Without this cooperation, our central communities will continue to suffer.
In the management/facilitation of an HUD/ADOH grant, STRMU addresses those in transition or who are already housed for rental/utilities assistance because of financial hardship caused by various circumstances; they must also be eligible through medical records, disabilities, or fall into certain categories such as veterans, behavioral health and homelessness. Vocational rehabilitation referrals and programs are essential in supporting sustainability of those in transition who may be eligible through medical records, as well. The TBRA grant applications are for those who are in similar categories, who struggle/suffer with disabilities, veterans, behavioral health conditions, or those who qualify for HUD Housing opportunities, where HUD or affordable housing may be absent in their area.
To address the current rental housing crisis, it’s important to understand what economic effects are present in creating homelessness, moving the “infrastructure employment force” out of area because of the conflict between earning potential and rental cost caused by market fluctuation. Market fluctuation is caused by things such as the real estate sales market pushing up market value; thus, this has increased mortgage rates and rental rates without the labor market earning potential adjusting to the property market values.
Example: For those who work in hospitality, food services, retail, medical support services, non-profit organizations, state, county, government and educational positions, the earning potential may be between $24,000 and $35,000 annually. When seeking multi-unit or single-family housing opportunities, landlords and property management companies usually ask for three times the rental costs. When the applicant only earns double the rental costs, it causes either no housing for those in need, or pushes our “infrastructure labor force” out of the area, where communities were thriving previously. This scenario does not consider those who struggle with a criminal background, credit issues, behavioral health conditions, and medical conditions, which make placement significantly more difficult.
To address the chasm between rental housing rates and earning potential, earning potential must be increased by employers to keep businesses staffed so as not to disrupt business or cause business failure and limitations. This is currently what we are seeing in our communities – business failure, limited hours of operations because of labor costs/availability of labor force, while rental housing costs increase. There is a major disparity between the two markets that is causing homelessness and business closures and placing our community infrastructure in danger of collapse.
The markets will stabilize eventually, however, there will be hundreds of people/businesses affected in the interim; this will especially affect those who struggle with behavioral/physical health, disabilities, substance abuse and all the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused. Some of the effects include increased domestic violence, child abuse, substance abuse, unemployment and homelessness.
We urge landlords and property management to work with these HUD Housing grants, accept Section 8/HUD Housing Vouchers, and both short-term/long-term housing assistance grants and programs toward a stable and healthy community. Without this cooperation, our central communities will continue to suffer. QCBN
By Jim Sobo
Jim Sobo is the housing and support specialist for Northland Cares, a non-profit entity that assists the Quad Cities community with specialty medical care, case management, housing and infectious disease prevention. He has been the sole support of the eligible clients in all the counties in Northern Arizona during this housing and employment crisis.
