{"id":27495,"date":"2024-09-27T10:45:15","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T17:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/?p=27495"},"modified":"2024-09-27T10:45:15","modified_gmt":"2024-09-27T17:45:15","slug":"oregon-if-working-people-cant-afford-to-stay-in-the-housing-its-not-affordable-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/?p=27495","title":{"rendered":"Oregon: If working people can\u2019t afford to stay in the housing, it\u2019s not affordable housing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Martha Rosler, Housing Is a Human Right, short animation produced by The Public Art Fund, “Messages to the Public,” 1989<\/p><\/div>\n

What exactly is affordable housing? There\u2019s much discussion these days, and finally, concerning an affordable housing crisis, the lack of affordable housing, the vast and growing numbers of households, families, individuals and communities living and struggling with housing insecurity, paying more than 30% of monthly income on household expenses and\/or expecting to be evicted or foreclosed on within the next two months. So, what does affordability actually mean? This question came roaring to the surface in a new study,<\/a> Eviction in Oregon\u2019s Subsidized Affordable Housing<\/a>, which looked at eviction filings and evictions from January 2019 to December 2023. On one hand, eviction filings against residents of subsidized affordable housing made up a relatively small fraction of all eviction filings in Oregon. However, once the eviction case was filed, subsidized tenants were more likely to get an eviction judgment. The vast majority of these filings were for non-payment. The vast majority of non- or late payment was because, simply, the tenants, the residents of supposedly affordable housing, could no longer afford the affordable housing. As a concept, policy, and lived reality, what then is affordable housing?<\/p>\n

As in most areas, the majority of evictions are filed by a small number of entities. In this instance, as in so many other places, third-party corporate management companies were responsible for a disproportionate number of evictions. As noted in the report, \u201cThe difference in eviction filing patterns between third-party managers and internal managers \u2026 can be attributed to variations in their lease enforcement strategies \u2026. While third-party managers commonly operate under compliance-oriented lease enforcement policies similar to the private sector, internal managers from the housing authority tend to adopt strategies designed to promote housing stability among low-income households.\u201d In other words, internal managers, managers committed to affordable housing rather than profit, create leases, policies and practices that recognize various difficulties residents might encounter and find or create financial and social services to support those residents.<\/p>\n

For many, once the filing occurs, the damage is done. Many algorithms used by landlords, and especially corporate landlords, don\u2019t differentiate between eviction filing and eviction, and so, irrespective of the court\u2019s decision, having an eviction filed can have long-lasting catastrophic impact. Securing \u201caffordable housing\u201d shouldn\u2019t condemn a person and family to a lifetime of trauma.<\/p>\n

The word \u201cafford\u201d originally meant to promote the well-being of a person or thing. Affordable meant that which enhanced and promote a person\u2019s well-being. At some point, affordable shifted to mean that which one could reasonably purchase. What if affordable housing meant the enhancement and promotion of people\u2019s and individual\u2019s well-being? At the very least, publicly supported and subsidized affordable housing should be based on the value of dignity and well-being. If working people can\u2019t afford to stay in the housing, it\u2019s not affordable housing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(By Dan Moshenberg)<\/p>\n

(Image Credit: Martha Rosler<\/a> \/ Housing Is a Human Right, March 1989)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What exactly is affordable housing? There\u2019s much discussion these days, and finally, concerning an affordable housing crisis, the lack of affordable housing, the vast and growing numbers of households, families, individuals and communities living and struggling with housing insecurity, paying more than 30% of monthly income on household expenses and\/or expecting to be evicted or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5510,114,282,556,4892],"class_list":["post-27495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-affordable-housing","tag-dan-moshenberg","tag-eviction","tag-haunts","tag-oregon","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27495"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27497,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27495\/revisions\/27497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}