Rental Market Nightmare
For months I have been bemoaning the rental markets in my area. I have said that only corporate types can afford the rentals in the area. Anyone making a "normal" wage is out of luck.
It seems that two writers with the Associated Press believe the same thing. In an article that appeared in the Stamford Advocate as "High prices, hidden costs",a link on the same article on Yahoo .
It's not so hard to believe that corporate America has forgotten to take care of who does the grunt work.
Why would i rail against corporate America, who do you think set up short term leases as corporate apartments for their CEO's and others for their Temporary stays in the area?
In Stamford there is a 10% rule for affordable housing. For developments built, 10% must be put aside for affordable housing. Sounds wonderful right? Guess what they are tearing down to built the luxury apartments and condos? That's right, existing affordable housing. Then not replacing the units one for one. It looks great for the city, but those poor slobs who don't make at least $30 an hour are pushed out of the rental market. (yes that is $30 an hour)
Let's highlight some statistics from the story -
Renters - about 32% of US householders are renters.
Shortage - The National Low Income Housing Coalition says that there are 9 million extremely low-income renter households and only 6.2 million units they can afford.
Recent proposed budget cuts in Connecticut mean that there will be less money to subsidize housing. This is not for the extremely poor but for the working poor - say family of 4 with 2 wage earners making less then $60,000 a year.
Sample rent for a one bedroom in Stamford is $1200 - That is $14400 a year. without having ANYTHING. Apartments in this area do not have any internal antenna, so reception is almost impossible save for public television out of NYC if you are lucky. Get a part of the picture?
They say that there is a bill pending in Congress that would establish a National Affordable Housing Trust Fund to rehabilitate 1.5 million homes over 10 years. Here's a question, with the way things are going in this country, won't we need at least quadruple that amount so we don't have working homeless?
It seems that two writers with the Associated Press believe the same thing. In an article that appeared in the Stamford Advocate as "High prices, hidden costs",a link on the same article on Yahoo .
It's not so hard to believe that corporate America has forgotten to take care of who does the grunt work.
Why would i rail against corporate America, who do you think set up short term leases as corporate apartments for their CEO's and others for their Temporary stays in the area?
In Stamford there is a 10% rule for affordable housing. For developments built, 10% must be put aside for affordable housing. Sounds wonderful right? Guess what they are tearing down to built the luxury apartments and condos? That's right, existing affordable housing. Then not replacing the units one for one. It looks great for the city, but those poor slobs who don't make at least $30 an hour are pushed out of the rental market. (yes that is $30 an hour)
Let's highlight some statistics from the story -
Renters - about 32% of US householders are renters.
Shortage - The National Low Income Housing Coalition says that there are 9 million extremely low-income renter households and only 6.2 million units they can afford.
Recent proposed budget cuts in Connecticut mean that there will be less money to subsidize housing. This is not for the extremely poor but for the working poor - say family of 4 with 2 wage earners making less then $60,000 a year.
Sample rent for a one bedroom in Stamford is $1200 - That is $14400 a year. without having ANYTHING. Apartments in this area do not have any internal antenna, so reception is almost impossible save for public television out of NYC if you are lucky. Get a part of the picture?
They say that there is a bill pending in Congress that would establish a National Affordable Housing Trust Fund to rehabilitate 1.5 million homes over 10 years. Here's a question, with the way things are going in this country, won't we need at least quadruple that amount so we don't have working homeless?
posted by Ayannali | 10:11 AM
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