Housing Crisis: Urban Sprawl And Rental Housing Affordability (Essay Sample)

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Housing Crisis: Urban sprawl and rental housing affordability
From the time of Stone Age man has had to depend on three essential things or needs: food, clothing and shelter. Thus even in today's world housing or shelter plays a fundamental part in man's living. The housing provides more than just shelter. House is loaded with figurative value or status. It is esteemed for its design, its location, and its access to amenities such as school, hospitals, recreation facilities and so forth. However, inadequate housing increases the weakness to a wide range of troubles such as health problems. Residential location can influence the quality of education because of the access housing provides to the best or worst schools. Also, crime is highly brought about by residential location also called urban sprawl. Moreover, one of the pervasive problems for low-income families is the high cost of housing which continues to escalate as days goes by. This paper will discuss the context of the housing crisis in America, highlight the planning decisions, social trends that led to the housing crisis. It will then discuss one strategy aimed at assisting in alienating the crisis and the possible barriers to this strategy. Finally, it will suggest how this obstacle will be removed.
For many Americans, the reality of housing instability has supplanted the long-standing trope of home ownership and the white picket fence. Wage stagnation, the rise of low-paying jobs and the loss of affordable housing stock have combined to create a market for increasingly unaffordable rentals. In the United States, households are viewed as having excessive housing cost when spending 30% or more of their income, families spending 50% or more of income on housing are identified as severely burdened by housing costs. In 2012, 15.6% of American households have been severely housing cost burdened. Housing cost burdens are highly concentrated in low-income families: among the severely burdened households, 73% of renters and 46% of homeowners earn less than 30% of the area median household income. Besides, it also seems that tenants are more likely to confront housing cost burdens: 24.7% of all renter households spent more than half of their income on housing compared to 10.5% of all homeowners in 2012; nearly 50% of renters and 31% owners spent 30% or more of their income on housing in 2011.
Individuals renting are experiencing an increase in rent on housing while their salaries or income remain stagnant. The fact that many affluent renters had purchased homes and the nation’s widening economic inequality contribute a lot to the diminishing revenues. The shrinking supply of affordable housing is the primary reason for the high rents. Since it is tough to maintain affordable low-income housing without subsidies, many private affordable housing owners choose demolition, rising rents and condominium conversions which would cause the number of inexpensive unsubsidized rental units to lag far behind demand. At the same time, federally subsidized public housings are also rapidly reducing because of widespread demolition and conversion of distressed projects to smaller, mix-income developments. Besides, the number of low-income households has also risen dramatically. Finally, the short supply and numerous demands lead to the high price of affordable rental houses.
According to what was mentioned above, low-income renters are most vulnerable in housing affordability crisis. So it is the primary task for governments and organizations to solve the housing problems for low-income renters. To ameliorate this crisis, we should first look at the causes of this problem: low income of renters and high rents. Regarding income, it is too complicated to adjust since it relates to many economic aspects. When it comes to the two determining factors of rental price: supply and demand, it might be easier for the government to add supply by promoting intensive constructions. So it seems that higher-density public housing projects can be a remedial strategy for this problem. However, the experience has already proved that that high-rise public housing projects are entirely failed: the concentration of poverty in these projects not only causes noxious environments for their tenant but also harms cities that surround them. Therefore, we should find another approach to providing more supply of low-cost rental housing without “warehousing poor people into high-rise buildings.
Low-income renters are most vulnerable to housing affordability crisis. So it is the primary task for governments and organizations to solve the housing problems for low-income renters. To ameliorate this crisis, we should first look at the causes of this problem: low income of renters and high rents. Regarding income, it is too complicated to adjust since it relates to many economic aspects. When it comes to the two determinate factors of rental price: supply and demand, it might be easier for the government to add supply by promoting intensive constructions. So it seems that higher-density public housing projects can be a remedial strategy for this problem. However, the experience has already proved that that high-rise public housing projects are entirely failed: the concentration of poverty in these projects not only causes noxious environments for their tenant but also harms cities that surround them. Therefore, we should find another approach to providing more supply of low-cost rental housing without warehousing poor people into high-rise buildings
Different Strategies are being used to help alienate the housing crisis and to attract and accommodate multigenerational households. For example, In Arizona, Florida, and a few other states, national homebuilder Lennar has introduced what it calls Next Gen home designs, which market a separate 600- to 800-square-foot section of a single family home as a home with a home. This has a second outdoor entrance and includes a small sitting room...