Last week's Real Change reported that the Seattle Housing Authority needs about $56 million in repairs to their 23 Seattle buildings. There is around $3 million in their capital reserve fund, leaving roughly $53 million of critical repairs without an identified funding source. The Seattle Housing Levy, which is selling itself this time around as funding much of the Housing First approach to "ending homelessness" in Seattle by 2014, is already spoken for.
Also this week, the New York Times reports that the long-term HUD strategy of defunding public housing infrastructure in cities and moving poor people into surrounding communities through the use of Section 8 vouchers is running into trouble. The social problems that remain unaddressed follow, and inadequate suburban infrastructure and services exist to pick up the pieces.
Meanwhile, in the aftermath of Katrina and the foreclosure crisis that has followed the implosion of the subprime loan scam, the federal government has passed the National Housing Trust Fund, the first significant new federal investment in housing in decades. While the $800 million to $1 billion annual amount is a by-product of an industry bail-out, this is still progress.
The hard reality behind all of these stories is that the various dodges behind federal housing disinvestment are no longer working. The federal government must come back to the table as a partner in creating affordable housing.
What's in the way? An unsustainably regressive tax structure that lets those most able to pay off the hook for the common good. An irrational and ridiculously expensive health care system that is breaking state and federal budgets. A war economy that squanders blood and treasure at the expense of providing real security here at home.
Seattle's housing needs