This article originally appeared in the September-October 1999 Children's Advocate newsmagazine, published by Action Alliance for Children

Housing crisis harmful to kids

Advocates push for state and federal action to ease housing shortage for low-income families

by Daren Briscoe

Jump to A growing crisis in affordable housing | Harmful to kids | The housing agenda in California | What YOU can do

A growing crisis in affordable housing

More need: Waiting lists for rental assistance are longer than ever. In just two years (from 1996 to 1998), the average waiting period for a federal Section 8 rental assistance voucher rose from 26 to 28 months. The waiting period for Section 8 assistance in Los Angeles is ten years. In the largest cities, the average wait for public housing rose from 22 to 33 months. In Oakland the waiting period is six years.

Increased cost: Housing costs take an ever-growing chunk of the incomes of low-income renters, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless. "The strong economy has caused rents to soar, putting housing out of reach for the poorest Americans." The federal government says that rent is "affordable" if it amounts to 30 percent or less of a renter's income. Using that definition, in most metropolitan areas one in every three renters cannot afford a one-bedroom apartment. And 5.5 million renters in the U.S. spent more than half of their incomes on housing.

Less affordable housing for low-income families: For low-income families, the number of affordable rental units declined by 1.3 million from 1996 to 1998. Before that, in 1995, the number of low-income households already outnumbered the number of affordable rental units by 4.4 million. While California's population has increased by 3.2 million in the 1990s, housing production has been less than half of what is needed.

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Housing crisis: harmful to kids

Advocates push for state and federal action to ease housing shortage for low-income families

A national crisis in affordable housing is threatening the educational, emotional, and physical health of America's children. Housing costs are rising faster than the incomes of the poor, and fewer affordable housing units are available. There are longer waits for shrinking amounts of federal housing assistance.

Earlier this year, a group of concerned pediatricians, Docs4Kids, teamed up with Housing America, a national grass roots housing advocacy group. Together, they compiled a report showing that this severe shortage of safe, stable housing is harmful to children in many ways.

Health:

The report, There's No Place Like Home—How America's Housing Crisis Affects Our Children, documents a laundry list of health problems suffered by kids who live in substandard conditions—higher rates of asthma, infectious diseases, injuries, burns, and lead poisoning. In addition, these children are exposed to more violence, go hungry more often, and experience more psychological problems than other children. The report estimates that:

• 21,000 children have stunted growth as an indirect result of a lack of stable housing.
• 10,000 children between the ages of four and nine are hospitalized for asthma attacks each year because of cockroach infestation at home.
• Over 120,000 kids suffer from anemia because their families cannot afford both rent and food.
• Deaths from house fires caused by faulty wiring and heating equipment are nine times more common in poor neighborhoods.

For homeless children, health problems are even worse. Homeless children have higher rates of respiratory infections, diarrhea, iron deficiency, and hospitalizations than other kids, and are in significantly worse overall health.

Education:

Another report, by the Kids Mobility Project of the national Family Housing Fund, suggests that frequent moves in search of stable, affordable housing can affect children's performance in school. Over a six-and-a-half month period, researchers tracked over 6,000 elementary-school children, recording the number of times they moved and the scores they got on a standardized test.

• The more times a child moved, the lower his or her average reading score; the average scores for students who moved three or more times was nearly 20 points (out of 100) lower than that of students who did not move.
• The less students moved, the better their attendance rates; students with near-perfect attendance out-performed those with poor attendance by more than 20 points.

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The housing agenda

In California

• Bonds for affordable housing: This month, the statewide advocacy organization Housing California is launching a campaign to create "a permanent source of funding for affordable housing." Advocates are trying to get 16,000 postcards sent by October 1 to the governor and the leaders of the Senate and the Assembly, urging them to put an affordable-housing bond measure on the November 2000 ballot. Bills currently in the legislature would place $245 million in housing bonds on each of the next four general election ballots. The money would be used for rent subsidies for low-income tenants and low-interest loans to first-time homebuyers.

• More funding for current low-income housing programs: This year the legislature's Latino Caucus called for a $100 million increase in affordable-housing funds. The legislature ended up passing a budget that included $33 million, which Gov. Davis reduced to $22 million, says Randy Shaw, executive director of Housing America.

• Housing subsidies for families on welfare: The legislature is still considering SB781 (Speier), which would provide rent subsidies for families on CalWORKs.

In the U.S.

• Expand Section 8: Nationally, Docs4Kids and Housing America are calling for a "dramatic increase" in the number of federal housing assistance vouchers. Advocates estimate that for every person now receiving federal housing assistance, there are four who are eligible but not receiving assistance, says Linda Couch of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition.

• Protect affordable housing: The authors of There's No Place Like Home also call for federal funds to give landlords incentives to continue affordable housing contracts and to help cities and states preserve affordable housing.

• Increase the low-income housing tax credit: Advocates call for an expansion of tax credits to encourage private investment in producing new affordable housing.

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What YOU can do

• Send postcards or letters this month to Gov. Gray Davis, Sen. John Burton, and Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa telling them your views on putting an affordable-housing bond measure on the November 2000 ballot.

• Contact Housing California for information on the campaign for an affordable-housing bond measure and other statewide issues or to find out who's working for affordable housing in your community. (916) 447-1867, housingca@aol.com

• Contact your Congressional representative and senators and let them know your views on increasing the number of federal housing vouchers for low income families

• Get involved in local housing policy issues.

• Ask your neighbors or families you work with about their experiences trying to find affordable housing, then share what you know in discussions with policy makers.

• Call Housing America, for copies of There's No Place Like Home and updates on national affordable housing issues, (415) 771-9850.

Other resources:

• National Low-Income Housing Coalition, (202) 662-1530
• National Coalition for the Homeless, (202) 737-6444
• Docs4Kids, (617) 414-2229

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Reporting by Melia Franklin and Jean Tepperman contributed to this story