Should Tacoma voters support affordable housing levy? YES: $3 a month will improve all Tacomans’ quality of life
by RICK ALLEN
Published: October 16th, 2005 THE NEWS TRIBUNE
What makes a person decide to invest in something?
This is a critical question as voters decide whether to support Proposition 1, Tacoma’s affordable housing levy on the Nov. 8 ballot.
The average Tacoma homeowner is being asked to invest about $3 a month to help rehabilitate or build quality affordable housing in Tacoma. This united assistance will help cover some of the costs of construction, making about 740 housing units more affordable for those of more limited means. Some will be quality rentals; some will be well-designed single-family homes.
Why should we do that?
If we want to protect and enhance our current investment (our own homes) in Tacoma, we should support Proposition 1 for affordable housing because the potential return on the investment is substantial.
Purchasing and repairing run-down complexes and turning them into quality housing units removes blight from our city. Typically, that helps to reduce crime, enhances the reputation of the city, and helps other homes retain and grow their value.
By providing affordable housing to families of more limited financial means, we stabilize families and give children a chance to receive needed assistance in a consistent and sustained manner. They enter school prepared to learn. National statistics show that children who enter school ready to learn succeed in school and later in life. This results in lower delinquency and crime rates and higher rates of graduation and employment.
By making affordable housing available to our own work force, our young teachers, bank tellers, new police officers, and retail workers, to name just a few, can afford to live where they work. Cities with high rates of citizen participation are consistently recognized as America’s most desirable cities, with stable neighborhoods and improving property values.
Making affordable housing more available in our city will spread Tacoma’s downtown renaissance further into our neighborhoods. The added housing will then add potential shoppers for neighborhood business districts and downtown retail, providing even more momentum to our exciting redevelopment.
How can that be true if we are talking about people of limited means? At present, many folks are spending over 50 percent of their monthly income on housing alone, leaving little for other spending. Now reduce that housing cost to a much more affordable 30 percent of monthly income. Do the math.
So if you are a long-term “investment” thinker, with a concern for your own property values and for the health of the community, Proposition 1 for affordable housing will get your support.
One opposing argument is that “those people” made bad choices and should suffer the consequences. Since when is it a bad choice for a young adult to serve the public as a teacher, a police officer or any other service profession? For that matter, when did we become a society that decided that a bad choice as a teenager should haunt you for the rest of your life? The “they made bad choices” argument doesn’t fly.
Another is that if we provide help to those of more limited means, they won’t do anything differently and will just take advantage. Good grief. Stereotype, anyone? This smacks of the old “I saw the lady on welfare driving a Cadillac, so those people are all taking advantage.” Having worked extensively on welfare reform issues, I can tell you that most people of limited means try hard to improve their situations, and many succeed with a bit of help.
Then there’s “I can’t afford the taxes because my housing value keeps rising.” How often is the same person happily exclaiming that his home just earned $80,000 in equity last year? We ought to be creating systems that provide that same ownership hope for others, because a sense of hope is central to personal progress.
And finally, there’s the divisive scare tactic (you will see something like this in the voters’ pamphlet): “These affordable housing units will be loaded with violent felons.” What a bunch of malarkey. In fact, the city’s draft administrative plan specifically prohibits these affordable units from being rented or sold to violent felons.
Vote yes on Proposition 1 for affordable housing. Your $3 monthly investment will reap a large reward.
Rick Allen is president of United Way of Pierce County and a member of the Affordable Housing Coalition. For the first time in its history, the local United Way board of directors has voted to publicly endorse and support a ballot proposition. In a comprehensive citizen survey, citizens polled by United Way said that affordable housing was the most important human service issue currently facing citizens of Pierce County.
