It All Begins At Home

By Chris Estes, Executive Director, North Carolina Housing Coalition

It all begins at home. This tag line came to me when we were developing the Campaign for Housing Carolina with the goal of raising $50 million a year for the North Carolina Housing Trust Fund, the only state funding for affordable housing in North Carolina. When we presented this idea to our first potential funder, we drew a picture of housing as the center or hub of a wheel with issues like schools, public health, quality of life, asset building, and security around the edge of wheel.

Your home, or more importantly, the kind of home you can access, determines or has a major impact on most every other important variable for your social and economic success. Where you live determines where your children go to school and how far you must go for goods, services or employment. The neighborhood around you determines your social interactions and your sense of safety and well-being. The quality of your home also has significant impact on your personal health in terms of environmental factors like lead paint, asbestos, mold, toxins, disease and injury.

I truly believe it is the single most important factor in our quality of life. There are many things individuals and families can juggle to manage their economic well-being, but shelter is one of the most basic needs. We will eat less, wear used or discount clothes, go without healthcare, all to access a home that will protect us from the elements and provide a sense of safety.

Ultimately, I believe it to be a moral calling that we join in the struggle for adequate housing for everyone. My religious background taught me to believe in the inherent worth and dignity of every person and to treat others as I would want to be treated. I first learned about the importance of housing when in graduate school pursuing social work and while interning at a family resource center in a low income community. This led me to study at the planning school with a concentration in housing and community  development. I came to understand that housing was the most basic building block of personal well-being, and since housing was also a technical field involving finance and construction, my best role was that of an advocate who could link the technical with social justice and economic security.

Housing issues are significant in our state. Over 43% of those who rent do not make enough to afford a fair market two bedroom apartment (one that is slightly below average). The generally accepted standard of affordability is that a household spend no more than 30% of its income on housing and utilities. However, the National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that 71% of very low income households (those whose incomes are 30% or less of the area median income) pay more than 30% of household income for housing costs.

Some of the people most impacted by housing issues are persons with disabilities and fixed income seniors. Persons with only disability income receive $603 a month, which means they can afford $181 a month for rent and utilities. In the past, persons with disabilities could access rental assistance through Section 8 housing vouchers. With a decade of chronic underfunding by the federal government, the waiting list for this resource averages from five to ten years in most communities.

Quality affordable homes are necessary for healthy, vibrant, and inclusive communities in which all citizens are welcome and have the opportunity for economic success. We all have a stake in the well-being of our neighbors. Doing good truly does begin at home.