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11/25/09 Charges dropped against Joe Szakos, the Anthem Blue Cross customer arrested for questioning rate increases

Great New Books on Organizing:

by Dave Norris

There’s a housing crisis in many Virginia communities that’s forcing thousands of families to make some very difficult choices:

• Work two or three jobs to afford the rent, or be around for the kids.
• Move to a less expensive area to afford to buy a house, or keep renting in an expensive location and stay close to one’s job, family, faith community, school, and services.
• Move into a crowded house with relatives, or renew the lease on a dilapidated and unsafe (yet overpriced) apartment.
• Sleep in the car night after night, or check into a homeless shelter — assuming one exists that isn’t already filled to capacity.

Local community groups can do many things to address the affordable housing problem at the local level. Here are some strategies that work.

1. More than 350 cities, counties and states have now established local Housing Trust Funds to help underwrite the costs of constructing affordable housing. These funds are typically focused on meeting the housing needs of the working poor, low-income elderly, disabled, and homeless. These folks are by far the most vulnerable to the kinds of housing pressures brought about in hot urban and suburban real estate markets, and in rural areas where large-scale development is getting underway for the first time. Organize a group to ask city or county government to help set up a Housing Trust Fund. One way that localities can capitalize on a Housing Trust Fund is to dedicate a small portion of their property tax revenues (the Washington Regional Network for Livable Communities suggests 2 cents for every $100 of assessed value) for the development of affordable housing. You’ve heard of “One Percent for Art”— how about “Two Cents for Housing”?
2. Hundreds of localities across the country have adopted Inclusionary Zoning ordinances that mandate or provide incentives to include affordable units in new housing developments. The focus on construction of exclusive, upper-income housing developments in many parts of Virginia squeezes out lower-income and even middle-income buyers and renters. At the very least, any time a high-end housing developer approaches a city council or county board for a taxpayer subsidy, special zoning variance, or road improvement, the local government has the right and obligation to require that a certain percentage of affordable units be included in that development plan.
   It’s a sad commentary on public priorities that this does not already happen as a matter of course, but local community groups can be very effective in making inclusionary zoning a practice of local government. Local governments can also adopt a whole range of incentives to make voluntary inclusion an attractive option for developers who see the wisdom in ensuring that the working families who make communities function can afford to live in them. An effective Inclusionary Zoning ordinance backed up by a substantial Housing Trust Fund would provide a powerful one-two punch for the expansion of affordable housing options in many communities and whole regions of the state.
3. Press for a Living Wage (or better yet, a Housing Wage) for all local workers so they can keep up with the rising costs of rental housing and afford to save to eventually buy a home if they want one.
4. Organize to get planning authorities and local elected bodies to adopt progressive guidelines for redevelopment. Community revitalization initiatives need to improve the living conditions of the existing residents of low-income neighborhoods, not make their lives more difficult due to the poisonous creep of gentrification. Gentrification means attracting higher-income people to an area and pushing lower-income people out. In tight housing markets, there’s no place nearby for lower-income people to relocate, exacerbating homelessness, unemployment, and over-crowded living conditions as increasing numbers of people share living arrangements in order to keep a roof over their heads.
5. Voice your support for expanding the availability of local rental assistance programs so that the thousands of local families on waiting lists for such programs can finally get some help with their soaring housing costs.
6. Charter a neighborhood based Community Develop-ment Corporation to engage the leadership of low-income residents in efforts to enhance housing and economic opportunities in their neighborhoods. If a local housing authority wants to tear down existing public housing and build something new and improved in its place, for instance, it should start by working with existing residents to form a Community Development Corporation to lead the way.
7. Constructing or converting existing property into supportive housing/Single Room Occupancy units for the homeless helps stabilize neighborhoods with serious homelessness problems. Faith communities, local business groups, and other community organizations can sponsor new supportive housing units for the most marginalized people.
8. Scrutinize, question, and assert the need for adequate housing development plans when local institutions and businesses expand. Colleges and universities need to provide adequate housing for students and employees. Companies that build major new facilities in undeveloped areas need to work with local planning agencies to make sure that affordable housing development will keep up with job and population growth. Local governments can reduce barriers that prevent more homeowners from making accessory apartments available to renters, as well.

Dave Norris is former Chairman, Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board of Commissioners and current Executive Director, PACEM, a faith-based homeless shelter program in Charlottesville.