Category Archives: affirmatively furthering fair housing

Hundreds Convene to Build the Affordable Homes Movement in Washington, DC, March 19-21

50th Anniversary of the Federal Fair Housing Act, affirmatively furthering fair housing, affordable housing, April Fair Housing Month, Municipal and Regional Planning, redlining

Content by the National Low Income Housing Coalition

NLIHC 2018 Housing Policy Forum

Hundreds Convene to Build the Affordable Homes Movement in Washington, DC, March 19-21

NLIHC Source: Click here to read the entire Memo to Members, Hundreds Convene to Build the Affordable Homes Movement in Washington, DC, March 19-21 | National Low Income Housing Coalition Memo to Members

More than 450 affordable housing advocates and providers, resident leaders, researchers, and policy makers attended the NLIHC 2018 Housing Policy Forum: Building the Movement, which took place in Washington, DC on March 19-21. A broad cross-section of NLIHC members and partners engaged with policy makers, experts, and one another, participated in more than a dozen sessions and workshops on building the national affordable homes movement, and met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to urge them to take action to address homelessness and housing poverty in America.

Source: Hundreds Convene to Build the Affordable Homes Movement in Washington, DC, March 19-21 | National Low Income Housing Coalition

Color of Law author Richard Rothstein

Color of Law author Richard Rothstein

 

Below is An Excerpt from Memo to Members:

“The first panel of the Forum discussed the State of Fair Housing on the 50th Anniversary of the Fair Housing Act.  *Richard Rothstein, author of The Color of Law, described the history of explicit federal, state, and local government policies that resulted in housing segregation – which still persists today. He told the audience to challenge how the history of segregation is mis-taught or not taught in our schools. He also suggested that an analysis of fair housing history should be required in jurisdictions’ Analyses of Impediments to fair housing.

Mr. Rothstein was joined by three panelists.

*Lisa Rice, who will succeed Shana Smith as president and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance, shared a graphic, “Where You Live Matters,” showing how someone’s ZIP Code affects so many facets of life, like health, education, and income. “We need to help create a fair housing vision and push it forward to HUD,” Ms. Rice said.  “The Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule is a great opportunity to move forward.”

*James Cadogan, director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund’s Thurgood Marshall Institute, encouraged “recapturing the public narrative” by explaining that the effects of historic government-sponsored segregation continue as “a pernicious and pervasive harm today – it is current affairs.”

*Don Chen, director of Equitable Development at the Ford Foundation, urged housers with differing priorities to come together toward a common set of fair housing goals. He suggested correcting the “fake history” around segregation by engaging children in learning about the fair housing history in their communities.”

Fifty Years After the Fair Housing Act was Passed to Combat Segregation, We are Still Struggling to Find the Will to Implement It

affirmatively furthering fair housing, affordable housing, inclusionary zoning, Municipal and Regional Planning, zoning
Source: Housing Perspectives (from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies) 

“… the interest in maintaining segregation lies with individual localities, but …the sum of the localities (in the form of metropolitan regions or states) are invested in combating it. While not discounting the fact that many people say they desire integrated neighborhoods in the abstract while opposing them in their own community (something anyone who has ever attended a local zoning meeting in an exclusionary area can attest to) the math is obvious. Opposition is concentrated in localities with a minority of the population, and this opposition is the roadblock to creating truly integrated regions.”

…

“In moving forward, we should look back on what moved us from these tentative steps in the 1950s toward the broad ones of the 1960s, mainly the organization, enfranchisement, and political power that the civil rights movement produced, and see how we can recreate it for modern times. Without this, “what will it take” and “what can we do” will stay questions with different answers.”

…

The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies advances understanding of housing issues and informs policy.

Say It Loud: Renters’ Rights are Civil Rights! – Shelterforce

affirmatively furthering fair housing, affordable housing, civil rights, fair housing, housing crisis, Inclusive Communities, renters

Hand made sign about gentrification in a demonstration.

 Photo by Abbey Hambright via flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

“Generations of racist government policies such as redlining, the razing of neighborhoods to build highways, and exclusionary zoning has created deeply segregated and unequal neighborhoods. These policies both prevented people of color from accessing resources where they lived and from moving to suburban neighborhoods where resources were being invested.”

“Advocates and renters argue that protecting tenants is good policy because it advances equity, economic opportunity, and even a healthier environment.”

Read full article from Shelterforce Source: Say It Loud: Renters’ Rights are Civil Rights! – Shelterforce

Thanks to Shelterforce for publishing such articles as this one.

[Shelterforce Note: This article is adapted from the IGNITE! Community Pitch Fest, held at the Grounded Solutions Intersections 2017 conference on Oct. 11, 2017. Out of 20 entries and 6 finalists, audience members chose Public Advocates’ pitch as the winner.]

Easing Burlington’s Housing Shortage, Opinion by Erhard Mahnke

affirmatively furthering fair housing, affordable housing, Burlington, housing development, inclusionary zoning, Vermont, ,

(This piece first appeared on the Burlington Free Press opinion page on September 20, 2017)

Safe, stable and affordable housing is essential for a community to thrive economically, socially and culturally. Vermont continues to struggle with housing affordability, and unfortunately the state’s largest city of Burlington is no exception.

A Burlington resident needs to earn over $26 an hour to afford the fair market rent for a two bedroom apartment – that’s more than $5 per hour above the national average.

This is troubling and we hear about the ramifications from families and seniors who can’t find places to live, from young people who are choosing to leave the state for more affordable areas, from agencies serving the homeless, and from our employers who struggle to find qualified employees due to the high cost of housing.

There are several components to addressing the issue of affordable housing, and one of the most critical is the need for capital investment to build new housing and to renovate existing properties. While many additional homes have been built over the past several years, many more are needed to accommodate the growth of 2,375 new households projected for Chittenden County by 2020. Current production is being absorbed into the market quickly, and the long-term vacancy rate for rentals still hovers between 1 and 2 percent, putting supply and demand out of whack.

Not surprisingly, according to Census data, over half of Chittenden County renters are “cost-burdened,” meaning they pay too much of their income for housing, leaving them without enough for other basic necessities.

In terms of affordable housing, last month the Champlain Housing Trust had just five vacancies among their 2,000 plus apartments, and only one vacancy in Chittenden County. Cathedral Square Corp. had over 800 seniors and people with special needs on its waiting list looking to move into affordable housing.

Furthermore, the effective vacancy rate for subsidized rentals in Chittenden County was literally 0 percent for all bedroom sizes. These shocking numbers help explain why the Burlington Housing Authority typically measures their waiting list in years rather than weeks or even months.

These numbers are astonishing, but the good news is that there are clear steps we can take to address the cost of housing. No one project will be the panacea for Burlington’s affordable housing crisis, but developments like the proposed Cambrian Rise project in Burlington’s North End can significantly improve housing options for residents and relieve the pressure on a strained system.

As proposed, Cambrian Rise will be a 739-apartment mixed-income housing neighborhood with an impressive number of affordable homes. The neighborhood will offer Burlington residents housing options for all income levels.

Under Burlington’s inclusionary zoning ordinance, the development will include 128 affordable rentals for families and seniors with household incomes of less than 65 percent of the Chittenden County median income. In English that translates into housing that is affordable for a one-person household making $37,500, or $53,600 for a family of four.

However, with federal, state and local dollars available to Champlain Housing Trust and Cathedral Square, which are partnering to help create Cambrian Rise, many apartments will be even more affordable.

Furthermore, another 60 homes will be affordable to homebuyers earning below 75 to 80 percent of median income, or below at most $46,150 for a single individual and $65,900 for a family of four. In all, the development will offer 188 permanently affordable homes to low income Vermonters. In addition, Cambrian Rise will offer “workforce housing” for sale and rent targeted to more moderate income people up to 120 percent of the median income. Our working families, our seniors and people with disabilities, and our employers desperately need these new homes.

Cambrian Rise not only offers a diverse neighborhood, it is also a model for sustainable development. The project features alternative transportation options, energy efficiency, a state of the art stormwater system to protect the lake, and a conserved 12-acre public park – giving us continuous public access to Lake Champlain from Perkins Pier to North Beach.

Convenient access to the bike path, car share opportunities and a heated bus terminal for year-round use will ease the financial burden for residents of the neighborhood. This mixed-use development is a model for the future, where diverse residents of all income levels, abilities and ages can live, work and play in one neighborhood.

Erhard Mahnke, of Burlington, is coordinator for the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition. The Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition is a partner organization in the Thriving Communities- Building a Vibrant Inclusive Vermont campaign.

“An Economic Fair Housing Act” An Excellent Article by, Richard D. Kahlenberg

affirmatively furthering fair housing, affordable housing, inclusionary zoning, Inclusive Communities

The Thriving Communities campaign highly recommends to our blog readers the very good article by Richard D. Kahlenberg, which was featured in the latest edition of “Poverty & Race”newsletter (July – September, 2017, Volume 26: Number 3);  published by the Poverty & Race Research Action Council.

“An Economic Fair Housing Act” PRRAC Poverty & Race Newsletter, July-September 2017 

Kay Campbell / kcampbell@al.com

We encourage you to read this if you are interested in  affirmatively furthering fair housing, decreasing geographic segregation by race and poverty, and increasing many opportunities for people now trapped in low opportunity neighborhoods in our nation.

“… worsening housing segregation by class is extremely troubling, because it affects the lives of Americans in profound ways. Where people live affects so much else in their lives— access to transportation, employment opportunities, access to decent health care, and, perhaps most important, access to good schools. …”

 

Borrowed from “SHELTERFORCE” -10 Ways to Talk About Inclusionary Housing, Differently

affirmatively furthering fair housing, affordable housing, civil rights, economic growth, fair housing, inclusionary zoning, , ,

Shelterforce blog by Sasha Hauswald – September 20, 2017

…  Number 4 is one of my favorite. (Thriving Communities Editor)

” 4.  Streamline barriers to development

Many jurisdictions have zoning code requirements that are so complex that it is nearly impossible to build anything without lengthy and unpredictable approval processes for special exceptions to the zoning code. Inclusionary done right can greatly reduce procedural barriers to new development.

Affordable housing requirements are often adopted in combination with area-wide up-zoning or enhanced flexibility to build, by right, a reasonably profitable multifamily building. In these cases, inclusionary housing programs can actually increase development activity. Most importantly, inclusionary housing policies establish clear and predictable expectations that local developers can plan around. “

Important Federal Funding Facts About Housing in America

affirmatively furthering fair housing, affordable housing, economic growth, fair housing, housing crisis, housing development, housing vouchers, income inequality, ,

OUR HOMES, OUR VOICES

THE CAMPAIGN FOR HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FUNDING

Information sheet produced by the National Low Income Housing Coalition

Click on Picture for a Full View

[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.thrivingcommunitiesvt.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/OurHomes-OurVoices7-2017.pdf”]

As the Arctic Icebergs Melt, So Does Political Opposition to Housing [in some places anyway]

affirmatively furthering fair housing, affordable housing, housing crisis, Public Opposition to Housing, zoning regulations,

This article is in Rooflines – The Shelterforce Blog

  Posted in Rooflines by Randy Shaw on June 20, 2017

…

“On June 13, San Francisco’s Mayor Ed Lee signed HOME SF into law. The district supervisor-sponsored measure will add 16,000 housing units in the next two decades, 5,000 of which will be affordable.”

“On that night in Berkeley, a large turnout of pro-housing activists stopped the Berkeley City Council’s plans to halt new housing. In response to grassroots pressure, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin announced before the meeting that the agenda item promoting downzoning was “greatly misunderstood” and that the city ‘cannot put roadblocks in the way of new housing.’”
…
“But the tide has turned. People are battling the politics of exclusion. They recognize that while artificially restricting the housing supply is great for profiting those who already own property, it’s not so good for those paying sky-high rents or who have been priced out of the city altogether. As Supervisor Katy Tang stated at the signing ceremony for HOME SF, if San Francisco ‘does not continue to provide affordable housing for our middle income households, they will continue to leave and we will no longer have a middle class.’”

Emphasis added by the Thriving Communities blog editor.

…

Read the Full Article in Roofline

NOTE: The photo posted with this blog was posted by the Thriving Communities blog editor and was not posted by Shelterforce.

“Changes to Tax Credit Criteria Breaking Up Concentrated Poverty in New Jersey”

affirmatively furthering fair housing, , , ,
Important steps for affirmatively furthering fair housing – good work by the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA)
“These Changes to Tax Credit Criteria Are Breaking Up Concentrated Poverty” [a New Jersey example]

Posted by Tim Evans in Rooflines, The Shelterforce blog, June 13, 2017 edition. This excerpt copied with permission of the National Housing Institute

While recent news reports have highlighted the low number of affordable housing projects using federal tax credits that are built in high-opportunity areas, a recent examination by New Jersey Future has found that strategic changes in the way federal funds are allocated for affordable housing in the state have meant that many more affordable housing projects have been directed away from high-poverty neighborhoods and toward areas that offer greater economic opportunity.

To evaluate whether those changes had their intended effect, New Jersey Future compared affordable housing projects that received federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits between 2005 and 2012 with projects that received credits between 2013 and 2015, after the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA), which administers the tax credits in the state, made significant changes to the criteria it uses to award them. The agency made the changes with the specific goal of steering new construction of affordable housing away from areas of concentrated poverty and toward areas where public transit and major job centers existed, and that have higher-performing school districts.

Before the adjustment, a full two-thirds of projects near transit were located in . . .

Read More

Why Chittenden County Still Needs More Housing

affirmatively furthering fair housing, affordable housing, Chittenden County, housing, housing crisis, housing development, Municipal and Regional Planning, Vermont, ,
My Turn,  From the Burlington Free Press

” … we applaud efforts in Montpelier and are excited to work with local municipalities that want to make bold investments in affordable housing, realizing that such investments are winners in accomplishing Governor Scott’s three priorities: supporting our economy, making Vermont more affordable for Vermonters, and protecting our most vulnerable community members. Several proposals have been made – we welcome all efforts that satisfy each of these three objectives.”

by Michael Monte

There seems to be a burst of housing construction in Chittenden County, and some are even suggesting that the tide has turned in making the rental market more affordable, or that the vacancy rate is high enough, or we’re building too fast. At the Champlain Housing Trust, our assessment is that although the trend line is improving, more needs to be done – especially for low wage earners priced out of the market, and certainly for the 350 people on any given night in the county who have no home at all.

According to Mark Brooks, co-author of a report that provides a comprehensive semi-annual analysis of the real estate market, the long-term market vacancy rate in Chittenden County is 2%.  The December, 2016 report indicated a market vacancy of 4.4% – a number offered as a point-in-time rate of what’s available without taking in consideration the timing of apartments just completing construction or other factors.

This lower rate is a more accurate assessment, as it takes into account the time in which newly-constructed apartments are absorbed into the market.  Most will agree that a 5% rate will yield a healthy market for renters and owners alike. While we were close at a point in time in December, we’ve not sustainably reached this target.

In the last two years alone, over 1,200 apartments have been constructed. The new construction does give some renters more choices: according to the report, “…landlords are offering incentives such as one month free rent, flexible lease terms, or lower rents.” Rent rates across the board have been stable and closer in-line with inflation – unlike the previous six years.

New households are forming every day in Chittenden County, and large numbers of people are still commuting long distances from less expensive housing in more rural counties to get to work. In fact, in 2002, 73% of Chittenden County workers lived in the county; that percentage dropped to 63% in 2014. Lack of housing opportunity is leading more and more workers to commute longer distances.

Demand is still high as younger people, sometimes saddled with high college debt, are renting instead of purchasing a new home. And employers are still viewing rents and housing availability as being barriers to economic growth. A representative of one business told us recently that her company added jobs in the mid-west instead of Burlington because of the lack of housing.

In order to push the underlying market rate from 2% to a sustained 5%, we need to continue to provide additional growth. Can we sustain this growth and increase the vacancy rate in the future? We hope so. But next year fewer apartments are on track to be coming on line, less than half the number built this year. And although there are an additional 2,400 apartments in the development pipeline county-wide, those won’t be here next year, or even the year after that.

Charlie Baker, executive director of the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission, part of a coalition launched in 2016 that will try to bring about the construction of 3,500 housing units in Chittenden county over the next five years. Peter Hirschfield / VPR

As importantly, the resources available for affordable housing are seriously limited. Although there is enormous opportunity and capacity to build more affordable housing, the equity or cash needed to insure that rents remain affordable are not available. Non-profit owners continue to struggle with meeting the demand for more affordable housing, as evidenced by long waiting lists for subsidized housing or the 150 applications CHT gets every month for the 20-25 apartments available.

That’s why we applaud efforts in Montpelier and are excited to work with local municipalities that want to make bold investments in affordable housing, realizing that such investments are winners in accomplishing Governor Scott’s three priorities: supporting our economy, making Vermont more affordable for Vermonters, and protecting our most vulnerable community members. Several proposals have been made – we welcome all efforts that satisfy each of these three objectives.

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Michael Monte, is Chief Operations & Financial Officer at The Champlain Housing Trust, founded in 1984, it is the largest community land trust in the country. Throughout Chittenden, Franklin and Grand Isle counties, CHT manages 2,200 apartments, stewards 565 owner-occupied homes in its signature shared-equity program, offers homebuyer education and financial fitness counseling, provides services to five housing cooperatives, and offers affordable energy efficiency and rehab loans. In 2008, CHT won the prestigious United Nations World Habitat Award, recognizing its innovative, sustainable programs.