Housing for veterans

A city within a city the US Department of Housing and Urban Development says more than 2 million people live in public housing throughout the United States. Homelessness and poverty have had a constant increase throughout the years. With the minimum wage remaining low and the cost of living increasing, rents escalating as well as the property values due to a speculative market on land and real estate, there is a lot holding back affordable housing for all.

Federal funding for public non-profit housing remaining at a constant low has added to the way the United States is seen today regarding the lack of affordable housing. When there is not any affordable or readily available housing for everyone in need the whole system falls between the cracks.

More than 1.2 million households currently live in public housing of some kind, subsidized apartment buildings often referred to as “housing projects” have a complicated history in the United States. While the first decades of projects were built with higher construction standards and a broader range of income and applicants, over time public housing became the housing of last resort in many cities throughout the United States. Several negative stereotypes associated with public housing create difficulties in developing new units. Perceptions of public housing include some major public concerns, a lack of maintenance, expectation of crime, disapproval of housing as a handout, reduction of property values, concentration of poverty, increased crime and physical unattractiveness. While the reality may differ from the perceptions, such perceptions are strong enough to mount a formidable opposition to public housing programs in general over the years.

To successfully solve this problem today moving forward requires us to first look back at the history of public housing in the United States to see how we got to this point and discuss housing models which have been utilized in the past. Basic history of public housing in the United States is administered by federal, state, and local agencies to offering aid to low-income households. Public housing is priced well below the market rate, in the beginning public housing in the United States consisted primarily of one or more concentrated blocks of low-rise or high-rise apartment buildings. These complexes were operated by state and local housing authorities which are authorized and funded by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Several reasons for the stereotypes follow public housing, there include the failure of Congress to provide sufficient funding lowering the standard of occupancy, as well as government mismanagement at the local level. The Federally Housing Administration of the 1930s housing came into being in the United States as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt New Deal. Title 2, section 202 of the National Industrial Recovery Act passed June 16th 1933. This deal directed the Public Works Administration to develop a program for the construction, reconstruction, alteration or repair of low-cost housing and slum clearance projects. The initial limited dividend program was able to provide low-interest loans to public or private groups to fund the construction of low-income housing. In the spring of 1934, the housing division began to undertake direct construction of public housing. A decisive decision that would serve as precedent for the 1937 Wagner- Steagall Housing Act which set the template for public housing in the United States at the time.

By 1937 the housing division had constructed 52 housing projects across the United States including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Based on the residential Planning concepts of these 52 projects composed of one to four story row houses and apartment buildings arranged around Hope and spaces creating traffic free community spaces between units. “In 1937 the Wagner- Steagall Housing Act replaced the temporary PWA housing division with a permanent quasi-autonomous agency to administer housing”.

The United States Housing Authority Act of 1937 would operate with a strong focus toward local efforts and locating and constructing housing that would place caps of 5,000 dollars spent per housing unit. Construction of housing projects dramatically accelerated under the new structure in 1939 alone. 50,000 housing units were constructed more than twice as many were built during the entire tenure of the Public Works at Authority housing division. During the World War II era and in the late 1940s entire communities sprang up around factories that manufactured military goods. In 1940 Congress authorized the US housing authority to build 20 public housing developments around these private companies to sustain the war effort the defense housing division was founded in 1941 and would ultimately construct eight developments of temporary housing many became long-term housing units after the war.

During World War II construction of homes dramatically decreased as all efforts were directed toward the war. When veterans returned home from overseas, they came ready to start a new life often with families it did so with the funding of resources of the GI Bill to get their new mortgage. However there was not enough housing to accommodate demand. Efforts moved to focus exclusively on veterans housing specifically a subsidy on materials for housing and construction, however in the wake of the 1946 elections President Truman believed there was insufficient public support to continue material subsidies. Veterans emergency housing program ended on January 1947 by an executive order from President Truman with the passage of the Housing Act in 1949 the role of the federal government both in public and private housing dramatically increased. Unhappiness with urban renewal policies came quick after the passage of the bill, urban renewal had become for many cities a way to eliminate blight but not a solid vehicle for constructing new housing. For example in the ten years after the bill was passed, four hundred and twenty five thousand units of housing were demolished but only 125 thousand units were constructed.

Public housing in the 1960s had no major legislation change the basic mechanisms of public housing until the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965. This Act created the Department of Housing and Urban Development or HUD a cabinet-level agency to address housing. The Act also introduced rent subsidies for the first time shifting a trend toward privately constructed low-income housing. With this legislation the Federal Housing Authority would ensure mortgages for nonprofits which would then construct homes for low-income families.

HUD could then provide subsidies to bridge the gap between the cost of these units and a set percentage of a household’s income. In response to many of the emerging concerns regarding new public housing developments the Housing Act of 1968 attempted to shift the style of housing developments. The Act banned the construction of high-rise developments for families, with children rising, rates of vandalism, vacancy and concerns about the concentration of poverty these developments were declared unsuitable for families. Section 235 of the Housing Act of 1968 encouraged the FHA to lower standards in order to provide affordable mortgages for poor families while Section 236 provided rent subsidies to move into affordable apartments.

At the start of the 1970s vouchers became an attempt to subsidize the demand side of housing market rather than the supply side by supplementing households rent allowance until families were able to afford rent at market rates.

The Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 created section 8 housing program to encourage the private sector to construct affordable homes. Vouchers from section 8 became an attempt to subsidize the demand side of housing market rather than the supply side by supplementing households rent allowance until families were able to afford rent at market rates.

This kind of housing assistance assists poor tenants by giving them a monthly subsidy to their landlords, this assistance can be project-based which applies to specific properties or tenant based which provides tenants with a voucher they can then use wherever vouchers are accepted tenant based housing vouchers covered the gap between 25% of a household’s income and the established fair market rent. Virtually no new project-based section 8 housing has been produced since 1983 but tenant based vouchers are now the primary mechanism of assisted housing.

Public housing in the 1980s and 1990s changes to public housing programs were minor during the 1980s under the Reagan administration household contribution toward section 8 rents was increased to 30 percent of household income and fair market rents were lowered, Public assistance for housing efforts however was reduced as part of a package of across-the-board cuts additionally policies resulted in the expansion of emergency shelters for homeless rather than permanent housing.

The next era in public housing began in 1992 with the launch of the hope six program. Hope six funds were devoted to demolishing poor quality public housing projects and replacing them with lower density developments often of mixed income. Hope six became the primary vehicle for the construction of new federally subsidized units but it suffered considerable funding cuts. In 2004 under President George W Bush there have been no significant reforms implemented since but the problem still remains and continues to get worse due to budget cuts to fund housing, this means the community has had to step up to the plate without public funds to make progress on affordable housing for people in need where public institutions have failed to address the shortfall in available housing.

Hopefully, city county and state governments will be able to adapt to allow the problem of affordable housing to be solved unfortunately as long as land and real estate is a speculative market the chances of that seem unlikely. Affordable housing development doesn’t bring money into the coffers of local governments. Therefore, it is set aside in favor of more lucrative development but this ends up leaving many individuals behind. One can only hope that the attitudes and stereotypes around public housing and homelessness can be shattered so that real progress can actually be made to solve this final issue.