Housing gap costs all
Wednesday, December 27th, 2006
By Chris Fitzsimon
In the Triad, as in the state and nation, affordable housing is a dream that doesn’t come true for many citizens.
Beth McKee-Huger, executive director of the Greensboro Housing Coalition, sees that every day in the form of evictions, or in vacant lots once occupied by homes or apartments. More than 400 housing units have been condemned or demolished citywide this year, most of them properties with lower rents, she said.
She applauds the city for seeing that dilapidated housing is torn down. But she’s also concerned that far more units have been demolished this year than last, leaving fewer options for people with lower incomes.
An annual report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition shows that lack of affordable housing continues to be a national concern, as the gap grows between what renters earn on average and monthly housing costs. But here and elsewhere, that divide doesn’t affect moderate- and lower-income renters alone. The local coalition wants to raise awareness of that during its 2007 housing summit on Jan. 10.
"We’re trying to look more comprehensively at what our community can do differently to have decent housing," McKee-Huger said. It’s a goal worth pursuing with urgency, given the impact of Greensboro’s still-shaky economy on the city’s housing market. (more…)
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