California cities are faced with a challenging housing situation. Wages have hit a plateau or are in some cases decreasing, while rents continue to rise.
This digital report aims to provide champions, allies and stakeholders with the background, data and resources to demonstrate the impact and success of healthy food financing efforts. Advocates will find the framework for evaluating the impacts of HFFI, case studies, as well as the accomplishments achieved by project investments and HFFI programs across the country.
While our region is one of the most diverse in the nation, both data and anecdotal evidence indicate that the area’s extraordinary economic growth in recent years has led to growing inequality.
After Measure S was soundly defeated at the ballot box this past March, the prevailing view seemed to be that it represented a vote in favor of greater density, particularly more infill and transit-oriented development. Which, in some ways, it was.
If renters paid just what they could afford in rent, the average household would have $6,200 a year more in their pocket to spend on groceries, childcare, medical care, and education—things one in five households have been skimping on to make rent. Collectively, that would amount to $124 billion that can help fuel economic growth.
When Housing Is Affordable, Everyone Wins
Renters in dozens of U.S. cities are organizing demonstrations this week under the banner of “National Renter Week of Action and Assemblies.” The purpose is to push back against the Trump Administration’s threat to cut billions from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and make the case that renters rights are human rights.
On the heels of the release of the 2016 Census American Community Survey findings, Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) has launched new interactive data tools illustrate poverty rates and SNAP participation rates at the state and congressional district levels. Policymakers, advocates and others will be better able to pinpoint the extent of poverty in their communities and to understand the importance extent to which SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) is bolstering households struggling with inadequate incomes. The new maps complement previous FRAC mapping of SNAP participation in every U.S. county.
This week, as part of the #RenterWeekofAction, September 18 to 23, renters in over 45 cities will take to the streets to demand better protections from displacement and more community control over land and housing.
Recognizing the severity of the housing affordability crisis facing renters from Oakland to Miami and the need for policy solutions, the National Equity Atlas, a partnership between PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity, analyzed the growth of renters in the nation and in 37 cities, their contributions to the economy, and what renters and the United States stand to gain if housing were affordable.
Houston was a relatively affordable city before Hurricane Harvey. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment was in the low-$800s, putting it among the least expensive cities to live, according to Apartment List. Not only is Houston’s average rent well below that of cities of similar population sizes, like Philadelphia and Chicago, but it also was the largest city to see rent prices drop between this year and last.