PRESERVING AFFORDABLE RENTAL HOUSING
Julie Bornstein, president of the Campaign for Affordable Housing, can easily tick off a list of the consequences of not preserving a healthy inventory of safe, well-located and affordable housing:
• Workers are pushed farther away from jobs and must endure long commutes that pollute the air, congest the roads, lower productivity and increase absenteeism.
• There is a negative impact on community life because people don’t identify with either their work community or their home community and are on the freeway when they could be coaching Little League or volunteering at the hospital.
• The incidence of substandard housing increases as tenants don’t have decent choices, so they accept whatever dwelling they can find.
• Overcrowding results in both apartments and homes. When housing is unaffordable, two families will double-up to rent housing.
• Illegal conversions---usually garages but structures not intended to be housing—create an unsafe supply of rental housing to meet demand in the underground economy.
• Employers cannot find workers to fill essential, but lower paying jobs.
• Many young families leave the area and most others can’t afford to move in, so an expensive area’s population becomes older very quickly. School population declines and perfectly good schools close for lack of students.
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