Housing Persuasive Speech

It is often easy to castigate large cities or third world countries as failures in the field of affordable housing, yet the crisis, like an invisible cancer, manifests itself in many forms, plaguing both urban and suburban areas. Reformers have wrestled passionately with the issue for centuries, revealing the severity of the situation in an attempt for change, while politicians have only responded with band aid solutions. Unfortunately, the housing crisis easily fades from our memory, replaced by visions of homeless vets, or starving children. Metropolis magazine explains that “…though billions of dollars are spent each year on housing and development programs worldwide, ? At least 1 billion people

New York City and Los Angeles promote mixed-income communities by levying fees on organizations that do not include affordable housing in their redevelopment projects. In addition, New York City offers tax incentives and capital subsidies to organization’s who include a certain amount of affordable housing, leading to the construction of a 20,000 square foot mixed-use complex for retail space, a school, and 900 rental units. If Harrisburg City offered similar programs that promote the development of mixed-income housing, it would reduce the gentrification and concentration of poverty that is currently affecting its residents.http://urbanland.uli.org/economy-markets-trends/making-mixed-income-housing-work/. South Park, a historic urban neighborhood in Dayton, Ohio prides itself on being a mixed-income neighborhood with blue and white collar, young and old, newcomers and long-time residents that make up the 1,200 diverse socioeconomic families living there. Over the last 20 years, South Park has worked to improve their neighborhood with a revived distinctive home on every block and a renovation project on every street. House rentals range between $350 and $1,400 and restored home sales range between $80,000 and $225,000. In 2008, South Park

The Downtown Eastside struggles with many complex challenges including homelessness, poverty, affordable and quality housing,

Affordable housing is defined as a specific, measurable ratio of income-to- housing expense. They are homes made available specifically to individuals and families whose income is at or below 80% of the median income for the area, as established by the Office of Housing and Urban Development, and where the housing costs for those homes are less that 30% of the household’s gross

People are forced to move and find other dwellings. For example, an apartment building called the metro pole was recently sold for renovation. The people who reside in the building are the disabled, mentally ill or people difficult to place in other housing, for some reason or another. The building was built more than 30 years ago and has 230 two room affordable apartments; in a very convenient location near downtown Cincinnati, close to bus stops, and shopping. The building will be renovated to a 160 room lustrous hotel, so that upscale workers can be near their jobs.

The problem is there is inevitably a lack of housing, due to homelessness and influx of people. Without enough housing, the prices of the homes will be very expensive; however, if there is not a balanced mix of luxury and affordable housing, those already living there will be forced to leave because they will not be able to maintain taxes and other increases that will be tacked on to housing expenses. In order to make this process a bit more feasible, New York created the “Inclusionary Zoning program.” This program required “that developers set aside a certain percentage of units in a new development as affordable units.” The issue with this zoning ordinance is that although it was stated as a “requirement” the city kept it as a voluntary process.” With the ordinance being voluntary and developers with a capitalist mentality, many developers opted out of adhering to the ordinance. Although the residents of New York may not be in the power broker or decision-making classification, many of its inhabitants have been there for many years. Unless there are efforts to make this ordinance mandatory, there will be much opposition to keep new development out.

Brooklyn is a “melted pot” in terms of its diversity in population and culture. In many different areas of Brooklyn there are Public Housing set-up for those who are considered “low-income families”. Public Housing in brief was originally set up for people who would temporarily live there until they could eventually afford something better. In this day and age now Public Housing have become a “safe haven” for families who are low income as well as receive benefits such as food assistance (food stamps), Section 8 ( program set up to help pay rent to families who may not be able to afford

One of the causes of homelessness in Baltimore City is lack of affordable housing, this includes subsidized housing from the state. Lack of affordable housing in Baltimore City is due to an increase luxury housing and Baltimore’s decrease desire for rental housing (Mayor’s Office of Human Services, 2013). Available housing is not proportional to the wages of people living in Baltimore City. Nearly half of renters in Baltimore spend 35% of their income or more on their rent. The waiting list for Baltimore City opened in 2014 and 74,000 households applied for 25,000 available slots for up to six years to own a voucher (“Homelessness in Baltimore,” 2017). For the extremely poor population there are only 42 available homes for over 100 people who identify with the population (Public Justice Center, 2015). Therefore, Baltimore needs to make affordable housing for their population or there should be an increase in jobs and wages. However, the private sector is not interested in developing houses for the low-income population because it is not profitable compared to selling a building to a company to make luxury housing (Richman, 2015).

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

The large, inexpensive buildings were transformed into creative spaces and studios for the artists and the revitalization of Liberty Village began. The low rent attracted artists who wanted to spend more time on art and less time earning money. Toronto business owners noticed the development in the area and purchased property- confident that in the near future the value would dramatically increase- therefore yielding a profit. In the early 2000s, large scale development began and residents of the warehouses were evicted in order to renovate the warehouses and generate condos. This marked the transition of the land use of the Liberty Village area from industrial to residential.

For the past fifty years the shift from meeting the housing needs of the poor through government projects-based housing to a more individual approach, has been slowly implemented. Housing vouchers now enable underprivileged populations to move from high-poverty, segregated neighborhoods to more un-segregated, low-poverty neighborhoods. Low-poverty neighborhoods have less crime, better opportunities for employment, and more diverse schooling options. Some housing advocates however, contend that housing assistance is unnecessary and is an income subsidy that should be combined with other social safety nets (Clark, W. 2008).

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.

American’s deal with a serious challenge while looking for an affordable place to raise their families. Renting an apartment

Multiple reasons exist for the the lack of affordable housing. On the demand side these include population growth and increased migration to urban areas, easily accessible housing finance, tax incentives and a “strong cultural preference for owner-occupied detached houses”. On the supply side, affordability problems are exacerbated by inflexible and slow responses to the need for new housing stock, lack of infrastructure and generally inefficient planning processes and development assessment by local governments.

Homelessness is the condition of people that do not have a permanent place to live, like a house or an apartment. The issue of homelessness is not subjected to one area, but it is a worldwide problem. Homelessness can result by depending upon a countries economy, and their government because the officials often ignores the issue. Manila, Philippines has 22.8 million who reside in the slums, and 1.2 million of those people are children who live by peddling, or begging on the streets, (Castillo). The Philippines is not the only country that has many homeless children that beg to live or peddle. The number of homeless children in the world is unnatural, and by being internationally intertwined we should put an end to homelessness, especially