Out of Reach 2005 (affordable housing)
22 December 2005
Good Morning,
The NLIHC publishes an annual survey of housing affordability in the US. This year’s edition of Out Of Reach is now available.
The data for the Northwest Continuum of Care (NWCoC) is disturbing—again! The counties of interest are Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Mitchell, Watauga, Wilkes and Yancey. None of these counties have Area Median Incomes (AMI) at or above the North Carolina state average. Watauga comes closest (NC $53,635; Watauga $ 51,500), unsurprisingly, with the highest education, due to presence of Appalachian State University—2005 NCAA 1-AA football national champions--and biggest consolidation of second home owners.
Housing wage for the counties averages $10.37/hour. The range is $9.67 up to $12.29. Watauga County holds that top spot honor; placing the county housing wage above the NC state average of $12.14/hour. This boils down to working 80 hours each week at minimum wage ($5.15/hour).
So, what analysis can be reached here? Well, there are several. 1st, consider that renting is expensive in terms of time for persons employed in the service industry; or 2nd, that those living on Supplemental Security Income (SSI), $579/month can never hope to pay fair market rent for an apartment. This creates a market for older, less well maintained units—some of which are pretty rough.
If we accept that everyone is entitled to decent, safe, affordable housing then we must consider that such a goal can never be achieved through current market-based philosophies. It takes coalitions of government, private developers and interested persons to create affordable housing.
I will not pretend to know much about this topic or to have an answer. I do understand that this is a systemic problem & can only be solved systemically. It is the core of my work to tackle the system around supporting those who will never be at or above the average.
