The Affordable Housing Crisis: A Moral and Economic Imperative
by Paul Asplund | 8 March 2024
The homelessness crisis in America is rooted in a simple but devastating reality: a severe shortage of affordable housing. Two recent studies determined that the U.S. has a total shortfall of 3.8 million market-rate homes, a number that doesn’t even include the shortfall of affordable housing. This shortage represents not just a market failure, but a moral one. It is a crisis that disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable members of society, including the poor, the disabled, the elderly, and communities of color.
No amount of emergency shelter or rapid rehousing can compensate for the lack of affordable units in which people can live and thrive.
Closing this gap is not just a key component of ending homelessness; it is an absolute necessity. No amount of emergency shelter or rapid rehousing can compensate for the lack of affordable units in which people can live and thrive. Addressing this challenge will require bold action, sustained investment, and a fundamental rethinking of how we approach housing in America – not as a commodity to be maximized for profit, but as a public good and a basic human right.
History has shown that targeted government investment in affordable housing development can have a transformative impact on lives and communities.
The Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program, established in 1986, has been a powerful tool in this regard, supporting the creation or preservation of over 3 million affordable homes. However, more than the LIHTC is needed to meet the scale of the need, especially in high-cost markets like Los Angeles. Closing the affordability gap will require layering multiple financing strategies and subsidy sources, from local housing trust funds and bond measures to state and federal programs.
Moreover, it will require getting creative with the types of housing we build and the methods we use to build them. With available land scarce and construction costs soaring in many urban centers, more than traditional site-built multifamily development is required. Affordable housing providers increasingly turn to innovative typologies and building methods to stretch limited resources and accelerate production timelines, such as the adaptive reuse of vacant commercial spaces and modular construction.
As crucial as these supply-side strategies are, they must be coupled with efforts to preserve and protect existing affordable housing and ensure that those who need it most can access and benefit from it. This means strengthening policies and programs aimed at preventing displacement, keeping low-income renters stably housed, and addressing the legacies of racism and segregation that have long shaped access to affordable housing.
Ultimately, closing the affordable housing gap is about more than just building units – it's about building a new social contract that recognizes housing as a fundamental human right and the bedrock of opportunity and belonging.
It demands a radical expansion of empathy and equity and a willingness to invest in the long-term well-being of people and places that have long been excluded and exploited.
The scale of the challenge is immense, but so too is the opportunity for transformative change. By marshaling the full power and resources of the public, private, and nonprofit sectors in a common cause, we can create a future in which every person in every community has access to a place to call home. It is a moral and economic imperative that we cannot afford to ignore.
In the next article, we will explore the innovative strategies and community-driven solutions that are already making this vision a reality in communities across the country.
Let’s end homelessness together, now and for good. Join the movement. http://secondgrace.la