The PIN Magazine October 2019

OCTOBER 2019 Vol. 06 | Issue 10

How much do millennials owe the country?

Homelesness in Sacramento

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California Hot Housing Market What has the state done so far?

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EDITORIAL TEAM

Eric Lawrence Frazier MBA Editor in Chief (800) 401-8994 Ext. 703 Daniels George Managing Editor (800) 401-8994 ext. 712 daniels.george@thepowerisnow.com Goldy Ponce Arratia Graphic Artist and Design Manager (800) 401-8994 ext. 711 goldy.ponce@thepowerisnow.com

CONTRIBUTORS The Power Is Now Research Team

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The Power Is Now Magazine | October 2019

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CONTENTS

the power is now

magazine

12. A major win for the tenants. California lawnmakerspass a bill to cap the rents 16. Automatic listening act would fine a company $40K for each recording their smart home device makes without a user’s permission 22. Over 1 trillion and still counting. This is how much millennials owe the country 28. The house passes a bill that would ban discrimination landlords against voucher applicants 36. California hot housing market. What has the state done so far?

42. This is how ugly homelessness is in Sacramento

FROM THE

D

EDITOR ear esteemed readers,

the end of the year is here with us. I cannot believe that it is the last quarter of 2019, which means it is that time of the year we need to prepare for the cold season. I hope that even as we get prepared for the festive season ahead of us, you are truly having an amazing time and a productive October already. Fall is here, it is one of my favorite seasons. It represents a reflection of the past while at the same time help us plan for the future. For the remaining part of the year, The Power Is Now is looking forward to finishing it out strong. Other than that, we are continuing to grow and with the growth, our main aim is to make sure that we change homebuyers into homeowners.

Our passion for real estate has led us to spotlighting the state of California, which is the most populous state in the United States but with the largest homeless count. The affordable housing crisis in California has led to thousands of people freeing the city and the ‘die-hards’ sleeping outside. It is a problem that we have tried to cover in details and in depth, just to paint a clear picture of what is happening to the golden state.

In addition to that, this month’s edition is all about homelessness and as a result, and Sacramento is yet another county in the state to be faced with the worst homelessness menace. For a fact, the state isn’t doing much to resolve the situation, because as it stands out, we need to build and therefore, come up with a plans, policies and regulations to increase housing inventory in the state. Otherwise, the policies that were designed to work in the 90s and early 2000s will not work in this day and time.

In other news this month, are you a millennial are currently holding on to your student? How has it been for you, because our people are really suffering with this debt.

Statistics show that millennials currently hold over 1 Trillion in debt, and still, the debt is counting. Data from the New York federal reserve a show that this year, millennials now hold the most debt in the country escalating to over $1 trillion. More than any

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The Power Is Now Magazine | October 2019

generation in the history of United States, the debt increased by 22 percent straining most people economic wise. We dig deeper as we try to understand how better to help millennials make good economic choices given their situation. Keep reading to find out more.

Technology is something that we have to accept, embrace and utilize in this modern day.

However, at times, given the sophistication of some of the devices we are exposed to, it becomes hard to control what we can do with this power, or rather, it becomes hard to control these devices. Did you know that some of these technological gadgets we use in our everyday life can actually pry our privacy? Yes, they can and that is why Presidential aspirant Seth Moulton came up with the Automatic Listening Exploitation Act that would fine a company over $40K for each violation of privacy by the smart devices without the user’s permission. Read this article as well familiarize yourself with the bill and now how to protect yourself.

With the year coming to an end, it doesn’t mean it is the end of the convention season. We are still going and growing strong and your next stop should be in Boston Marriott Copley Place where the AREAA’s 2019 National Convention will be taking place. This is a three-day event where you get to learn, network and develop your professional passion. Make sure you attend some of these events because they are specially prepared for you.

Lastly, October is the Breast Cancer awareness month. Take time to do your part and support such a worthy cause. We can only beat this menace by staying aware and doing our part diligently from the sidelines.

Thank you for your continued support and readership. Our team is dedicated to you. We want the best from you, so we are dedicated to bringing the best of us. Please take a moment to share this magazine. Knowledge is power, and The Power Is Now. Have a prosperous month.

Eric Lawrence Frazier,MBA CEO The Power Is Now Inc.

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A MAJOR WIN FOR THE TENANTS CALIFORNIA LAWMAKERS PASS A BILL TO CAP THE RENTS

O

n Wednesday, September 11, 2019, the California Assembly voted 46-22 approving the state senate version of Assembly Bill 1482, sending it to the Governor’s desk. The bill seeks to cap rent hikes throughout the state at 5% including the inflation, up to a maximum of 10% a year. It also seeks to protect the tenants from orders to vacate without a just cause.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, who help broker a deal between the tenant’s advocacy groups and the apartment owners is expected to sign off the bill into law in the coming days. The state of California joins Oregon, which passed a similar bill in February, and New York in enacting bills that would result to widespread rent caps. “The question we have in front of us is what kind of a society do we want to live in?” said Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco), the bill’s lead author, just before the vote. “What kind of neighbors are we?”

“These anti-gouging and eviction protections will help families afford to keep a roof over their heads, and they will provide California with important new tools to combat our state’s broader housing and affordability crisis,” Newsom

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The cap doesn’t apply to apartments that were built within the last 15 year, it only applies to single-family home rentals that are owned by corporations and doesn’t affect the tenants under rent control in cities such as San Francisco. Soon, the landlords will have to show a documented lease violation for the tenants who have been at a residence for more than one year. In addition, they will be required to provide an equivalent of one month’s rent for the tenant being forced out of their houses for renovations or a condo conversion.

The vote came after an hour of a heated emotional debate in which the proponents of the bill touted the bill as an emergency measure, that is focused at stemming homelessness. On the other hand, the opponents of the bill argued that the bill would make California’s housing crisis escalate even more by spurring the landlords to raise rents annually just to keep up with the market.

No Republicans in Sacramento voted for the bill. Even so, a number of Democrats abstained from the bill.

“We have a simple choice today. On the one hand, we can stand

The Power Is Now Magazine | October 2019

by while tens of thousands of human beings are forced out onto our streets, or we can stand up (for displaced renters),” said the bill’s author, Assemblymember David Chiu, D-San Francisco. “… The question we have in front of us is what kind of a society do we want to live in? As the Good Book asks, what kind of neighbors are we?

I say we are California. I say we are better than that. We have a historic opportunity to stand and protect our constituents.”

Gov. Gavin who has every intention of signing the bill had this to say, “These anti-gouging and eviction protections will help families afford to keep a roof over their heads, and they will provide California with important new tools to combat our state’s broader housing and affordability crisis,” Newsom said.

The opponents of the bill argued that it could make it less attractive to build new apartments thereby leading to further constricting in the housing market. Critics also argue that Californians have already voted down a bill that would have imposed stricter rent caps, Proposition 10. Support for the bill grew stronger after negotiations that included Newsom and the California Apartment Association. The supporters for the bill included former opponents who say that the state needs these amendments which are very crucial to ensuring future housing developments.

“When this bill came to the floor last time, I was a strong, early no vote,” said Assemblymember Tasha Boerner Horvath, D-Encinitas. “But this is not the same bill. That bill was too extreme for me, went too far and smacked of rent control.

This bill is a solid solution to our problems now.”

According to some industry experts, this will not be as effective as anticipated. In places like Oakland and San Francisco which have already rent restrictions, tenants may not notice the difference. According to a recent analysis from Zillow, the legislation would have benefitted around 7 percent of the California renters if it had been enacted last year, because rents in many places have risen up just a few percentage points.

However, the bill will have a significant effect

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on the cities that passed rent control measures long ago, for instance San Jose as it will extend the protections to newer apartments than they have typically been covered. In wealthy suburbs, the new rent cap will have a significant impact. The measure comes a big political win for the governor who had taken a big risk by backing the bill even before it had a clear path of passage. Newsom had this to say, “In this year’s State of the State address, I asked the legislature to send me a strong renter protection package,” Newsom said in a statement. “Today, they sent me the strongest package in America.

These anti-gouging and eviction protections will help families afford to keep a roof over their heads, and they will provide California with important new tools to combat our state’s broader housing and affordability crisis.”

While California Apartment Association remained neutral on the bill, the California Association of Realtors and most of the state’s republican Lawmakers opposed the measure saying that it would decrease the value of the rental properties and deter developers from building. “We can build our way out of this if you allow it,” said Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez (R-Lake Elsinore). In a statement, the president of CAR said, “Although we did not prevail, we remain steadfast in our commitment to overcome California’s historic housing supply and affordability crisis,” Martin said. “Much more work remains ahead of us, and as we have said from the beginning, REALTORS® appreciate the commitment of Gov. Gavin Newsom, Democrats and Republicans to continue working to incentivize the production of new housing for rental and sale.”

If Newsom signs off the bill, it will take effect on January 1, 2020 Works cited https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Historic-RentControl-Bill-Goes-to-California-Governor-560126271.html https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/09/11/in-ma jorvictory-for-tenants-california-lawmakers-pass-sweepingrent-cap-bill/ https://www.ocregister.com/2019/09/11/california-rent-capbill-ab-1482-passes-state-legislature/ https://caanet.org/rent-cap-bill-sent-to-governors-desk/

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[POWER LEGAL]

Automatic Listening Exploitation Act would fine a company $40K for each recording their smart home device makes without a user’s permission

T

he 21st century has seen unprecedented explosion of the smart or voice-activated home devices. Home automation is exactly what it sounds like. The ability to control items around the house with a simple push of the button, or a voice command. While that seems like a good idea, Seth Moulton isn’t so much thrilled by this transformation. And it arguably understandable. Prominent smart home devices that have been widely accepted are Amazon Echo and Google Nest. 21 percent of adults own such a device with the rate on 16

a winning streak. It is estimated that 14 million people got their first such device last year alone.

What if the devices act without your permission? There have been reports that prove that the devices can go rogue and record audio of what the users say or even do without the user authorization. The Internet of Thing has been described using so many words, but of late, Internet of Terror or Trash seems to fit the description. Why? These devices present a large amount of The Power Is Now Magazine | October 2019

vulnerabilities. For instance, an Amazon Echo device accidentally recorded a couple’s private in-home conversations and sent the audio to random people in the owner’s contact list.

a bigger say in the data that companies collect.

It’s time for a next generation of digital privacy laws, and it can start by holding corporations to their own privacy commitments.”

Even though Amazon has come out to clearly defend the action of their devices, more questions than about the controllability of the devices have risen. In an email, Amazon boss Jeffrey P. Bezos said “As unlikely as this string of events is, we are evaluating options to make this case even less likely.” In April 2018, researchers found a flaw in the Alexa voice assistant, enabling the Echo to continue listening to people’s conversation without them knowing.

Amazon would later correct that mistake after the researchers alerted the company.

In interview with The Verge Rep. Moulton said that he would like to see the legislation spark a debate in technology, within the halls of the Congress. “The Europeans are way ahead of us, and yet we have a Senate that doesn’t even understand Facebook,” Moulton said. “The point is that Congress has been asleep at the switch here,” Moulton said. “There’s some industry forces in Congress that are preventing some members from moving forward with regulation, so we took the matter into our own hands with this bill.”

The Automatic Listening Exploitation Act In July 2019, 2020 democratic presidential aspirant and Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton introduced a bill that would limit how the smart device manufacturers like Amazon and Google collect user data. The Automatic Listening Exploitation Act, or the ALEXA Act seeks to empower the FTC to seek immediate penalties if the smart devices are found to record user conversations without their knowledge or authorization.

The bill comes at a convenient time given the regular scandals regarding technology industry leaders Google, Amazon and Apple.

What the Government is doing it somehow obliging the mega-corporations to respect the confidentiality of the population. Under Seth’s bill, each recording made without the authorization of the owner obliges the manufacturer of the device to pay $40,000. The bill also allows the user to personally select the records that can be stored on the servers of the manufacturers and which ones to delete.

“Smart speakers and doorbells are great, but consumers should have a way to fight back when tech companies collect more data than Americans have agreed to give up,” Moulton said.

“More broadly, Congress should give Americans

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However, the bill allows exceptions, for example where there is service improvement. For instance, “improve the speech recognition and natural language understanding of the voiceuser interface” or “help the voice-user interface to adapt to speech patterns, vocabulary, and personal preferences.” However, this triggers something every supporter of the bill should be concerned about. Considering that almost anything could be conceived by a company like Google as a service improvement, it is unclear how effective the bill would be.

What supporters say In the wake of Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica Scandal, both the chambers of the congress have been reported to initiate a draft legislation that would create a federal data privacy framework. Proponents of the bill say that this recent innovation in technology necessitates the need for an update in federal law to combat its potential misuse Though it early too early to tell, the bill doesn’t seem to have attracted any cosponsors. The bill awaits a potential vote in the House of Energy and Commerce Committee. But what’s clear is that the bill is about to face some of the tech giant with potential power to squash it even before it begins. Companies such as amazon will exercise their lobbying to kill this bill.

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The Power Is Now Inc. is committed to consumer advocacy especially related to housing and mortgage lending. We will continue to bring news and events that will help you identify the opportunities to create wealth and the challenges that may rob you of your wealth and the ability to create it. We want the government to be the wind at our back to help Americans instead of a head wind in our face that may be preventing many consumers from moving forward and building wealth. We are a media company promoting homeownership as a reality for people by educating them and inspiring them with knowledge on how to do it; because they can. We have also partnered with First Bank to provide the products and programs that First Time Homebuyers need to buy a home now because tomorrow it will be even more challenging. Go to www. neverrentagain.com and get started today with your American Dream of Homeownership.

The Power Is Now! Eric Lawrence Frazier MBA Vice President and Mortgage Advisor of First

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Bank NMLS 461807 President and CEO of The Power Is Now Inc. www.thepowerisnow.com The views and opinions of Eric Frazier, the Power Is Now and its affiliates, do not necessary reflect the views of the First Banks.

Works Cited Aguilar, Michael. “The Hive Mind: When IoT Devices Go Rogue | WeLiveSecurity.” WeLiveSecurity, 26 Oct. 2016 Condliffe, Jamie. “The Internet of Things Goes Rogue.”

MIT Technology Review, MIT Technology Review, 30 Sept.

2016.GovTrack.us. “Automatic Listening Exploitation Act Would Fine a Company $40K for Each Recording Their Smart Home….” Medium, GovTrack Insider, 6 Sept. 2019.

Hamza Shaban. “An Amazon Echo Recorded a Family’s Conversation, Then Sent It to a Random Person in Their Contacts, Report Says.” The Washington Post, 24 May 2018.

Kelly, Makena. “Seth Moulton Tackles Alexa Data Collection with New Bill.” The Verge, The Verge, 24 July 2019.

UsaReally. “Control over Uncontrolledness: Penalties for Unauthorized Recordings of ‘Smart Devices.’” USA Really, 8 Sept. 2019.

The Power Is Now Magazine | October 2019

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First Bank Legacy For over four generations, First Bank has enjoyed a legacy of strength, agility, and long-term perspective.

Since 1910, we have remained dedicated to serving the communities in which we operate with an unwavering commitment.

This commitment began over 100 years ago in a small, rural community in St. Louis to help local clients reach their financial goals. And, although First Bank has grown to be one of the largest family-owned banks in the country, the steadfast commitment to serving our clients—and treating them like family—still remains the same.

From Main Street America to large-scale metropolitan areas, First Bank continues to be a vital part of the communities in which we serve. At First Bank, you’ll find the products and offerings typically only found with larger, publicly held financial institutions. Quite simply, we’re big enough to provide the products and services you need, but small enough to provide caring, personal service. At First Bank, our clients become part of the family.

1910

William Dierberg, Sr.,

President, Creve Coeur Farmer’s Bank

1945

William Dierberg, Jr.,

President, Creve Coeur Farmer’s Bank

1966

James Dierberg,

President, Creve Coeur Farmer’s Bank

2016

Michael Dierberg, Chairman, First Bank

1973 Creve Coeur Bank becomes First Missouri Bank

Missouri Bank 1986 First becomes First Bank

1974

First Acquisition: Hermann, MO

1995 First Bank expands into California

1983

Expansion into Illinois

century of treating 2010 Aclients like family

[POWER LEGAL]

Over 1 Trillion and still Counting: this is how Much Millennials Owe the Country

A

report from the New York Federal Reserve early this year revealed that millennials now hold the most debt in the country escalating to over $1 trillion. In the last 5 years, the debt has increased by 22 percent more than any other generation in history. Millennials are people currently between the ages of 23 and 38 and as they grow older, they typically become increasingly reliant on conventional debt producers for instance credit cards and mortgages.

Of importance as the debt itself, is how the millennials are able to better manage their economic choices which vary from the expectations.

What the debt balances are not showing is the fact the millennials are much more conservative. In fact, when compared to the previous

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generations, millennials are more fiscally conservative.

The United States millennials have experienced what I’d like to call a subtle and cosmic duality of yin and yang just like all the generations ahead.

For a fact, most people are still on a recovery road from the global economic crisis of 2008, however, thanks to the social media, displays of tremendous wealth are now more visible than ever.

largely contributed to the technological advances, but at the same time, they have to reconcile with the fact that the United States government has led a 29-year-old global military action, prompting both ethical and financial reconciliation from the side of the millennials. All these actions have led to this group being much more conservative with their money.

The current millennial generation, despite the humongous debt, they have had their share of good fortunes. For instance, millions have benefitted from the dramatic advances in health care. Despite that, a fair number has lived through an opioid epidemic that seems to be the number one killer in the United States. Millennials have also lived through and

Experian reports that with more millennials now in their 30s, they are on a very quick pace to hold more average mortgage debt than any other of their peers.

In the first quarter of 2019, millennials are reported to have had an average of $222,211 in mortgage debt.

This represents a 5 percent increase from the same period 2018.

The Power Is Now Magazine | October 2019

Millennials in mortgage debt According to data from Experian, millennials now have the second-highest average mortgage balance. While the debt levels amassed by millennials overshadow those of the previous generation, the Gen-X-ers, at the same period, millennials complexion of the debt is very different. A separate report from the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank notes that the mortgage debt is about 15 percent lower for the millennials while the credit card debt among the millennials was about twothirds that of the Gen-X-ers.

When comparing the student debt, it is over 300 percent greater. But it is important to note that student debt affects a much broader age segment and not just the millennials, however, at over 43 million borrowers, the student debt weighs more heavily on millennials.

When it comes to the growth in mortgage debt over the past one year, millennials undoubtedly had their mortgage balances grow more on average than most of the generations. The mortgage balances for this group grew an average of 5% which was the second highest growth rate, following members of the Generation Z, who saw their averages growing by 15% since Q1 of 2018.

One other significant behavioral difference between the Generations is the www.thepinmagazine.com

higher levels of retirement savings among the millennial populations than with any previous generations at the same age group. Comparing the statistics with the GenX-ers, who had acquired about $13,600 at around Q1 of 2018, millennials have saved an average of $15,500 in retirement accounts. Data also shows that millennials have committed more to higher education. Between years 2001 and 2006, the number of people falling between ages 25-29 with at least a four-year degree grew by 25 percent.

Still in mortgage matters, members of Gen Z, those aged 22 and younger, increased their mortgage balance to $138, 193, remember in Q1 of 2018, they had the lowest mortgage balance standing at $120,209.

The housing market Economists argue that increased retirement saving and the fact that millennials are getting addition education are behaviors all pointing to

a conservative investment strategy, especially when paired with lower credit card debt. However, these changes cannot be quantified. Another significant departure in this generation’s spending is that there is a delayed effort by millennials to enter the housing market as homeowners and take out an associated debt of owning a home. Ellie Mae reports that interest rates on 30-year loans saw a drop, leading to more refinancing among the millennials.

“Savvy millennials looking to lock in lower interest rates on their mortgages have helped drive a surge in refinance activity,” said Joe Tyrrell, COO at Ellie Mae. “While the Federal Reserve’s rate cut doesn’t necessarily mean that rates on mortgages will continue to drop, we’ll be keeping a close eye on its impact on both the refinance and overall mortgage market as we do anticipate that it will affect consumer behavior, including millennials who look to lower their payments.”

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Are millennials better off

homeownership as a reality for people by

I don’t think it would be enough to measure success of this complex generation on the basis of acquisition of homes and other assets. This is the same approach that is based on the relative perspective of an older generation’s measure of the ‘American Dream.’ I also think the older generations have led millennials down a path of economic uncertainties.

knowledge on how to do it; because they

Which is the primary reason why millennials today are showing reluctance to commit to such long-term debt. Another reason being the true economic return on homes. If you think about it, homes return little more than the rate of inflation, when we factor other things like taxes, insurance and even the general maintenance, investment in homes become even less attractive. That among many other behavioral changes, combine with the economics of the environment is that Millennial’s average net worth is about $90,000, lower than the $130,000 of the Gen X.

Dream of Homeownership.

The Power Is Now Inc. is committed to consumer advocacy especially related to housing and mortgage lending. We will continue to bring news and events that will help you identify the opportunities to create wealth and the challenges that may rob you of your wealth and the ability to create it. We want the government to be the wind at our back to help Americans instead of a head wind in our face that may prevent many consumers from moving forward and building wealth. We are a media company promoting

educating them and inspiring them with can. We have also partnered with First Bank to provide the products and programs that First-Time Homebuyers need to buy a home now because tomorrow it will be even more challenging. Go to www.neverrentagain.com and get started today with your American

The Power Is Now! Eric Lawrence Frazier MBA Vice President and Mortgage Advisor of First Bank NMLS 461807 President and CEO of The Power Is Now Inc. www.thepowerisnow.com The views and opinions of Eric Frazier, the Power Is Now and its affiliates, do not necessary reflect the views of the First Banks.

Works Cited Lenz, Jimmie. “This Is How Much Money US Millennials Owe Already.” World Economic Forum, 18 Mar. 2019 “Millennial Debt: $1 Trillion and Counting: Credit Cards, Mortgages, and Student Debt.” PaymentsJournal, 12 Mar. 2019.

Stefan Lembo Stolba. “Millennials on Pace to Hold Most Mortgage Debt.” Experian.Com, 26 Aug. 2019,.

Welborn, Seth. “Measuring Millennial Housing Debt.”

DSNews, 7 Aug. 2019,

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The Power Is Now Magazine | October 2019

Your loan officer should be as invested in your home as you are.

Let’s feather your nest.

First Bank Mortgage offers three tips to help you on the path to homeownership!

1. Start by checking your credit score.

Your credit history is an important factor when you decide to apply for a loan. The score reflects how well you manage your debt. It’s important to discuss this, and other factors, with your First Bank home loan consultant.

If you find that your credit score is too low, there are a number of steps you can take to improve your credit score.

2. Get organized.

Getting a loan requires a few different documentations including, but not limited to, pay stubs, tax returns, and financial statements. You’ll also need to provide copies of additional monthly payments such as car loans, credit cards, and student loans. Keep all of this in mind, when you begin organizing. If you have this information readily available when you decide to apply for a home loan, it will make the process much more efficient.

3. Start Saving!

Set up a designated savings account and start saving as much as you can each pay period to use as a down payment on the purchase of your new home. Although we offer first-time homebuyer programs with little to no down payment, it is still a good idea to have some available funds in reserve to use for a potential down payment, utilities, moving expenses, new home furnishings, or unforeseen emergencies.

With some preparation now, you’ll be even closer to rolling out the welcome mat on your own, new home later.

We’re here to help answer any questions to help make that dream a reality.

104 E Ontario Ave Corona, CA 92879 FirstBanks.com/Mortgage NMLS 551928

Eric Lawrence Frazier MBA Vice President & Mortgage Advisor Office: (714) 475-8629 Fax: (314) 264-0211 NMLS: # 461807 eric.frazier@fbol.com Firstbanks.com

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THE HOUSE PASSES A BILL THAT WOULD BAN

DISCRIMINATION LANDLORDS AGAINST VOUCHER APPLICANTS

H

ousing subsidies is often one of the fastest ways to get the homeless population off the streets into homes, or even to prevent people from becoming homeless. The federal subsidies are dispensed through the means of the vouchers such as section 8 and many other forms of the aids for the renters and use the public money to make up the difference between what a person can afford to pay for an apartment and what the landlords actually charge for one.

In the year 2000, Stephen Grant Meyer published a book called, “As Long As They Don’t Move Next Door” which examines the history of housing segregations in the United States. Grant asserts that, while the Black Americans have made such huge steps towards the advancement of equal citizenship, the continued tendency of the Whites and African Americans to live in separate neighborhoods will remain to be a significant impediment towards improving race relations in the United States.

But despite the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, the opinions of various observers are virtually unanimous: that the segregation existing between Black Americans and White Americans will continue to remain at high levels. Another thing, the levels segregation characterizes a typical experience of all groups of the African Americans, including the middleclass group. The fact is, Africa Americans have been neglected for far too long, regional

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housing desegregation and the implicit discrimination which is both a cause and an effect of racial segregation has for some time now be ingrained in the public policy docket. A successful remedy for these problems can be achieved, however, it demands a discussion that examines the cause of the segregation which has been a prominent in the policy debates on housing.

To answer the question of the extent of this stain in the public policy, we have to look back more than one hundred years with ma jor focus being between the years of the civil war and the passage of the Fair Housing Act (FHA).

Meyers concludes that the FHA has failed to integrate neighborhoods because “race still matters in the United States.” While there are strong convictions that supports the fact that African Americans still face institutionalized discrimination from the realtors, lenders and the local government, Meyers believes that the primary reason for the failure of the FHA is the personal racial attitudes of the individual Americans. In his thesis, he notes, “racial conflict over housing in the twentieth century evinces not so much a problem of inadequate enforcement by government agencies or the inadequacy of the laws themselves as a determined effort on the part of white home owners, landlords, and tenants to keep their neighborhoods white.” As long as people are well motivated to maintain racial segregation in the country, they will find ways to do so.

The Power Is Now Magazine | October 2019

A brief history of the Section 8 Section 8 is one of the underlying issues that Meyers book touches on. The voucher is the primary means by which the federal government offers housing assistance to the low and very low-income people. Basically, a voucher is a government payment on behalf of the household to be used specifically to pay a portion of the recipient’s housing. Instead of a direct provision from the government of a lower income housing, the government provides what is called a gap-subsidies. This means that it pays the difference between thirty percent of the recipient’s income and a “payment standard” that is set by the local government aid. We have to come to an understanding that in the United States, the minimum wage is by far inadequate to afford the fair market rent for a 2-bedroom apartment, which explain the importance of this aid.

The Local Public Housing Authorities (PHA’s) administers most of the voucher programs.

The justification behind the voucher program is that the economic resources it avails to the

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low-income individuals enables them to afford diverse housing choices. Some of the voucher programs are portable in fact, they are used as part of the mobility programs, an example being the Tenant-based vouchers. Recipients from one area can use their voucher to move to any jurisdiction in the country. Of importance to note is that the ability to afford a fair housing, together with the fact that these people could move to any part in the country was intended to promote racial integration. Visionaries of the program had envisioned it as a way for the poor families to escape the social ills of the city and move to the suburbs. In fact, if you look at most of the programs with a mobility status on them, you will find there is a judicial decree intended to end racial segregation.

The Bad In The Good Despite all the good intentions of the Section 8, there is a downturn. To understand better, let’s dig deeper into the pages of history, in 1996, a black woman from Philadelphia used her voucher to a white neighborhood that had a

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large number of homes subsidized by the section 8 vouchers. Immediately, she turned into an object of racial taunts, two days after she had moved in, a neighbor had already raised a confederate flag, seven weeks later, she left. Her case is not unique, and we know it.

Several people have reported their inability to utilize the vouchers discrimination. Therefore, even though the bigger mandate of section 8 is to end racial segregation the program has been meet with a fairly limited success in its goals of promoting racial integration and deconcentrating high poverty areas.

One of the reasons I’d like to highlight as a ma jor impediment of the success of the Section 8 is the limited number of economic resources. For instance, a report in march 1999 found that 660,000 people were still waiting for the voucher. Even though 1.3 million people receive their vouchers, there is still not enough housing to adequately support the minority, furthermore, there are still no enough housing in the non-minority neighborhoods where the minorities could relocate. Housing shortages produces high levels of rent inflations, which further limits the ability to use the vouchers because of the rent caps on the vouchers.

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Events happening in most part of the country, California leading the row illustrate precisely how this lack of affordable housing and the consequences it has had. In 1995, a court approved of a $117 million race discrimination settlement, including 900 more section 8 rent-subsidy vouchers for the low-income renters. As a result, 424 low-income housing units were demolished, with a goal of relocating the displaced families in the suburbs or other areas where there hadn’t been concentrations of low-income housing. However, by 1999 places like Minneapolis had only one percent vacancy rate. Despite the efforts to remedy the historic rift created by housing segregation, there still were a few places to house the dislocated families. In California, just like in many other cities facing a housing crisis, tight market makes housing discrimination that many of the section 8 voucher holders face an even larger problem.

Clearly, racial discrimination plays a part in the inability of the voucher 8 recipients to find housing in non-segregated areas. For instance, 4 percent of the section 8 administrators cited racial discrimination when asked why most voucher holders cannot afford housing.

According to a research by HUD, it suggests that “Section 8 submarket where the number of units available is restricted, and members of racial and ethnic minorities participating in the section 8 program benefit from their majority status.” Furthermore, even though one of the driving theories behind section 8 housing is the promotion of racial integration, it appears that “Section 8 programs in each site tend to serve the dominant racial and ethnic group better than it serves others. Most of the recipients of the section 8 program end up using their subsidy to pay for their current low-income housing units or even more within their own segregated neighborhoods.”

The Power Is Now Magazine | October 2019

The Issue With The Landlords The subsidy works if the federal government provides the funds to the state and the local agencies to fill the gap between what the families can afford and the local rents.

However, the program only works if the private landlords are willing to accept the subsidies and rent to the voucher holders. However, the federal does not prevent the landlords from rejecting all the housing vouchers with limited exceptions. A number of states have already implemented laws and regulations that would increase voucher acceptance. The law prohibits discrimination based on the income’s sources for instance the alimony and the disability allowances, and also, it frequently prohibits discriminations against families that use the housing vouchers to help pay their rents.

Nonetheless, voucher non-discrimination laws appear to be associated with a substantial reduction in the number of the landlords who refuse to accept the vouchers. The voucher nondiscrimination laws also improve the ability of the holders to successfully use their vouchers in high opportunity areas.

While, arguably, the research outcomes on the voucher non-discrimination laws are very much encouraging, the state and local laws could be more effective. Most experts have stressed that the existing laws need adequate enforcement, and that the policy makers are more likely to support the new voucher nondiscrimination laws if the proposals have broadbased support including the landlords and the housing agencies. While currently there are no general federal voucher non-discrimination law, support for such a policy is likely to rise as a state and local laws become widespread. While the tenant-based assistance was created with an aim to help low income people in homes, in practice however, the voucher holders find that their housing opportunities can be very limited.

They have to find a landlord that is willing to rent them, however, landlords in most areas are not required to accept the vouchers, which means, the program largely relies on the willing of the private landlords to opt to work with the

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housing agencies and the voucher holders. If this continues, it could be an ongoing challenge for the families to find a unit to rent, which can even force them to the streets.

To address this problem, and to make the voucher program work as it was intended, 11 states and over 50 cities and counties have enacted laws that prohibit the landlords from refusing to rent voucher holders. California is the latest state to fall in line. Figure (1) illustrates that only about one-third of the families with vouchers (34%) live in jurisdictions with voucher non-discrimination protections, while two-third of the voucher holders are not well protected.

Source: CBPP Analysis of Anti-discrimination Laws in Poverty & Race Action Council, “Expanding Choices: Practical Strategies for Building Successful Housing Mobility Program, Appendix B: State, Local and Federal Laws Barring Source-Income Discrimination,� September 14,2018. Data on Vouchers in use from Department of Housing and Urban Development 2017 Picture of subsidized Households

Several studies have concluded that the voucher holders in areas with voucher nondiscrimination protections are more likely to succeed in using their vouchers. Recent multi-site HUD study looked at the landlord acceptance rates of the vouchers as a way to measure the differential treatment of the

31

renters who use the vouchers. The study concluded that a lower rate of voucher denial in areas with no discrimination protections.

Source: Mary Cunningham et al., “A Pilot Study of Landlord Acceptance of Housing Choice Vouchers,” U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, September 2018 and additional data provided by the authors

However, cautious should be taken when trying to interpret the study results because the voucher non-protections discrimination protection law may not be the only explanation for these differences. Let’s take a practical example, the PHA management program rental caps or the tightness of the local housing market could affect all of the rates

California On Voucher Holder Protections The California Legislative in September passed a bill that would make it illegal to reject a prospective tenant solely based on the applicant use of a Section 8 federal housing voucher. The county the other 11 counties that have already enacted protection rights on voucher holders. The SB 329 is an act to amend the sections 12927 and 12955 of the Government Code relating to discrimination.

The existing law in the state of California Fair Employment and Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination including discrimination through public or private land use practice, decisions or authorizations based on specified personal characteristics including the sources of incomes. Under the current law, and for the purpose of the provision relating to discrimination in housing, “source of income” 32

is described to mean lawful, verifiable income paid directly to a tenant or paid to a representative of a tenant.

Ben Carson has in his tenure rolled civil rights enforcement at the agency, suspending almost all of the Obama era rules that had been aimed at fighting the housing segregation. The participation in Section 8 has always been a trade-off between the guaranteed subsidies and other perks, and less endearing aspects of the program. Basically, the prospects of the program are going broke fundamentally challenged the inviolability of the rent security that has been so appealing to the landlord who accept section 8. Thus, without the assurance of the government’s regular checks, this push and pull relationship crumbles, with the system collapsing with it. Section 8 program has never been enough to cater for everyone who qualifies to be on the program. The program has a heavy reliance on the willingness of the private landlords who opt to work with the housing agencies and the voucher holders. In todays Bay-Area red hot market, most of the landlords are giving the Voucher holders a cold shoulder which has led to some cities to offer the promise of easing inspections and other reforms.

No matter your stand point in the give and take wrangles with the Section 8 Senator Holly Mitchell’s (D-LA) bill seeks for a relief the voucher holders. SB329 makes it illegal to deny tenancy based on the applicant’s participation n the federal Housing voucher program. The landlords are reminded that they still have the right to use their usual screening criteria regarding the tenant’s history. Some of the landlords mistakenly believe that nondiscriminatory laws require them to rent their properties to any voucher holder. While the landlords cannot refuse to accept a tenant based on their use of the voucher, I believe that more suitable tenants can be found using vetting process.

What About Advertising Discriminatory advertising is another thing that SB329 has well outlined. Caution should The Power Is Now Magazine | October 2019

be used when advertising the rental units.

What happens is that many landlords list their apartments using exclusionary language that defeats the purpose of fair housing. When a language explicitly expresses its preference for a certain group, or, conversely attempts to discourage other groups from applying, then it attracts a liability on its part. In a large extent, the property management that experience a high level of the employee turnover and lack a formalized legal training are at a high risk of such adverts.

Refusal By Landlords To Rent Section 8 Applicants, Is It Justified?

Most of the landlords have a preconceived notion that their refusal to deny Section 8 applicants is justified. Most feel that these applicants will damage their homes, or even instigate some other problems. Still, most tenants, even you and me we operate under the notion that there are good and bad landlords, and tenants still follow the same suit (good and bad). While it is undeniable that there are landlords who can live to tell the horror stories as a result of renting out their properties to section 8 applicants, the same can be said by the landlords who rent out their homes.

Basically, this bill would instead define the term for the purpose of the provisions to mean verifiable income that is paid directly to a tenant or to a representative of a tenant, or paid to a housing owner or landlord on behalf of a tenant including the federal, state or local public assistance and housing subsidies, as specified.

The bill would also specify that a housing owner is not considered as a representative of a tenant. Nonetheless, I think most landlords do not want to reconcile with the fact that most holders of the vouchers are extra studious people because they do not want to lose their eligibility of the program.

The bill has been designed to give the Housing Choice Vouchers and other recipients of the Government aid more choice about where they would like to live and also help them move to more affluent areas. The bill passed on a www.thepinmagazine.com

25-12 vote. Even though it passed favorably in the house, the issue is more controversial in Baltimore county where the voucher users are concentrated in both eastern and western neighborhoods and where the residents blame the government subsidized housing for the increased rate of crime.

The Power Is Now strives to bring you the latest developments in real estate economics, mortgage lending, and the market. We are committed to making sure that you are updated with what’s happening around you and to be your resource acquisitions and sells. We are partnered with great agents across the country and with First Bank to provide the products and programs that First Time Homebuyers need to buy a home or income property now because tomorrow it will be even more difficult. Go to www.applytobuynow.com and get started today. The Power to buy is now!

Eric Lawrence Frazier MBA Vice President and Mortgage Advisor of First Bank NMLS 461807 President and CEO of The Power Is Now Inc. CalDRE 01143484 www.thepowerisnow.com

Works cited https://caanet.org/caa-launches-grassroots-program-todefeat-mandatory-section-8-bill/ https://caanet.org/senate-passes-bill-requiring-landlordsto-consider-section-8-tenants/ https://medium.com/@firstcultural/2019-california-housinglegislation-highlights-787d0652bdbf https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/bs-md-housingvouchers-bill-20170320-story.html https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient. xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB329 http://www.bayhousingwire.com/section-8-housing/ housing-choice-vouchers-the-good-bad-and-ugly/ https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/think-twicebefore-turning-away-tenants-with-section-8-vouchers.html https://www.thebalancesmb.com/section-8-housingeligibility-requirements-2125017 https://www.cbpp.org/research/housing/prohibitingdiscrimination-against-renters-using-housing-vouchersimproves-results https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-section8-discrimination-ban-20190130-story.html https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/schools/law/ lawreviews/journals/bctwj/21_2/04_TXT.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_8_(housing)

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CALIFORNIA HOT HOUSING MARKET

what has the state

done so far?

F

or over a decade, Californians have been faced with an unprecedented affordable housing crisis. Being the nation’s most populous state, and the 5th largest economy, the state ranks 49th of the 50 states in housing units per capita. in 2018, it was reported that there were 129,972 people on the streets on any given night statewide. Of the 10 American cities with the highest rates of increases in rents over the past five years, 4 of them are located in California.

have played a key role in attaching a painfully expensive price tag on housing in California.

If the cost of renting a house exceeds 30 percent of the household income, it is considered a burden. If it exceeds 50 percent of the income then it is classified as “severely cost burdened.” In the Golden State, over 50 percent of all renters fall in at least one of the two categories.

The Cost Of Rising Home Prices

The escalating home prices have resulted in extravagant commutes and a rising number of homeless people in the streets, which by the way is very close to producing a political milestone, given the number of the tenant protection laws that would cap the rents statewide. For most Californians, the burden is too much to bear. From 2016 to 2017, the rate of homelessness in the county increased by 13.7% with much of this growth attributed to high costs of housing.

At its most basic level, affordable housing crisis in California is a result of the duality of the supply and demand where most people want to live there, but there aren’t enough homes to go around. Aside from that, there are other uniquely California factors, from the shape of the coastline to Proposition 13 all of which www.thepinmagazine.com

Evidently, affordable housing crisis is not only driving people to the streets, it is also impacting on the economic life. Last year, the state is reported to record its lowest rate of population growth. Between 2007 and 2014, data shows that the state lost 625,000 people, most of whom were low income earners.

Over the past, the state legislators were planning a plan that would combat the rising cost of housing. An aggressive plan that would result to the opening up of most neighborhoods zoned only for the single-family homes to apartment construction and to also prevent millions of California renters from facing a possible double-digit rent increases each year.

The median home price in California is now well over half a million dollars. More than 20 percent of Californians pay over half their income on housing. The ballooning of the home prices in the state could be caused by the fact that we haven’t built enough housing. Is rent control a good or a bad thing? Or would that apartment being built in your neighborhood affect the housing cost? There are a dozen topics we could argue about but I know what most experts can agree on is that as a state, we haven’t built enough housing to keep up with the pace of population growth.

Researchers from the urban institute suggest that the lack of reasonably priced housing 37

slows the economic growth forcing most of the workers to live father away from the high-cost job centers. On the other hand, jobs-particularly those that pay less-go unfilled. In addition, the high rising cost may also have had its share on the reduced rates of family formation, which totters economic growth.

In the early and mid-2000s, new construction was booming, new housing units were not being built in the coastal cities where ma jority of the Californians work. While places like the inland empire saw a building upsurge places like San Francisco and Los Angeles were basically flatlined.

California was also not keeping up with other states. Places like New York and Massachusetts in the recent years have built more housing per capita compared to California. While arguably that hasn’t made those places cheaper, to some extent, it has helped alleviate cost pressures.

38

The Future For California Housing Market In short, the state faces a substantial challenge for affordable housing. All these factors put in, then you see why it is expensive to live in California. At the core, it is an issue of supply and demand. Basically, there’s a far greater need for reasonably priced housing, than there are affordable housing units.

The report by the Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing in partnership with the California Housing Partnership shows that LA County would need to add more than half a million units to its inventory for affordable housing. To be precise, the county needs to add an additional 516,946 to meet the demand from the low-income renters.

While the report cites a high number of new units for just one county, it is actually down from the projections of last year where it had The Power Is Now Magazine | October 2019

identified a countywide construction shortfall of 568,255 affordable homes. Unfortunately, that slight change is not as a result of new construction.

In order to increase affordability for homes in the county, the state needs to improve and increase the supply for new housing units. As it stands, there are many promising approaches of making this happen.

SB 50 Could Work, Given The Chance

only means increased competition for the rental housing.

If given a chance, SB 50 would reduce the number of parking spaces that would be required or limits on the density waived. Based on the local standards, a portion of the units to be constructed (15% - 25%) would be affordable to those with lower incomes. Housing facilities that are not close to public transportation and in the areas that are zoned for the single family homes, homeowners would be allowed to add additional units, for instance, an extra unit or a duplex in the backyard and rent out to tenants.

This is a proposal that offers a promising stand.

The proposal was put forward by state Senator Scott Wiener and seeks to encourage more construction of affordable housing, by allowing for the construction of taller and denser apartment building in the more populated areas, located near public transportation. The bill could work because most Californians have crammed themselves into the ma jor urban centers that are already fully packed with residents.

The bill provides an exemption for smaller counties, and the low income areas which is a measure to avoid excessive population growth and displacement.

Between 2000 and 2007, the Bay Area cities accounted for only 4 percent of the state’s total population growth. Between 2010 and 2017, nearly 20 percent of all new Californians were either born in the Bay or were moving there.

Unfortunately‌

In my opinion, this is a bill that californians need, one its because it would considerably increase the supply of the rental housing units especially in the high density areas where they are needed. And secondly, over the long run it would raise affordability and reduce costs.

The bill did not make it to a full legislative vote in 2019. It faced some fierce opposition from seemingly angry and powerful opponents, ironically including the city council of LA. Homeowners were also concerned about the neighborhood preservation and local control.

There are people who were also worried about their neighborhood gentrification. Though in a give and take kind of relationship, proponents for the bill argued that the bill offers strong tenant protections.

SB 330 The Housing Crisis Act Of 2019 Arguably, the tech industry certainly has some bearing on the responsibility for this trend, however, undoubtedly, the increased demand to live in the California’s urban extends beyond the silicon valley. We have seen an uprise in the number of people wanting to live and work in the urban parts of LA and San Diego which www.thepinmagazine.com

More hope for california, despite our ignorance of what would help. This is a bill that aims to speed up the housing developments and to protect the low-income housing. The bill is also called the Housing Accountability Act was introduced by Sen Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley.

What the bill does is that it places prohibitions on which housing projects can be disapproved 39

by the agencies and also bars them from raising fees on projects after the proposal has been submitted. What I love about this bill is that it places a special emphasis on the projects that are aimed at low-income housing and emergency shelters.

“Our failure to build enough housing has led to the highest rents and home ownership costs in the nation,” Skinner said in the press release.

“SB 330 … gives a greenlight to housing that already meets existing zoning and local rules and prevents new rules that might limit housing we so desperately need.”

In Berkeley, just as in so many other areas and cities in California, homelessness has been a ma jor issue for legislators and activists alike. Since as early as 2017, the city has been discussing the 1000 Person Plan to address homelessness.

While the 1,000 Person Plan is a direct attack through “targeted investments in a variety of interventions” a text from SB 330 states that the bill aims to tackle the shortage by making it more difficult for housing projects to be disapproved. I think this is good, its what we need because one of the problems builders face is disapproval of their housing permits.

With such a bill, most buildings will be approved adding more inventory to the state.

Transit Oriented Communities I see this happening in county of Los Angeles at the local level. To some degree, it is a solution that seem very viable solution to the state at large. The TOC is a program put in place thanks to the passage of the Measure JJJ by voters in 2016. More or less it shares some similarities with SB 50.

The program allows housing developers to build denser developments with only a few parking spots in neighborhoods close to public transportation. In exchange to the facilitation of building more housing units, developers must set aside a certain portion of the units for the vulnerable families, thus more affordable units.

While the county of Los Angeles may have 40

been struck by a massive housing shortage, since its introduction, TOC program seems to be working, sparking a building boom, however, though it doesn’t add much inventory to the county, I think the difference could be significant if it can be adopted on statewide.

“Fiscalization” of Land Use Researchers agree that part of the reason why California is not able to keep up with the housing development is proposition 13, a 1978 ballot that capped how much the local governments could collect from the property taxes.

The measure was raised to protect homeowners in the state from unimaginable property tax bill, but consequently, it has brought more than good. The measure has made developments in the state much more complicated. And because the property taxes are capped, this has made the local governments more reliant on other sources of revenue.

If we have to move on, old measures that worked in the past need to be eliminated once and for all, there is a debate on just about how much Proposition 13 is to blame for the state housing shortage.

I say we build; I say we bring to the table actionable policies and plan to support everyone. Having witnessed first hand the growing rate of housing prices in the state, I can confidently say that we are far from achieving affordable housing in California. A failure to resolve this situation quickly will do more harm that will be felt for decades to come.

Work cited https://medium.com/@shivagbhaskar/solving-californiashousing-crisis-b68dae244218 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/business/economy/ california-rent-control.html https://www.dailycal.org/2019/09/09/housing-crisis-actpasses-through-california-state-legislature/ https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-californiahousing-bill-failures-20190604-story.html https://www.kqed.org/news/11666284/5-reasonscalifornias-housing-costs-are-so-high https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-08-01/ california-homeless-people-housing-national-modelconference

The Power Is Now Magazine | October 2019

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THIS IS HOW UGLY HOMELESSNESS IS IN sACRAMENTO

WHAT’S THE COUNTY DOING ABOUT IT?

H

ousing has been a ma jor crisis in the county of California, and following the same trend, homelessness in Sacramento county increased 19% over the last two year. The Officials from the Sacramento Steps Forward, the county’s homeless services agency reported on January that the count for the homeless people living in the shelters and on the streets was 5,570. Going by the statistics, the figure represents a rise of up to 52 percent from the figure recorded in 2017. However, the officials reported that they adjusted the earlier count upward that previously did not account for the improvements in the survey methodology this year. Confirming the results, the officials

42

from the agency said that the count was more accurate as it tripled the number of volunteers, allowing more locations to be surveyed.

The crisis is worse, hitting places like Los Angeles more than other places. An earlier report, the Annual Homelessness Assessment report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development showed that as of 2018, the number of homeless people in the United States on a given night was 553,000. Homeless in the country might have escalated in the wake of the great recession 2008-2009. Therefore, it is not a new problem we are facing, not just in Sacramento, but everywhere.

The Power Is Now Magazine | October 2019

Counties all saw an increase of more than 20 percent in homelessness.

Sacramento not Far from San francisco The mayor, Darrell Steinberg said that even though the situation was worsening, he was encouraged that fewer chronically homeless people were living on the street, which I really don’t get. I don’t see the reason to be happy about this situation, the counties need to make provisions for people to get into homes, the only way to do that, it to build more. The report said that the number of the chronically homeless people (homeless people for more than a year or have had sever episodes of homelessness and also physical or mental impairment or substance abuse) has gone down slightly.

Among the findings by the report, 70% of the county’s homeless people were sleeping “outdoors or in vehicles, abandoned buildings or other location not suitable for human habitation.” Of the people counted, families made up to 20% which is a total of 372 with 688 children. Half of these families were on the streets, 12 percent of the people counted were veterans, 40 percent were 45 years older and 93 percent were from Sacramento County.

This situation is not only worse in Sacramento County, similar situation are happening all over the county, for instance, let’s take san Francisco, the county saw a 17 percent rise in the number of homeless residents and we are talking of a time span of not less than 2 years, according to the results of the city’s point-in-time Count.

That’s the situation in the Bay Area, and we haven’t touched Los Angeles. The Orange County changed the way it does its count and it recorded a 43 percent rise from the last count in 2017. It gets even worse going by individual counties, Ventura, San Bernardino and Kern www.thepinmagazine.com

“I’m not celebrating because 19% is 19%, but I’m downright going to emphasize this 7% decrease in chronic homeless,” Steinberg said.

It truly remarkable and commendable that the county has set aside nearly $100 million to fight homelessness, but I would hope that the money will not be used to build more make shift structures, but more permanent housing solutions.

An article published on the Sacramento Bee

by Theresa Clift paints a vivid picture of how bad homelessness in the county is, the article reports that 100 kids live in cars, you can imagine the number of adults living outside.

In the last f0ur years, the number of homeless people living in cars has increased drastically.

This is amid the county efforts to find a solution by opening and closing shelters, converting hotels and occasional homeless encampments.

Fighting homelessness, not just in the county but nationwide, is a complex problem, one that has seen rents and housing prices rise. The counties, just like Sacramento, are draining countless resources and budgeting tens of millions into shelters and support services which will never work by the way. Before long, Sacramento will be no different from San Francisco, where scenes of squalor now are the divide between the rich and the poor.

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The problem with encampments

Dealing with homelessness

When tens of thousands of people flow into the cities, housing prices balloons, which forces the ma jority of the poor people into the streets. The next thing, cars turn into homes and tents start emerging everywhere. Since not all homeless people can fit into the designated shelters, the county has to channel more resources into creating a safe space to house the homeless, which means, more make shift structures. The Sacramento county officials are considering a supposed ‘remedy’ to help homeless people in the cars- putting many of them into one or more designated parking lots. Which is ridiculous, instead of a tent city, Sacramento is looking to create a car encampment for the homeless.

We need more homes, not more spaces to encourage homelessness. The state researchers who worked on the homelessness report recommended that the city create the ‘safeparking zone’ lots that homeless people can park their cars and sleep at night and where they don’t have to worry about being towed or break-ins.

Before we even start building new houses, we need to first protect the current renters and home owners, lest they also fall in homeless category. The Sacramento Tenant Protection and Relief Act is one particular bill that I would like to highlight as a way to fight homelessness in the county. The bill will have a tremendous impact on the renters and landlords in the city of Sacramento. The protection will apply to all the renters in the county of Sacramento who live in apartments, duplexes and mobile home parks and the single room occupancy hotels that were built prior to Feb.1, 1995. The protection also applies to the tenants who signed leases that are month-to-month or longer. Rent hiking is one of the main problems that has really driven most people onto the streets, what the ordinance does is that it prohibits the landlords from raising annual rent more than 6 percent plus the inflation. The current rate of inflation is about 2.7 percent.

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The Power Is Now Magazine | October 2019

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HOME OWNERSHIP

By Eric Lawrence Frazier MBA

Home ownership brings stability to individuals and families who have never had a dwelling place that they could call their own. There is something special about owning real estate that is unlike anything else on earth you can own.

Real Estate you own is not like cars that decay over time and you have to replace them.

Real Estate you own is not like clothes that go out of style and you have to buy new ones.

Real Estate you own is not like expensive vacations or experiences that only last a moment in time.

Real Estate you own is not like an apartment where the landlord may increase the rent until it’s no longer affordable.

Real Estate you own is not like staying at your parents house where you know can’t stay forever.

Home ownership is the beginning of wealth that increases over time and becomes your estate & legacy Home ownership is the pride of a mother nurturer and the kitchen her domain Home ownership is the pride of a father provider and protector of his territory and family.

Home ownership is the foundation of permanence and the place where life happens, birthdays celebrated, deaths mourned.

Home ownership is the place you build memories that can never be taken from you.

Memories etched in walls and concrete, experienced in rooms and floors, Memories living in trees and shrubs planted by your hand.

Howe ownership is the manifestation of you - your style, your colors, your smell, your stuff, your junk, your memories, your yard and your spaces, your life.

It’s the height markers on your first child’s bedroom wall.

It’s the hearts drawn in the concrete slabs when you pour your patio floor It’s the birthday parties, and anniversaries in the living room and kitchen.

It’s the back yard barbecue with friends, neighbors and family contentions it’s the high school and college graduation, and wedding receptions Its’ the family nights and block parties and the fellowship of family connections Home ownership It’s more than real estate. Land, brick and mortar, wood frame construction and chicken wire.

It’s more than money saved, gifts recieved and grants obtained It’s more than the debt you incur to buy it.

It’s more than the payments you make to own it.

It’s more than the appreciation that comes with keeping it over time.

It’s memories, it’s family, and it’s life that can happen in one place Until you say it’s time to move.