Quality housing for all is possible

‘Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for [their] health and well-being … including … housing …” declares the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If you find the Bible more persuasive, many versions include in Matthew 25, “I was homeless and you gave me a room.”

The Iowa Code provides equivalent rights for farm animals. And yet 1.6 billion people not only don’t have the housing Jesus called for and the U.N. considers a human right, they’re lacking the housing rights of Iowa’s animals.

2 million U.S. housing units were judged to be “extremely inadequate.” There are around 500,000 homeless people each evening.

U.S. agencies and organizations also measure “housing insecurity” (e.g., high costs, poor quality, unstable neighborhoods or overcrowding). For renters the percentages with housing insecurity range from 30 percent (Florida) to 17 percent (Wyoming). In Iowa it’s 23 percent.

It’s not like Iowa’s doing nothing. The state, county and city governments have programs. Vouchers, affordable housing in new developments (mixed income, inclusionary zoning), rezoning, housing trust funds, government owned and operated and “housing first” for the homeless.

But a conflict of goals is bound to occur when housing programs look to profit-maximizing capitalist landlords to provide housing for all at prices that leave everyone with enough left over for nutrition, health care, transportation and other basic needs.

Where might we look for alternatives?

When I served on the Iowa City School Board we wanted new ideas. With 16,000 U.S. school districts, we set aside meeting time to discuss what Education Week was reporting and other countries were doing.

Iowa’s governmental units could do the same, researching others’ housing solutions. Take Vienna for example.

The focus of Vienna’s “social housing” is not on giving money to the poor, passed through to landlords. It’s on construction of a livable, lovable city and society — connected with cheap, frequent, fast public transportation. The Viennese believe such a city requires upscale, architecturally attractive cheap housing for everyone. Housing that mixes middle class with the poor. Housing conveniently located in neighborhoods with a range of facilities and services.

Anyone earning under about $80,000 (U.S.) can apply if they’ve had a single Vienna address for two years. The financial requirements are such that 80 percent of Vienna’s residents choose to rent. The U.S. defines “affordable” as 30 percent of before-tax income. (Landlords extract more from nearly half of all renters.) Vienna defines “affordable” as closer to 20 percent of after-tax income. No one’s excluded, and no one’s evicted if their income increases. The homeless are provided “housing first” facilities.

When people pay less, but get quality, inclusive housing they have less finance-related stress — and more money left over to live life and boost the local economy.

We could do it here. In fact, we’ve tried in California, Maryland and Washington.

Why not Iowa?

Nicholas Johnson believes the U.N. and Jesus would like Vienna’s housing. Contact: mailbox@nicholasjohnson.org