Lower income residents need access to housing

The Herald recently published a commentary by Rock Hill Mayor Doug Echols, “Affordable housing is a real team effort,” explaining his leadership in this area of critical importance for our people. The article, however, showed how easy it is to confuse two related, but very different concepts: “affordable” housing verses “crisis” housing.

We cannot mistakenly treat these as synonymous, for they require vastly different solutions.

Let’s start by defining affordable housing. It means housing costs (payment, plus utilities, insurance, maintenance, taxes) that a person or household can responsibly pay based on their income and have ample remaining funds to pay their other normal living expenses.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines affordable housing as “housing for which the occupant is paying no more than 30 percent of his or her income for gross housing costs, including utilities.”

Households paying under 30 percent of their income are in financial balance, and have 70 percent available for non-housing expenses. Those paying more than 30 percent for housing are considered “cost burdened” and have difficulty affording necessities such as food, clothing, transportation and medical care. For those paying from 30-50 percent, HUD deems them to be “moderately” cost burdened; and those paying over 50 percent are “severely” cost burdened.

Crisis housing describes something very different. It is housing for people who need support services to help them gain life and job success skills, and to help them overcome barriers such as substance abuse and mental disorders. Using the inpatient medical system as a guide, the continuum of care for support services with highly regulated crisis housing becomes much clearer: Emergency housing for rapid assessment and stabilization; hospital type housing for acute and intensive care; longer term rehabilitation type housing to help people get stronger; and finally, assisted living type housing for people needing ongoing assistance.

But when people are ready to exit the crisis housing system, they must have affordable housing. The city of Rock Hill’s 2015-2020 Consolidated Plan correctly states: “Affordable housing is the foundation for achieving self-sufficiency.” Our community needs an identifiable continuum of care for support services and crisis housing, and I am thrilled that Mayor Echols is providing leadership in this vital area.

But without the availability of affordable housing, there is no way out of crisis housing. And further, as is evident today, as housing costs and utilities have continued to rise, more and more people are falling into the crisis housing mode.

I have worked with people struggling in financial poverty and life crisis for much of the past decade, helping first with the cold weather shelters and then founding Renew Our Community to connect people in crisis with existing support services in our area. I have seen a significant increase in church families, agencies, businesses, clubs and individuals helping those in need.

Remarkably, however, over this same time, I have seen a steady increase in homelessness and people in financial crisis. My settled conclusion is this: The leading cause of homelessness, of housing instability and financial instability among our people is the lack of affordable housing for those with lower incomes.

In December 2016, the average apartment rent in Rock Hill was $878 per month. If you add to that $200 a month for utilities, insurance and maintenance, total housing costs are $1,078 per month.

For a person making $8 an hour for 40 hours a week, 30 percent of monthly income is $416. At $16 per hour, it is $832; and at $20 an hour, it is $1,040. So even at $20 per hour, a person would have to exceed the 30 percent safe harbor just to rent the average apartment in Rock Hill.

Rock Hill’s Consolidated Plan reveals that the lack of affordable housing for lower income workers is well beyond crisis stage. Of the 25,000 households in the city limits, 48 percent are cost burdened: 7,654 are moderately cost burdened, and 4,365 are severely cost burdened, spending over 50 percent of their income just for housing.

The Plan says: “Affordable housing has become more difficult to identify within the city limits ... Housing costs continue to rise and are becoming increasingly out of reach for very low-income households.” “Rock Hill does not have enough affordable housing to meet the needs of the population.” “There is a need for additional 1 and 2 bedroom units in the city.” Further, even the “waiting lists” for Section 8 housing vouchers and for public housing are “closed.”

We have a community crisis and our people need help now.

In 2016 I helped launch a community initiative to bring truly affordable housing to our area, with development of smaller, smarter, affordable houses for those making under $20 per hour to help them secure the American dream of owning a home and having choices of safe and pleasant places to live, all around our area. Smaller, attractive, well built, energy-efficient, building code-compliant, 1- and 2-bedroom homes, ranging from 150 to 500 square feet and costing from $12,000 to $45,000, are more affordable to secure and sustain.

They are more friendly to our environment, use less resources to build and less energy to sustain, have smaller impervious surface footprints and are easier to place without clear-cutting trees. They give people more ability to live in the community near their friends and relatives, and near jobs, shopping and services. They can be in backyards of existing homes or in a cluster of 3 to 4 units located on an existing lot, in small subdivisions.

But these smaller homes are not allowed in Rock Hill. Why? It is not building codes or state laws. It is Rock Hill zoning ordinances which impose requirements that substantially increase building costs and which outright prohibit the building of houses smaller than 850 square feet and houses with only 1 bedroom.

City and York County leaders must act promptly to meet this crisis for our working people. They must change zoning laws, as other responsible communities have done, and provide lower income earners the opportunity to secure the American dream of owning their own home and having choices of safe and pleasant places to live.

This story was originally published January 24, 2017 at 12:56 PM with the headline "Lower income residents need access to housing."