking around federal housing policy, it perhaps more importantly revealed a social and political philosophy fundamentally shaped by American mythology. In his talk and in subsequent appearances, the then-Secretary and his successor Alphonso Jackson have both embraced a rather loose reading of U.S. history in defining the ‘American Dream’ as a means to assert the Bush Administration’s housing priorities.
The American Dream, of course, is popularly misunderstood as the classic Horatio Alger story, the immigrant experience, and the moral force of accumulated wealth trumping poverty, but the term itself didn’t even emerge until 1931—and then only in the service of a Depression-weary real estate industry. But to hear the Administration tell it, you might conclude that something far more profound was at work during National Homeownership Month, with the “American Dream” acting as some kind of mystical glue that holds together the social fabric. Americans “…understand that homeownership is at the root of good citizenship,” Martinez declared that day in June before the UN General Assembly. Good citizenship? Really?
To be sure, there are millions of law-abiding, family-loving homeowners, but evidently a full one-third of ‘us’ renters missed something valuable in our civics lessons. The Secretary did not offer whether this collective homeownership impulse is intuitive, the product of history, or exclusive to the United States. But he has hinted that maybe other nations do not ‘cherish’ such opportunities and one is left wondering if that applies to those who can’t afford a home, too. Indeed, to facilitate good citizenship, something called the American Dream Downpayment Fund has been offered as the Administration’s vehicle for achieving independence, security and wealth generation. This is all well and good, but a no less important American tradition of homesteading, cooperative buying schemes, and resistance to credit clearly stands no chance in the face of America’s proud tradition of downpayment.
Tragically, National Homeownership Month exists against a far more somber backdrop when considering the larger housing landscape. Fourteen million households pay over half their income on housing, five million households suffer from worst-case housing needs, and as many as 3.5 million Americans, of which over one million are children, lack housing altogether. Yet the Administration has spoken out in opposition to the creation of a national housing trust fund, which would greatly help close this gap; has proposed to cut the Section 8 program by $1.6 billion, and has cynically declared a goal of ending “chronic” homelessness while anyone who doesn’t meet that narrow definition must wait for level-funded resources to be “freed up” before their homelessness is addressed. In the Administration’s schema, promoting homeownership apparently comes at the expense of those who are struggling to maintain their housing or have no home at all. For the over one-third of U.S. citizens who don’t own homes, are priced out of housing despite working full time at minimum wage, or most horrifying yet, spend their nights on the streets of America, the “Dream” remains just that. If homeownership is indeed the “root of good citizenship” we have a long way to go and a history to rethink.
Apparently, deep cuts to housing aren’t just for HUD anymore. The House Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee passed the 2005 fiscal year spending bill for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) on June 23, bringing more bad news to rural America. The Section 515 program, which provides low-income rural rental housing for tenants with average household incomes of about $9,400, was cut sharply to $60 million from $116 million in 2004. Going back to 1994 the program had more than $540 million and built over 11,000 apartments. In 1980 over 38,000 515 units were built while less than 1,000 were constructed in 2003.
While the most critical housing issue at hand remains the proposed deep cuts to Section 8, let’s remember that the President’s budget also falls far short of the amount necessary to meet even emergency needs. The proposed funding level for HUD McKinney-Vento homeless assistance programs in the 2005 budget request is $1.257 billion, $3 million less than provided in 2004, yet according to the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ latest annual survey, the number of families seeking shelter in increased by 15 percent, while 30 percent of total people experiencing homelessness were turned away for lack of room. In fact, in the last round of funding, entire continuums of care, particularly in smaller and rural communities went unfunded, leaving those communities to scramble for resources to meet the shortfall in emergency services. At the same time, the demand for emergency services is likely to increase. Many communities are reporting dramatic surges in homelessness, particularly among families with children, and as the gap between wages, income, and the cost of housing—already at an all-time high—continues to grow, more people are likely to experience homelessness and need emergency assistance. Advocates are asked to call or write their members of Congress and urge them to support $1.8 billion for HUD McKinney-Vento.
Here are some good, progressive ideas to get behind: Currently pending in Congress, The Bringing America Home Act proposes to put Congress on record as recognizing a right to housing, while Congressman Charles Rangel and Jesse Jackson, Jr., respectively, have introduced legislation to amend the United States Constitution respecting the right to housing. The Living Wage, and Jobs for All Act of Bay Area Congresswoman Barbara Lee, includes a right to housing provision as well.
Brad
