Affordable Housing Sociology

The most successful, long term, low-income housing projects are those that use sustainable design and address the social, cultural, and economic needs of residents. Traditionally built low-income housing projects are associated with high crime rates and high mortality rates among the residents who live in them. They do not provide for the needs of residents, resulting in many of the problems these low-income housing projects face today. These problems range from endangerment of human life, psychological afflictions due to the high stresses that are endured by residents, disease epidemics caused by overcrowding and unsanitary living conditions (in combination with a substandard public

Within each service area there is a host of many options available. Specifically, under the Public and Indian Housing is the Housing Choice Voucher Program, commonly referred to as Section 8 Housing. Section 8 is the federal government's major program for access to very low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to afford suitable, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market. Housing choice vouchers are administered by the local public housing agencies (PHAs). The

The Los Angeles County Board has allocated $25 million dollars to spend on new programs that promote social justice. I have developed a proposal to allocate the money to create affordable housing complexes in communities within the city. The communities selected for housing developments are Boyle Heights, Watts, Chinatown, Pico-Union and Elysian Park. The proposal includes spending all $25 million in five developments of affordable housing. Each housing development will have twenty five 2-bedroom apartments. A total of one hundred low income families will benefit in total. My proposal includes asking each family to pay a monthly rent of 1/4 of their monthly earnings. The monthly rent collected from tenants can be used to maintain the developments,

The Fair Housing Act of 1968, also known as Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968; prohibits the selling, renting, and financing of properties based on race, color, sex, or nationality. In 1988, Congress passed the Fair Housing Amendments Act, which expanded the law to prohibit discrimination based on disabilities and family status. Since that act was established, what has the been the correlation between housing and poverty for African-Americans in Cleveland, Ohio?

Affordable housing has become the paramount issue of cities and dense urban areas. San Francisco is the posterchild of an unaffordable city that regardless of immense investment from blue chip firms like Google, Facebook, and their ilk of startups evaluated at $1 billion or more, policymakers and elected officials must wrestle with the housing affordability crisis that is considered endogenous to swaths of homelessness and record statistics on crime. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio has made affordable housing the centerpiece of his legislation and championed the cause as a social justice issue—neighborhoods must remain affordable to maintain diversity for all races, ethnicities, and low-income families. A small sample of 827 New Yorkers by the NY1-Baruch College City Poll found the main concern of respondents was affordable housing while crime, jobs, and homelessness were peripheral problems (Cuza, 2016). The public discourse on how to address housing across the United States has pointed to negative externalities that surround rent-regulation and homeownership. Conversely, for this essay I will present various cases in order to illustrate the housing crunch is influenced less by housing and land regulations, or antagonistic homeowners but is induced by global market forces.

The housing crisis of the late 2000s rocked the economy and changed the landscape of the real estate business for years to come. Decades of people purchasing houses unfordable houses and properties with lenient loans policies led to a collective housing bubble. When the banking system faltered and the economy wilted, interest rates were raised, mortgages increased, and people lost their jobs amidst the chaos. This all culminated in tens of thousands of American losing their houses to foreclosures and short sales, as they could no longer afford the mortgage payments on their homes. The United States entered a recession and homeownership no longer appeared to be a feasible goal as many questioned whether the country could continue to support a middle-class. Former home owners became renters and in some cases homeless as the American Dream was delayed with no foreseeable return. While the future of the economy looked bleak, conditions gradually improved. American citizens regained their jobs, the United States government bailed out the banking industry, and regulations were put in place to deter such events as the mortgage crash from ever taking place again. The path to homeowner ship has been forever altered, as loans in general are now more difficult to acquire and can be accompanied by a substantial down payment.

I thought cities had more diversity, more poverty, and low income household than suburb areas and this was supported by the above data. I learned that the increase of wealth and income in a small community hinders the rest of community where middle and low income families live. The ability to live in a “good” neighborhood is linked to income. Income can be one of the factors that determine how a region can be segregated. Even in the city, the income of the household separates the lower income families from the higher income families. High income families tend to live together and low income families tend to live in the same

Webster’s Dictionary defines gentrification as “the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents.” This sounds frightening to lower class citizens. However, Justin Davidson, author of “Is Gentrification All That Bad?” claims “Gentrification doesn’t need to be something that one group inflicts on another; often it’s a result of aspirations everybody shares.” Gentrification does not need to be the rich pushing the poor out. It can be the rich and the poor working together to make their city a wealthier and safer place to live. Gentrification improves communities by allowing more economic growth for all.

Affordable housing in the United States describes sheltering units with well-adjusted housing costs for those living on an average, median income. The phrase usually implies to applied rental or purchaser housing within the financial means of lower-income ranges specific to the demographics of any given area. However, affordable housing does not include those living in social housing owned by government and non-profit organizations. More specifically, the targeted range for housing affordability sets below 30 percent of a household's annual income, including all applicable taxes, utility costs and home owners insurance rates. If the mean income per household breaches the 30 percent mark, then the agreed status becomes labeled as

The suburban life is a dream which people of all economic backgrounds sought. Although many families were not able to realize the ideal white picket fence suburb experience which one often imagines when speaking of the suburbs, they still created a suburb of their own. The desire for a suburban home to call their own was largely due to the notion that a home provided a sense of security; it was safety net (Nicolaides and Wiese 2006:213). This safety net could not be obtained in the central city because people were simply not able to buy an apartment or condominium and instead were simply forced to rent. Moving to the suburbs and purchasing a home was seen as a good investment, and people of all races wanted in on this investment.

Another key point is commuting. People who live in the urban community have better access to public transportation. Citizens can easily get around by walking, taking a bus, and riding the train at a lower cost. In contrast, owning a home in suburb can be costly for many people. Not only do people have to keep up with their mortgages, but they sometimes have to pay a yard maintenance fee and their Home Owners Association (HOA) dues for the up-keeping of the neighborhood which can be very costly. Besides the home cost, people who live in suburban neighborhoods do have the convenience of traveling in the comfort of their own vehicle, and they do not deal with the concerns of public transportation. However, they still have to deal with the cost for long commuting and the wear and tear of the vehicle.

As the city 's center becomes older and less desirable, the value goes down. This then attracts people who want to be centrally located, and now in the 21st century people tend to believe that the suburbs have less “character” and that most cities are considered to be “edgy” and “urban”, which is another reason as to why young, wealthy, white workers want to be located in the inner-city. Our pop culture is heavily influenced by black culture, so young people want to live where it’s hip, as well as reasonable.

Housing affordability is a perennial problem in Australia and has worsened significantly over the past three decades.

The lack of affordable housing in the United States is a problem that doesn 't receive nearly the attention that it necessitates. This absence of affordable housing became especially prevalent following World War II when suburbanization spread across the country like wildfire. Although the sheer number of homes increased, Jim Crow segregation influenced housing policy, meaning that white institutions prevented blacks from obtaining the mortgages needed to afford such homes. Therefore, rather than accept subprime loans, which often result in foreclosure, many black people have been pigeonholed into paying exorbitant rates for dilapidated rental properties located in inner-cities, thereby creating the affordable housing problem. Although the situation seems bleak, with careful planning and execution, we can solve the affordable housing problem. Specifically, my proposal involves the following two components: the government must first revise and draft three forms of legislation that create strict yet concise standards that landlords must follow, and then allocate federal funding to health and wellness programs within poor communities. By examining the contributing societal factors to the lack of affordable housing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and then implementing the proposal mentioned above, one could potentially solve the affordable housing problem there and transpose the plan to other impoverished cities across the country.

High Density is said to be the future of residential housing, although not everyone agrees to this way of thinking.