Can
"People's Self-Help" really put a dent in
our need for Affordable Housing?
“Work
hard and prosperity will come,” or so goes the
American free market mantra, droned out from every
medium and adopted by most of the political spectrum.
For millions of households, including many on the
Central Coast, hard work does not ensure a standard
of living that most of us find acceptable.
Some numbers
illustrate the housing crisis well know by those
living here: Only 22% of SLO county residents could
afford February 2001’s median-priced home of
$285,160. Fewer in Santa Barbara. Those not capable
of attaining the “American dream” pay an
inordinate share of their income on constantly
escalating rents, and have little remaining for
health & child care, food, education, or
entertainment. Per the National Low-Income Housing
Coalition, the Housing Wage (the full time hourly
wage needed to afford a two-bedroom apartment) here
is $17.25 - nearly 3 times the current minimum wage.
Many households double or triple up. Many more live
in substandard housing. Too many live on the streets
or in cars. Despite working harder than ever, earning
power has been outstripped by escalating housing
costs, and the free market alone does not provide
adequate living standards for many.
Peoples’
Self-Help Housing Corporation (PSHHC) is a
nationally recognized SLO based non-profit whose
mission is to provide decent and affordable housing
to low-income residents on the Central Coast. Since
its formation in 1970 PSHHC has helped over 1,000
families build their first home, produced over 800
affordable rental apartments, and rehabilitated over
3,000 homes.
PSHHC’s
self-help home-ownership program operates on the
principal of sweat equity. Participants, typically in
groups of 10, are required to spend 40 hours per week
over an 8 to 10 month period constructing their own
and each others’ homes. PSHHC purchases the
land, secures architectural drawings and local
permits, arranges special financing to write down
costs, and hires a construction supervisor to teach
and oversee the work. The “sweat equity”
contributed by the participants substitutes for the
cash down payment that is so difficult to accumulate.
Special financing enables households to pay only 30%
of their actual income for housing costs. The process
results not only in a new home for families who could
not otherwise afford one, but in individuals who are
empowered with new skills and confidence as well as a
community of households bonded by the experience.
The long
waiting lists for the home-ownership program prompted
PSHHC to begin acquiring and constructing affordable
rental apartments. We currently own and manage over
800 units from Carpinteria to Paso Robles, with an
additional 400 in process. The rental projects serve
a wide array of people including seniors, farm
laborers, developmentally disabled, and the formerly
homeless. Again, the standard of affordability for
rent is 30% of household income. These projects
typically serve households with incomes at or below
50% of the County median. Each PSHHC rental project
includes community space, where PSHHC coordinates
with local agencies for the provision of services
such as health screening, literacy classes, job
skills, after school tutoring for kids, pesticide
awareness classes for farmworkers, and others
depending on the needs of the community. Several
projects have on-site day care facilities. The
provision of these services directly within the
community enhances the likelihood that some
households can increase their earning power and move
on to home-ownership or market rate housing, this
freeing up a unit for someone else.
Is PSHHC
solving this crisis? No, nor or we capable of it. The
problem will only be solved when the collective we
create an economy that more equitably and humanely
distributes wealth. PSHHC and other agencies like it
do redistribute some wealth from the larger economy
to those in need of decent housing via the use of tax
dollars or voluntary donations to create affordable
housing. But the need for such housing far outstrips
our ability to produce it, and thus we have long
waiting lists.
Nor is the
system under which PSHHC operates the ideal way to
address the larger issue. It assists from the top
down instead of the bottom up, and is slow to react
to changing needs. Reliance on tax dollars subjects
our activities to heavy regulation and bureaucracy.
As a result, our ability to act progressively and
utilize sustainable designs or alternative building
materials is severely constrained — we build the
same boxes as everyone else. The system also masks
the blemishes of our economic system, postponing its
needed overhaul by creating the illusion that the
problems are being addressed. We’re just a
bandage on a growing wound.
Despite these
shortcomings, there are many success stories. I’ve
seen firsthand the difference decent housing can make
in all aspects of peoples’ lives, how it
provides that level of hope and security we all need.
As a compassionate culture we need to ensure that
fewer people go without it.
Mark Wilson
Peoples’ Self-Help Housing Corporation
781-3088 x460
