At Last - Talking About Affordable Housing and Homelessness

I'm not sure who noticed, but for almost three years now, there have been two topics that I have not written about at all: affordable housing and homelessness. That would be particularly curious since during that time, those were the two policy areas I was working on at the NYC Independent Budget Office. Of course, the reason was that at that time I did not want to provide my political opinion at night on subject matters that during the day I was providing objective and non-partisan analysis (never opinions however). The reputation of the Independent Budget Office depended on people seeing us as non-partisan.

Now, let's be honest. Nobody thoughtful can really call themselves completely non-partisan. The policies we support are clearly guided by our own sense of morals and justice. At the same time though, I think that looking at my small body of work from the IBO, you would see no opinions and only conclusions that are supported by the data. So even though I will now reveal my opinions on these issues, there should be no doubt that the work carried out there was impartial and objective.

You might then wonder though why I feel empowered to talk about these issues now that I am working for the Speaker's Office. The answer is that although her positions are also based on analysis and understanding of the issues, her role is one where partisanship is expected. Also, it should be clear that any positions I take here are mine and that if you want to know what she thinks on these issues, you can write her a letter.

With all that aside now, let's get to the issues.

I'll start with homelessness. One of the most important developments in homelessness policy has been the "Housing First" model. The model is based on a few studies that show that a small number of chronically homeless individuals are using extreme amounts of city services. These individuals, that have been on the streets for many years, will spend time in shelters, jails, drug treatment facilities, mental health facilities and emergency rooms - and all in one year. Therefore, it is much cheaper for the government, and more humane also, to provide those people with housing that gives them the support they need.

The difference between previous models is that in the past, individuals were required to be sober and given strict curfews in order to be in shelter. What they have found however is that by housing these individuals first (and giving them support services), their substance abuse decreases and they are more likely to take medication they need. Many of the most chronically homeless have serious and persistent mental illnesses and/or substance abuse problems. Therefore, they need to be housed first to provide the stability needed to help deal with these problems instead of dealing with the problems (which is unlikely) as a condition of receiving housing.

I also cannot say enough about the right to shelter in New York City. Granted, homeless shelters can be dangerous and have some policies that deter usage. Shelter usage is a choice and some choose not to use them. Those issues should be looked at more systematically. However, I cannot comprehend a city government that allows a condition to exist where there are not enough beds for those that want them. The right to shelter should exist everywhere.

Now, what can I say about affordable housing? I think the work we are doing at the City Council is great and I don't have the energy to repeat it all. In general I'll say that I firmly believe that all people have a right to live in decent housing. Since the market cannot provide housing that is affordable to all people, government needs to provide subsidies.

The issues that are developing now around affordable housing include the foreclosure crisis in single-family homes, which will likely soon be followed by foreclosures in multifamily rental buildings. These buildings were purchased in the same environment as single family home mortgage pools - with unrealistic assumptions and very little capital. This is going to be a major issue that affects many renters - people who are not at fault for the reckless deals of their landlords.

I could also go on to talk about public housing, but I think I will save much of that for another time. In brief though, I think public housing can work, when it is well maintained and not isolated. New York City's model has worked because the housing is part of the city. However, public housing will always face funding issues, as the tenants living there lack the power that other groups lobbying for money (deserved or not) have. Bush and Congress during Bush's administration severely underfunded public housing. Let's hope Obama and this Congress do better.