[Summit] FW: [ripr] Running amuck without housing
Greg Gerritt
gerritt at mindspring.com
Sun Sep 27 09:17:37 UTC 2009
Maybe we should conduct a community forum on homelessness, housing, Wall St,
and the ecosystem collapse focusing on what to do to create truly affordable
housing here in Providence. For those interested in how the housing bubble
relates to ecosytem collapse I sugggest they start with my paper available
freely at http://prosperityforri.org/?page_id=29
Greg gerritt
on 9/27/09 3:33 AM, Carol Cancro at ccancro at cox.net wrote:
> For anyone who's interested in these things, I'd recommend an article entitled
> "The Lost Virtues of the Asylum" by Oliver Sacks in the September 24th issue
> of The New York Review of Books. You can read the first few sentences at
> http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=23055. The entire
> article will run you $3, or you can wait for Rochambeau's copy to get returned
> (it's overdue). Or you can borrow mine.
>
> While Sacks doesn't gloss over the very real problems experienced by many in
> institutions, he also discusses the comfort of having food, shelter, and a
> predictable routine in which simple but often meaningful work could be
> undertaken with others who were comparably afflicted. He argues that while
> psychotropic medications are far more efficacious that they were thirty years
> ago, the fate of the mentally ill is little better than it has ever been as a
> result of deinstitutionalization without appropriate community services.
>
> The Poverty Institute @ RIC has done precisely the kind of analysis you're
> curious about, Elianna, since 2003. It's called the Rhode Island Standard of
> Need. You can check it out at
> http://povertyinstitute.org/matriarch/MultiPiecePage.asp_Q_PageID_E_127_A_Page
> Name_E_RISN2008.
>
> Summary findings include statements as follows: "It costs $20,280 for a
> single adult to meet basic needs with earnings of $22,800 (2.5 times the
> federal poverty level) to meet this budget," which includes housing, health
> care, transportation, and food. (The latter amount is cost without government
> subsidies.)
>
> Toss in child care, and a single parent of two needs an income of over $47K
> with, and over $53K without government assistance. (You wonder why so many
> young women dance on bars in this state--it's a far more viable option than a
> low-wage job in child or health care. Don't get me started on what that says
> about this country's priorities.)
>
> While I have long been a supporter of Mayor Cicilline, I was floored by his
> pretense that the shelter system is adequate. Other communities nationwide
> start from the premise that people are homeless because they need housing.
> Here's a seven-year-old piece from The Christian Science Monitor describing
> how money can be saved simply by housing people first, without demanding
> treatment or sobriety: http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0501/p11s02-lihc.html.
>
> I don't blame Cicilline for the housing bubble, but I'm surprised he's done so
> little that's meaningful for those who are still priced out of the housing
> market. I'd strongly encourage anyone who's concerned about this population
> to demand better. Trust me, those who are affected by this crisis are too
> disenfranchised to advocate for themselves.
>
> Carol C.
>
>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>>
>> From: Breslers <mailto:breslerfamily at gmail.com>
>>
>> To: Summit Neighborhood <mailto:Summit at sna.providence.ri.us>
>>
>> Sent: Saturday, September 26, 2009 11:43 PM
>>
>> Subject: Re: [Summit] FW: [ripr] Running amuck without housing
>>
>>
>> I don't have much time at the moment, but this stuff matters to me.
>>
>> The very poor folks, retired folks on small, fixed incomes and lower income
>> renters, were also victimized by the recent round of housing price-inflating
>> insanity, but that aspect of it rarely gets addressed.
>>
>> All those housing purchases made by people who could ultimately not afford
>> them, drove up housing prices. Then cities strapped for cash moved in
>> quickly to re-appraise the property for tax purposes. (It seemed to me that
>> happened here almost as soon as Cecilline was elected)
>>
>> So then the property taxes went up, not only for the buyers of the
>> you're-dreaming houses, but also for my innocent neighbors, retired in their
>> paid up houses, and for the owners of rental housing, who then had to raise
>> the rents for those of us still renting.
>>
>> I find this unfair. We also would like to own a house, but we were careful,
>> we knew we could not afford to buy.
>> I do understand the basic economics. I feel bad people lost their homes.
>> But we adults are supposed to be financially responsible and be careful to
>> not take on commitments we are not sure we will be able to keep. You can't
>> just have everything you want. I am aggravated at the damage caused to all
>> of us; that so many people were either mislead, or outright deluded
>> themselves into thinking they could buy houses that they could not afford,
>> and we are all paying for their bad decisions.
>>
>> I am a believer in a free economy, but the checks and balances of the
>> consequences of people's actions are often disproportionately spread on the
>> most vulnerable people, - because the functionings of the free economy are
>> based on the choices of supply and demand, but for some people, some
>> situations, there are few choices.
>>
>> In Boston, where I lived in the eighties, literally thousands of rooming
>> house rooms disappeared into condos in just a few years, and instantly there
>> was a "homelessness problem".
>>
>> I knew or met quite a few of these displaced roomers, and yes they did tend
>> to have substance abuse and/or mental illness. But at the lower room
>> renting costs they had been able to keep a roof over their own heads and
>> food in their stomachs, based on a disability or veterans check, or on
>> washing dishes in a bar, cleaning up on a construction crew...maybe doubling
>> up in a room with a buddy for a leaner month; they had a level of self
>> sufficiency and that DID matter to them.
>>
>> Usually with rooms (rented by the week BTW) they got by, but once that
>> option was gone, they needed to get an apartment (and not in their old
>> neighborhood! it was now condos!), organize room mates, pay a month's
>> security deposit, rent for a whole month at a time- sign a lease for a
>> year... oh boy... when next month their low demand/low paying bit of work
>> might have switched to the other side of town, and where would they get all
>> this up front money? Voila- homelessness. and misery, not good for anyone,
>> but worse for people who already had troubles.
>>
>> Shelters are only a temporary answer.
>>
>> And aside from the housing bubble there is an overall disturbing trend in
>> the economy, of the split between lower earners and the cost of living. I
>> would love to see someone do a thorough report on the real cost of basic
>> living. Not in dollars, but in how many hours of minimum wages it takes and
>> has taken to house, cloth and feed yourself. Basic medical, transportation.
>>
>> When I left college, in 1974, I think minimum wages was 3.95 and hour I.
>> (My first job was like 4.25 an hour.) My rent was $65/mon, a three way
>> split of a 3 bedroom apt with two roommates, on a bus line. I could have
>> gotten by on $50 if I was less picky. So rent could be had for 12 or 13
>> hours of minimum wages, BEFORE taxes, more like almost half your pay after
>> withholding, but with something left.
>> Now minimum wages is what? $7.40? What are the cheapest 3 bedroom
>> apartments around, or half a two bedroom? Forget the East Side! In other
>> parts of Providence you might be able to get something with your share being
>> 300 a month? That's 40 1/2 hours of work, ALL your pay with no taxes with
>> held. Food?... Hello????
>>
>> What's wrong with this picture??????
>>
>> Elianna
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 7:50 PM, Greg Gerritt <gerritt at mindspring.com> wrote:
>>
>>> For anyone interested in a discussion of homelessness, housing and
>>> municipal planning. Directly relevant to all discussions on the Providence
>>> comprehensive and neighborhood plans. Greg gerritt
>>> ------ Forwarded Message
>>> From: Rhode Island Policy Reporter mailing list <ripr-list at as220.org>
>>> Reply-To: <editor at whatcheer.net>
>>> Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:56:12 -0400
>>> To: <ripr-list at whatcheer.net>
>>> Subject: [ripr] Running amuck without housing
>>>
>>>
>>> Running amuck without housing
>>>
>>> Last week saw another chapter in the saga of the floating
>>> homeless encampment. First this camp of up to 80 homeless
>>> people was Camp Runamuck under a Rt 195 bridge in Providence.
>>> Then they moved to East Providence. Then, with their numbers
>>> dwindled to around 20, to some commercial land in Providence.
>>> Now they're going to have to move from there, since the land
>>> isn't zoned for, um, protest camping.
>>>
>>> It's a fascinating story, especially to hear about the camp's
>>> success with experiments in self-government, and there is some
>>> dark amusement available in wondering where they'll pop up
>>> next. But the tale of this doughty band tends to obscure some
>>> darker currents going on in the background.
>>>
>>> For one thing, does anyone wonder why these guys are still
>>> camping? Told to leave one spot, they go to another rather
>>> than disperse. Told to leave that one, they still hang
>>> together. It all seems a jolly outing from the news reports,
>>> but it's not like the welcome sign is hanging from our
>>> bridges. Our state has homeless shelters, doesn't it?
>>>
>>> Well, we do. But a funny thing has happened due to the
>>> foreclosure crisis and the recession during the past year.
>>> That is, our shelters are mostly full. According to the
>>> Coalition for the Homeless, there are as many people in the
>>> shelters this month as there usually are in mid-winter. And
>>> it's still nice outside. What will happen when it gets cold?
>>>
>>> That's easy: The shelters will become overcrowded. I saw a
>>> graph of the numbers of homeless people in the shelter system
>>> in Rhode Island over the past couple of years, and it's been
>>> going up so fast you couldn't even see the usual summertime
>>> dip in the count. Last February saw 43% more homeless clients
>>> in shelters than one year before that, including an increase
>>> of 13% in the number of homeless children.
>>>
>>> Many people are homeless because of mental illness or
>>> substance abuse problems. But these are not problems that
>>> appear as suddenly as this wave of newly homeless people has.
>>> So what's the story? One way to explain it is that people
>>> have lost their jobs. But this only explains one side of the
>>> problem, and homelessness has two causes. It's not just
>>> people with suddenly less money than they once had. It's also
>>> housing that costs too much.
>>>
>>> Put more simply, the issue is that our housing market has not
>>> provided the volume of housing units at low cost that our
>>> friends and neighbors need. The slump has not yet brought
>>> prices down significantly. RI Housing data I saw this week
>>> says that most sellers seem to be holding out for high prices,
>>> even though the occasional bargain can be had on foreclosed
>>> property. For many people, it's difficult to find housing
>>> less expensive than the housing they're already in, and so
>>> those people are at serious risk of homelessness when a
>>> disaster strikes.
>>>
>>> It was not always this way. Fifty years ago, there were
>>> single-room-occupancy (SRO) hotels available for people whose
>>> housing needs were low and means modest. There were also
>>> boarding houses and worker hostels. These weren't always
>>> particularly nice places to stay, but any of them were better
>>> than sleeping in the open in December, and all of them were
>>> cheaper than an apartment. But these forms of housing have
>>> mostly gone the way of the telephone booth, and there is
>>> little beside the shelter system to take their place.
>>>
>>> Why are these gone? Mostly money. Ultimately, the reason why
>>> there isn't much housing for poor people is that there simply
>>> isn't enough money in it. It's more profitable to rent
>>> apartments than it is to rent single rooms, so there are no
>>> more SRO hotels. And it's more profitable to build condos for
>>> the upper end than it is to rent apartments, so even
>>> apartments have become scarcer than they once were.
>>>
>>> The SROs didn't disappear so very long ago, either. There
>>> were at least a couple in downtown Providence through the
>>> 1970s, and New York City was fighting their conversion to
>>> apartments well into the 1980s. (A very small number did
>>> survive there and in San Francisco.)
>>>
>>> Building codes and labor costs are among the common
>>> explanations why housing costs are so high, but they do little
>>> to explain the expense of housing in structures that weren't
>>> built recently, and they do nothing to explain the
>>> disappearance of these alternative forms of cheap housing.
>>>
>>> What does explain this loss is a market whose pressures push
>>> developers to aim at the top of the income spectrum, and
>>> planning and zoning authorities who give in to those pressures
>>> far too often. Gentrifying neighborhoods bring in more
>>> property taxes, but at the expense of SRO hotels and other
>>> low-cost housing. And it's not as if this process is only in
>>> our past. As far as I can tell, the hunger for property tax
>>> revenue now drives almost all municipal planning decisions, so
>>> these problems will persist until the rules of the game are
>>> changed.
>>>
>>> Markets are wonderful things some of the time, but they simply
>>> don't deliver the social goods unless the prices are right.
>>> Housing for poor people will always be a problem until such a
>>> time that the market changes, or until we decide to change
>>> it. Until then, Camp Runamuck and its successors will always
>>> be with us.
>>>
>>>
>>> ****************************************************
>>> You are reading this because you are on an informal
>>> list I use to circulate RI Policy Reporter columns, for
>>> people who aren't likely to see the Woonsocket Call,
>>> the Pawtucket Times, or the other fine papers in
>>> which it runs. Please pass it along to anyone you
>>> think might be interested. If you'd like to reprint it,
>>> feel free, but please reply to let me know.
>>>
>>> Announcing: "Ten Things You Don't Know About
>>> Rhode Island," a collection of columns and articles
>>> by Tom Sgouros, on paper, and bound between two
>>> covers, of all things. Imagine! Details at
>>> http://whatcheer.net
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> ------ End of Forwarded Message
>>>
>>>
>>>
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s
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>>
>>
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