At Homeward Bound Villages, education and advocacy for affordable housing are important to us. Today, we launch a four-part series exploring the housing crisis: its causes, the immediate actions available, and the path forward to guarantee safe and secure housing for all. Our goal is to build understanding surrounding the complexities of housing policy and why this issue affects all of us.
If you’ve ever wondered why homelessness persists despite apparent prosperity, or why teachers and firefighters can’t afford to live in the communities they serve, you’re asking the right questions. America’s housing crisis touches every community, and La Porte County is no exception. Often, the solutions get lost in confusing terminology and competing policy proposals that can be difficult to understand without learning some key concepts and definitions.
Before we can understand how we got here and where we need to go, we need a clear picture of what different types of housing actually mean, and why these distinctions matter for millions of Americans.
The Housing Landscape: The Options and Their Definitions
Public Housing (one type of Social Housing)
Public housing is government-owned housing specifically designed for low-income families, seniors, and individuals with disabilities. A local housing authority manages these properties, which typically appear as apartment complexes or townhouse developments.
The key feature of public housing is affordability: tenants pay only 30% of their income for rent and a reasonable amount for utilities. For someone earning $1,200 monthly, that means $360 in rent and utility payments, compared to the $1,500+ rent and added utilities that the same person would incur in the private market.
However, public housing faces significant challenges. Decades of reduced federal funding have created maintenance backlogs, leading to problems such as broken elevators, heating failures, and security issues. Simply put, while it is a roof overhead, it may not be safe or a place one would want to live. Additionally, waiting lists are often years long, leaving those in need in a desperate housing situation.
Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers
The Section 8 program provides vouchers for rental assistance, allowing low-income families to choose housing in the private market. The government pays a portion of the rent and utilities directly to private landlords, while tenants pay the remainder (typically 30% of their income).
This system offers more housing choices than public housing, as families can use vouchers at any location that accepts them. However, finding participating landlords can be difficult, especially in areas with strong rental markets. Many landlords refuse vouchers due to paperwork requirements, inspection standards, or discrimination against voucher holders.
Like public housing, Section 8 has extensive waiting lists. The voucher doesn’t guarantee housing; it assists if you can find an eligible rental unit.
Affordable Housing
“Affordable housing” typically refers to privately-owned rental properties that receive government subsidies or tax incentives in exchange for keeping some units at below-market rents. These developments often mix market-rate and affordable units in the same building or complex.
This housing serves moderate to low-income households, sometimes referred to as “workforce housing,” and targets individuals such as teachers, firefighters, and retail workers whose incomes are too high for public housing but too low for market-rate housing in expensive areas.
The main advantage is better maintenance and amenities compared to chronically underfunded public housing. The downside is that affordability requirements often expire after 15-30 years, potentially converting these units back to market rate. Owners have been subsidized to create units, which means public dollars can and do subsidize owners who eventually remove the affordable units.
Community Land Trusts (CLTs)
Community land trusts represent a distinct approach. A nonprofit organization owns the land permanently, while residents own or lease the buildings on that land. This structure keeps housing affordable indefinitely because the land never enters the speculative market. Karwick Village will operate like a community land trust.
CLTs typically feature democratic governance, with residents having a voice in community decisions. They can include rental housing, homes for sale, or cooperative arrangements. Homes at Karwick Village will be rental properties.
The key benefit is permanent affordability, unlike other programs where affordability requirements can expire; CLTs maintain affordable housing indefinitely through their ownership structure.
Why These Distinctions Matter
Understanding these different approaches is crucial because each addresses different aspects of the housing crisis:
- Public housing provides the deepest affordability, but suffers from chronic underfunding.
- Section 8 vouchers offer choice but depend on private landlord participation.
- Affordable housing delivers better conditions, but often temporary affordability.
- Community land trusts ensure permanent affordability and are growing in scale across the United States.
None of these options currently meets the scale of need. Millions of Americans spend more than half their income on housing, face years-long waiting lists for assistance, or live in substandard conditions because they have no alternatives.
The Human Cost of Broken Housing Policies
Every week in courtrooms across America, families face eviction because the mathematics of housing has become impossible. When someone receives $1,100 monthly in disability payments but faces $850 rent for a modest apartment, basic arithmetic reveals the problem: there’s not enough money left for food, healthcare, transportation, and other basic necessities. This is a common occurrence here in our community and across the United States.
These aren’t stories about poor financial management. They’re about a housing system where costs have disconnected from what working families and people on fixed incomes can actually afford.
Looking Ahead: Why This Series Matters
Understanding housing types is just the beginning. Over our next three posts, we’ll examine:
- How deliberate policy choices since the 1980s dismantled America’s public housing system.
- Why market-based solutions alone cannot solve affordability for the lowest-income households.
- What other countries do differently, and how some U.S. communities are implementing successful alternatives.
The housing crisis was created through specific policy decisions that prioritized homeownership for middle and upper-income families while systematically reducing support for rental housing that working families could afford. American communities are experimenting with innovative approaches that show promise for broader implementation, like Karwick Village, La Porte County’s first affordable cooperative rental community.
The question isn’t whether we can solve the housing crisis; it’s whether we’ll choose to prioritize housing as a basic right rather than primarily as an investment commodity.
Join us next week, where we’ll examine “The Sabotage of Public Housing: How Policy Choices Created Today’s Crisis.”
Homeward Bound Villages believes housing is a human right and communities are created through affordable housing. Through education and advocacy, we strive for systemic solutions that ensure everyone has access to safe, stable, and affordable housing where they can thrive.
