To see the origin of this post, go here. Today, I continue to lay out a positive vision for what I would like my community and nation to become.
I envision a nation in which all residents live in housing they can afford—housing costs less than 40% of their household income.
HUD’s standard for housing affordability is that it should take no more than 30% of total household income, but we are far behind, and in many places, that is simply not attainable.
I work in a basic needs center at one of the most prestigious state schools in the country. Over forty percent of our undergraduates face food insecurity—worrying about how they will afford meals, reducing meal sizes, or skipping meals altogether.
Thousands scour the campus weekly, looking for free food. Thousands more jump through various hoops to obtain about $300 per month in CalFresh benefits (SNAP or EBT—the federal cash-equivalent program for food run by the USDA).
I am talking about food, but the driver is housing.
Last week, I presented data on food security from our county and university to a class of master’s of public health students. During the class, I asked them to help me list out all their monthly expenses. Then we analyzed them to determine where their income is fungible—for which categories one dollar can be moved around and spent equally, and where it is not fungible.
They concluded that they have choices in a few categories: entertainment, hot drinks (yes, they have their own category), and food. Two categories were not flexible for them: transportation to school and housing, including rent and utilities.
(I should note that some of them remarked how housing and transportation were linked because they had to choose housing far from school to afford it, requiring them to drive and pay to park. They sought the option that reduced their costs. They did not note the time cost of their travel.)
Every day I meet with students who struggle to eat, because they struggle to pay for housing.
Even those with what appear to be generous financial aid packages struggle. Hold on for some arcane stuff right now…
Financial aid packages are created based on the calculation of the “average cost of attendance.” When students are looking at schools, these schools often publish somewhere the average cost—typically broken down by tuition and fees, health care, and room and board.
Packages differ depending on where you live: in a dorm, on-campus apartments, off-campus, or with family. However, the housing costs that go into the calculation are not the actual costs a given student pays for housing (which would require more information than is typically available when the packaging is done). Instead, costs, including housing, are based on the average cost of these things. This means that approximately half of students (it is not the median cost of housing, but the average is close to it) pay more than what they are packaged for.
If you have time to look, get to town early, and work hard, you can find a bed at or below the average. Notice I said “bed.” You are unlikely to get a room, let alone a place of your own. You will share a bedroom (or sleep in a closet as some do), and you will share everything else—bathroom, kitchen and living spaces.
If you are a transfer student who comes too late or someone whose housing fell through for whatever reason (roommates leave school or someone backs out of a joint deal), you are likely to have few choices and higher rents—many times MUCH higher than average.
As I alluded to above, you are likely to share a lease, which can and does lead to bad outcomes when one person on the lease leaves mid-year for whatever reason. It happens surprisingly often.
This is the student experience, but it is indicative of the challenge that everyone who works or comes to school in my town faces. And my town is not as bad as many in California.
This state of affairs is almost entirely due to policy choices cities and counties have made over the last generation. It is no longer just a California problem.
Put most crudely—and some readers will vehemently disagree—in California, those who own their homes have systematically and doggedly created systems that make building new housing (of any type) more expensive, subject to lawsuits (environmental impact), and increasingly difficult to do despite how lucrative successful development can be for landowners and developers (they have benefitted most from this regimen).
Often, in the name of environmental protection, cities, and citizens have made housing a luxury—a scarce commodity that only those with substantial means and time can afford. It has gotten so bad that it appears that the state is going to force the hands of cities and require them to build more. Lawsuits pepper the landscape.
In university towns like mine, citizens have demanded that the university itself provide more housing, and in many places, universities are now among the largest housing developers—especially for multi-family rental units. Universities may own land, but the money for building must come from the state—from citizens. I am happy to contribute in the form of taxes, but state budget priorities mean there is always competition for my tax dollars.
And so, out here, students suffer. Especially first-generation students. Especially students from low-income families.
I have focused on students here because they are in my office daily, talking to me about these things. I had a Zoom call with a student whose Wi-Fi was spotty because he spoke to me from a closet for which he pays $600 monthly. I had another whose roommate was dismissed from school, returned to his home in another part of the state, and left this student with an unexpected monthly rent increase of $800. Even a generous financial package cannot fill that hole.
This year, we will give out over $300,000 in grants to students to help plug a short-term hole in their rent due to some crisis. They live on a razor’s edge, but they have to pay rent.
I am here to tell you it does not have to be this way. After fighting the housing battles for four years on the City Council, I can confidently say that this is the biggest challenge our cities face today. And the solution is fully within our grasp.
Traveling at the Speed of Bike 