The thing about low income housing...
ok this is going to be a ramble. I'm not mad, so it won't exactly be a rant, but I am relatively uninformed, so I can't in good conscience call it an opinion (although i guess it is one), but what I am looking for is some feedback so that I can get a better understanding of the issue at hand and maybe have a better informed opinion at the end of the day.
I'm still hearing and reading a lot of crying about the state of low income and subsidized housing in the city of New Orleans post levee failure. So here's what I don't get: Since the economic footprint of new orleans has changed so much, why is it that people seem to think the city (or state or government in general) is under any sort of obligation to provide low income housing in New Orleans?
I was not born with anything even resembling a silver spoon; there's no trust fund here, and I just got my college degree in 2005. So for the majority of my life I have been doing what a lot of people do - working a job (sometimes two) so that I can choose where I want to live. Sometimes that means I do not get to live exactly where I want to, and sometimes it means that I have to work more in order to afford my living expenses. I have never in my life lived in subsidized housing. I have never been subsidized due to any sort of disability or because of low income. And I have never held a job that required anything more than a high school education.
What I don't understand is this - are people actually entitled to live wherever they like when their housing is subsidized by the government? Is there some sort of legal or even MORAL obligation to ensure that housing is available to everyone of any income level in any neighborhood they choose?
When I lived in Chicago, I moved every year. Because of the rapid rate of gentrification, a neighborhood that was fairly priced in 1998 seemed to SOAR in cost of living by 2000. I certainly could never have afforded to live in, say, Lincoln Park for example. In fact, one of the very real reasons that I moved to New Orleans in the first place was that i felt I could achieve a higher standard of living with less money. A lot of people moved here for that reason, and many of those same people are finding that these days our former standard of living cannot be achieved on our present incomes.
In a very "overall big picture" sense, what we have is the following: areas that were historically lower income have been devastated and rendered uninhabitable. Typically, a lot of these neighborhoods had high rates of crime (New Orleans was never immune to that, even before the levees broke). Areas where a person of middle class means (and I place myself in this category - as a member of the 'dual income no kids' demographic, my husband and I still earn well under 100K a year)could live both comfortably and affordably are lessening; my rent increased 25% last year. My rent used to be within my price range, now I am back to being a "paycheck to paycheck" person with little ability to save because my monthly expenses just about match my monthly income. Since I see this as an impermanent situation (form my end, not from the cost of living end), I plan on dealing with this as best I can. I'm getting rid of my car when the lease is up, and instead of leasing another new car I am going to try and buy something with a lower monthly payment. I'm looking for cheaper car insurance. I took a second job on evenings and weekends to supplement the higher cost of living. Sometimes, I even do my grocery shopping at Wal-Mart (much as I hate to admit it) because Whole Foods is now completely out of my spending range.
I could move to another part of the country, somewhere that didn't suffer a devastating disaster two some odd years ago; somewhere where I could rent a two bedroom apartment for less than 1000.00 per month in a desirable neighborhood. Maybe somewhere with better public transportation so that I no longer needed a car at all. I can think of a lot of things I could do to decrease my cost of living - but what it comes down to is this: if I truly could no longer afford to live in New Orleans, I certainly would NOT expect the government or anyone else to come in and subsidize me so that I could.
I understand that there are legitimate reasons that some people end up in Section 8 or Public Housing - that is not what this is about. What i don't understand is stories that i read about "so and so and their five children moved to new orleans to get a new start, and mom can't work cause of the 5 kids and dad didn't graduate high school and now they can't find anywhere to live because someone bought out their apartment complex and it is no longer subsidized housing". Nope. I don't get it.
1) Who the hell can even afford to raise 5 kids under the best of circumstances? Brad and Angelina, maybe. I think anyone else foolish enough to have 5 kids might need to learn a serious lesson about birth control and/or economics. 2) There are less and less job opportunities EVERYWHERE for entry level blue collar workers. The industrial revolution is over, and factory work that can support a family no longer exists. In fact, the days of dad going out and earning a comfortable living at his 9-5 while mom stays home and takes care of the kids and you make enough money to buy a home and be MIDDLE CLASS are pretty much gone. Those types of jobs just don't exist. 3) There wasn't a booming economy here before the levee failure - why would anyone think that situation has IMPROVED since???
We don't have a lot of economic opportunity here - we never have. Jobs are few and far between, and GOOD PAYING jobs that can support a family of SEVEN - I mean, what is that imaginary job? My father was a firefighter and he could barely manage two kids and a wife, much less three more kids. And we did NOT get to live wherever the hell we wanted! We had to live where we could afford.
I guess what I am most curious about, and the opinions I am most interested in hearing from you, is this: Is it really all that bad to flat out say "there are places in this country that are outside of the means of lower income families and individuals. if you do not have the earning potential to pay the cost of living in these areas, you are going to have to look for somewhere else to live."
Thoughts? Am I just a Nazi? Is there something I am overlooking here?
I'm still hearing and reading a lot of crying about the state of low income and subsidized housing in the city of New Orleans post levee failure. So here's what I don't get: Since the economic footprint of new orleans has changed so much, why is it that people seem to think the city (or state or government in general) is under any sort of obligation to provide low income housing in New Orleans?
I was not born with anything even resembling a silver spoon; there's no trust fund here, and I just got my college degree in 2005. So for the majority of my life I have been doing what a lot of people do - working a job (sometimes two) so that I can choose where I want to live. Sometimes that means I do not get to live exactly where I want to, and sometimes it means that I have to work more in order to afford my living expenses. I have never in my life lived in subsidized housing. I have never been subsidized due to any sort of disability or because of low income. And I have never held a job that required anything more than a high school education.
What I don't understand is this - are people actually entitled to live wherever they like when their housing is subsidized by the government? Is there some sort of legal or even MORAL obligation to ensure that housing is available to everyone of any income level in any neighborhood they choose?
When I lived in Chicago, I moved every year. Because of the rapid rate of gentrification, a neighborhood that was fairly priced in 1998 seemed to SOAR in cost of living by 2000. I certainly could never have afforded to live in, say, Lincoln Park for example. In fact, one of the very real reasons that I moved to New Orleans in the first place was that i felt I could achieve a higher standard of living with less money. A lot of people moved here for that reason, and many of those same people are finding that these days our former standard of living cannot be achieved on our present incomes.
In a very "overall big picture" sense, what we have is the following: areas that were historically lower income have been devastated and rendered uninhabitable. Typically, a lot of these neighborhoods had high rates of crime (New Orleans was never immune to that, even before the levees broke). Areas where a person of middle class means (and I place myself in this category - as a member of the 'dual income no kids' demographic, my husband and I still earn well under 100K a year)could live both comfortably and affordably are lessening; my rent increased 25% last year. My rent used to be within my price range, now I am back to being a "paycheck to paycheck" person with little ability to save because my monthly expenses just about match my monthly income. Since I see this as an impermanent situation (form my end, not from the cost of living end), I plan on dealing with this as best I can. I'm getting rid of my car when the lease is up, and instead of leasing another new car I am going to try and buy something with a lower monthly payment. I'm looking for cheaper car insurance. I took a second job on evenings and weekends to supplement the higher cost of living. Sometimes, I even do my grocery shopping at Wal-Mart (much as I hate to admit it) because Whole Foods is now completely out of my spending range.
I could move to another part of the country, somewhere that didn't suffer a devastating disaster two some odd years ago; somewhere where I could rent a two bedroom apartment for less than 1000.00 per month in a desirable neighborhood. Maybe somewhere with better public transportation so that I no longer needed a car at all. I can think of a lot of things I could do to decrease my cost of living - but what it comes down to is this: if I truly could no longer afford to live in New Orleans, I certainly would NOT expect the government or anyone else to come in and subsidize me so that I could.
I understand that there are legitimate reasons that some people end up in Section 8 or Public Housing - that is not what this is about. What i don't understand is stories that i read about "so and so and their five children moved to new orleans to get a new start, and mom can't work cause of the 5 kids and dad didn't graduate high school and now they can't find anywhere to live because someone bought out their apartment complex and it is no longer subsidized housing". Nope. I don't get it.
1) Who the hell can even afford to raise 5 kids under the best of circumstances? Brad and Angelina, maybe. I think anyone else foolish enough to have 5 kids might need to learn a serious lesson about birth control and/or economics. 2) There are less and less job opportunities EVERYWHERE for entry level blue collar workers. The industrial revolution is over, and factory work that can support a family no longer exists. In fact, the days of dad going out and earning a comfortable living at his 9-5 while mom stays home and takes care of the kids and you make enough money to buy a home and be MIDDLE CLASS are pretty much gone. Those types of jobs just don't exist. 3) There wasn't a booming economy here before the levee failure - why would anyone think that situation has IMPROVED since???
We don't have a lot of economic opportunity here - we never have. Jobs are few and far between, and GOOD PAYING jobs that can support a family of SEVEN - I mean, what is that imaginary job? My father was a firefighter and he could barely manage two kids and a wife, much less three more kids. And we did NOT get to live wherever the hell we wanted! We had to live where we could afford.
I guess what I am most curious about, and the opinions I am most interested in hearing from you, is this: Is it really all that bad to flat out say "there are places in this country that are outside of the means of lower income families and individuals. if you do not have the earning potential to pay the cost of living in these areas, you are going to have to look for somewhere else to live."
Thoughts? Am I just a Nazi? Is there something I am overlooking here?