Serious Consequences for Families
Struggling to make rent each month often means cutting back on groceries, putting off medical care, living on the brink of eviction, and being under constant stress which makes it hard for children to learn in school and for adults to perform well at work. Families may find themselves moving from place to place, losing belongings, and ending up in a neighborhood with even more challenges than their prior locale. Unaffordable housing has contributed to a rise in homelessness, especially among families with children. For the first time in 15 years there are now more homeless children and parents in DC than homeless single adults. Living in unaffordable housing poses long-term risks to health and well-being. Families without affordable housing spend $150 per month less on food, on average, because “the rent eats first.” Very young children who move frequently do worse than their peers on measures of behavioral school readiness, such as attention and healthy social behavior. They are more likely than others to fall behind and drop out of school. Families who have trouble paying the rent or live doubled-up are more likely to delay medical care or filling needed prescriptions, and are more likely to report being depressed. Having the security of affordable housing, by contrast, provides a strong foundation for families. It reduces instability, improves the ability to meet basic needs, and increases the ability to succeed. Children who grow up in affordable housing earn more as adults, and job programs work better when adults have a stable affordable home. The city’s investments in schools and workforce training will be more effective if they’re matched with investments in affordable housing.
Reaching Residents Most in Need
Local housing is not well targeted to the households in greatest need.
The DC Fiscal Policy Institute estimates that 77 percent of the DC renters in need of affordable homes are extremely low income. Yet since 2010 just 39 percent of affordable housing financed by the city served extremely low-income renters. Only 2,100 extremely low-income households got housing aid over the past six years, while 26,000 need help. At the current pace it will take 75 years just to help the families who need help today. DC has many tools to address housing needs. Mayor Bowser has committed a record sum to the fund to build or renovate housing. A new law requires city-owned land sold for housing purposes to include a substantial affordable set-aside, and the city has increased assistance to help low- and moderate-income residents buy their first home. But action is needed to increase investments in affordable housing and to direct a greater share of those investments to the families most in need. Policymakers should direct more of the Housing Production Trust Fund – DC’s tool to produce affordable housing – to the lowestincome households. DC should expand rental assistance through the Local Rent Supplement Program to serve some of the 42,000 families on the DC Housing Authority waitlist. Finally, the city should do more to preserve disappearing low-cost subsidized housing, by implementing the recommendations of Mayor Bowser’s housing preservation strike force. DC’s lowest-income families need the stable foundation of an affordable home, and our entire city benefits when we improve the ability of all residents to succeed. Claire Zippel is a policy associate at the DC Fiscal Policy Institute (www.dcfpi.org). DCFPI promotes budget and policy solutions to reduce poverty and inequality in the District of Columbia, and to increase opportunities for residents to build a better future. u
JANU ARY 2 0 1 7 2 9