Support Housing Trust Funds!
February 7, 2009
The United States is a land of opportunity. Most poor and low income people who are interested in ownership can get into the equity game by buying a home, increasing its value through hard work, neighborhood involvement, and, hopefully, taking advantage of an economy that is strong enough to increase the home’s value. This has been a recipe for success and a proven method for building the middle class throughout the the last half century.
If one believes in this “American Dream,” home-ownership has been a good bet for most people. Of course, we’ve seen that “dream” dashed by the greed and opportunism of a rapacious, unregulated financial sector that has preyed on the poor and the middle class for quick profits. They’ve just about destroyed our economy in the process with thousands of people losing their jobs and their homes.
The premise of people “buying into” the economy through homeownership, however, is still a good idea. When people have a stake in their own economic well-being and a place to be engaged in community-building, everyone wins. This is how the promise and responsibility of our democracy should be empowered.
A national housing trust fund is an idea whose time has come. Well, it has come already, but the government hasn’t seen fit to really fund it properly. In Missouri, the state Housing Trust Fund, created by a small amount of money that comes through every real estate transaction ($8, I believe) provides funding for affordable housing, transitional housing, renovation, and investments in Continuums of Care to End Homelessness. These efforts are badly needed in Missouri and throughout our nation. In addition to spurring the economy by rapidly disbursing funds for construction and housing-related jobs, a trust fund would strengthen the ability of local Continuums of Care to End Homelessness to create and operate transitional housing and permanent supportive housing for those in need, cutting our homeless populations, and saving taxpayers millions of dollars in spending on social services that are incurred when homeless people access emergency rooms and city services.
In Missouri, the Real Estate lobby has opposed increasing the $8 fee. They see it as a “tax” and have furiously and vociferously argued against any increase. I believe that if most people understood what these dollars are used for, they would gladly pay a much larger fee. As a part of a real estate transaction that may be worth 100′s of 1,000′s of dollars, what’s an additional few dollars when you understand that these dollars are going to programs that leverage and provide gap-funding for the homebuilding industry, supporting low-income and middle class people so that they can buy into the “American Dream.” The Real Estate industry is being short-sighted. These extra dollars build their business but they would rather play politics than do something that would be good for all of us, including their own sector.
The time has come for adequate funding of housing trust funds. Funding the National Housing Trust Fund through the stimulus package is one direction. Increasing the funding for the Missouri Housing Trust Fund is another.
Benjamin Franklin was right. Either we all hang together or we will assuredly all hang separately. Obama’s message of unity is needed now more than ever. Let’s work together to build new homes, strengthen the prospects of the poor and the middle class and rebuild our economy.
See the editorial below from the New York Times online:
Editorial
A Stimulus for the Poor
Published: February 7, 2009
Congress could help low-income Americans find homes — and create jobs doing it — by providing money in the stimulus package for the National Housing Trust Fund.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/07/opinion/07sat3.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
