David Shove wrote: 30% of homeless adults work full or part-time. 40% earn more than $10 hour.
Me: I don't know where you found this data. However one source I am aware of is the Wilder foundation 2001 report on homelessness (1). Wilder found that 41% of the homeless adults work full or part time. 32% earn more than $10/hour. 31% have credit problems. 38% were diagnosed with a mental illness. 32% �consider themselves� alcoholic or chemically addicted (the number might be higher if diagnosed by a professional). 21% have a criminal record. 33% of all homeless adults had at least one child under 18 with them and 21% of those children were diagnosed with �a serious mental or emotional problem.� All of these percentages have worsened since the 1991 Wilder report. My purpose is not to smear the homeless, but rather to point out that there might be issues other than just an affordability gap. Dave Shove again: The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $675.30 a month. A medical assistant working for $10.80 an hour would have to work 59 hours a week to afford a one-bedroom apartment, and 67 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom apartment. Me: Comparing AVERAGE rent to the income for LOW wage earners is misleading. Why don't you compare the MEDIAN income in St. Paul to the AVERAGE rent? The right question is -- at what price point are 1 bedroom apartments available? If you open the Pioneer Press classifieds, you will find many 1 bedroom apartments available today between $550 and $600 per month. Using the affordability standards (30% of a household's income), a person that makes $10.80/hour can afford to spend $561.60 per month on housing. The St. Paul rental market does provide for the household you identified. What everyone must realize is that "affordable housing" is NOT A PRICE POINT. See if we picked a price point, say $600 per month, then many market rate rentals would be affordable. But that is not how it is done. "Affordable housing" is government subsidized projects that set their rent at a price point that is affordable to households at some percentage of the Area Median Income (AMI). The common breakdown for affordable housing is: Percentage Income level "affordable housing" rental limit Median $76,400 $1,910.00 80% $61,120 $1,528.00 50% $38,200 $ 955.00 30% $22,920 $ 573.00 The last data I have (which is 3 months old), says the average rent for a St. Paul, 2 bedroom, MARKET RATE apartment is $856.00. Therefore, the rental housing market TODAY has the situation where many government subsidized "affordable" housing units cost more than the market provides without subsidies. Dave Shove again: Any questions? Please call Amber at (651) 249-7286 Me: I have a question that I would like discussed here. Affordable housing advocates always talk about how hard it is to find housing for people that make $7.00, $8.00 or even $10.00 per hour. But, when those same affordable housing advocates receive money from the federal and state government to build affordable housing, they often build housing affordable to households that make 50% of the AMI ($38,200/year). Since the RENTAL market already provides for people that make 50% of the AMI, why would you build any units for those households? Why not focus on 30% of AMI and down? Aren't you missing the goal originally stated? If we build "affordable housing" at 50% of AMI and not 30% of AMI will this problem ever improve? Regards, Bill Cullen East Side Landlord (1) http://www.wilder.org/research/reports/pdf/homeless-summary.pdf _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
