Quality Housing for All

Quality Housing for All is Possible
Nicholas Johnson
The Gazette, August 1, 2023, p. A 6
“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for [their] health and well-being . . . including . . . housing . . .” declares the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If you find the Bible more persuasive, many versions include in Matthew 25, “I was homeless and you gave me a room.”

The Iowa Code provides equivalent rights for farm animals. And yet 1.6 billion people not only don’t have the housing Jesus called for and the U.N. considers a human right, they’re lacking the housing rights of Iowa’s animals.

Two million U.S. housing units were judged to be “extremely inadequate.” There are around 500,000 homeless people each evening.

U.S. agencies and organizations also measure “housing insecurity” (e.g., high costs, poor quality, unstable neighborhoods or overcrowding). For renters the percentages with housing insecurity range from 30 percent (Florida) to 17 percent (Wyoming). In Iowa it’s 23 percent.

It’s not like Iowa’s doing nothing. The state, county and city governments have programs. Vouchers, affordable housing in new developments (mixed income, inclusionary zoning), rezoning, housing trust funds, government owned and operated and “housing first” for the homeless.

But a conflict of goals is bound to occur when housing programs look to profit-maximizing capitalist landlords to provide housing for all at prices that leave everyone with enough left over for nutrition, healthcare, transportation and other basic needs.

Where might we look for alternatives?

When I served on the Iowa City School Board, we wanted new ideas. With 16,000 U.S. school districts, we set aside meeting time to discuss what Education Week was reporting and other countries were doing.

Iowa’s governmental units could do the same, researching others’ housing solutions. Take Vienna for example.

The focus of Vienna’s “social housing” is not on giving money to the poor, passed through to landlords. It’s on construction of a livable, lovable city and society – connected with cheap, frequent, fast public transportation. The Viennese believe such a city requires upscale, architecturally attractive cheap housing for everyone. Housing that mixes middle class with the poor. Housing conveniently located in neighborhoods with a range of facilities and services, such as a community center, swimming pool, dental clinic, library, post office, restaurant. [Photo credit: wikimedia.org/commons]

Anyone earning under about $80,000 (U.S.) can apply if they’ve had a single Vienna address for two years. The financial requirements are such that 80 percent of Vienna’s residents choose to rent. The U.S. defines “affordable” as 30 percent of before-tax income. (Landlords extract more from nearly half of all renters.) Vienna defines “affordable” as closer to 20 percent of after-tax income. No one’s excluded, and no one’s evicted if their income increases. The homeless are provided “housing first” facilities.

When people pay less, but get quality, inclusive housing they have less finance-related stress – and more money left over to live life and boost the local economy.

We could do it here. In fact, we’ve tried in California, Maryland and Washington.

Why not Iowa?

Nicholas Johnson believes the U.N. and Jesus would like Vienna’s housing. Contact: mailbox@nicholasjohnson.org

SOURCES Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations, Dec. 10, 1948, Article 25, https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights (“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”)

Matthew 25. Numerous sources from Google search: “Which versions of the Bible include ‘I was homeless and you gave me a room’ in Matthew 25?” For example, “Matthew 25:35-40,” You Version, Bible.com, https://www.bible.com/bible/97/MAT.25.34,35,36 (“I was homeless and you gave me a room”)

Animal rights. Code of Iowa, Sec. 717B.3(1)(d), https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/ico/chapter/717B.pdf (“1. A person commits animal neglect when the person owns or has custody of an animal, confines that animal, and fails to provide the animal with any of the following conditions for the animal’s welfare: . . .

d. Ventilated shelter reasonably sufficient to provide adequate protection from the elements and weather conditions suitable for the . . . animal so as to maintain the animal in a state of good health . . . . The shelter must protect the animal from wind, rain, snow, or sun and have adequate bedding to provide reasonable protection against cold and dampness. . ..”)

1.6 billion without adequate housing. “First-ever United Nations Resolution on Homelessness,” Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, March 9, 2020, https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/2020/03/resolution-homelessness/ (“A serious violation of human dignity, homelessness has become a global problem. It is affecting people of all ages from all walks of life, in both developed and developing countries.

Globally, 1.6 billion people worldwide live in inadequate housing conditions, with about 15 million forcefully evicted every year, according to UN-Habitat, which has noted an alarming rise in homelessness in the last 10 years. Young people are the age group with the highest risk of becoming homeless.”)

Adequate housing in U.S. Housing insecurity in the United States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_insecurity_in_the_United_States (Chart: “Rented households facing housing insecurity (%)” High: Florida (30%), low: Wyoming (17%). Iowa (23%). “The American Housing Survey, using a standard of “extremely inadequate” housing, found (averaging numbers from 2005, 2007 and 2009) 2 million units to be “extremely inadequate” (1,896,890 units).”

U.S. Homelessness. “How many homeless people are in the US? What does the data miss?” USA Facts, May 23, 2023, https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-homeless-people-are-in-the-us-what-does-the-data-miss/ (“More than half a million people experienced homelessness in America last year. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) counted around 582,000 Americans experiencing homelessness in 2022. That’s about 18 per 10,000 people in the US, up about 2,000 people from 2020.”)

U.S. school districts. Imed Bouchrika, “101 American School Statistics: 2023; Data, Trends & Predictions,” https://research.com/education/american-school-statistics (“The U.S. is currently home to 16,800 school districts.”)

Vienna. Homelessness. “Homelessness in Austria,” Policies & Strategies, Feantsa Country Fiche, 2017, https://www.feantsa.org/download/austria-20178599194934673684360.pdf (“Vienna and Upper Austria have adopted an integrated program on homelessness, covering prevention, accommodation and reintegration. The program in Vienna is known as the Vienna Integration Program for Homeless People (Vienna Multi-Stage Scheme). Housing First approaches are being implemented.”)

Viennese incomes. "Average Salary in Vienna, Austria," SalaryExpert, undated, https://www.salaryexpert.com/salary/area/austria/vienna ("51,823" -- $57,347 US)

"The average salary and minimum wage in Austria," Expatica, March 4, 2023, https://www.expatica.com/at/working/employment-law/minimum-wage-austria-89338/ ("The median salary in Austria is about €2,182 per month. However, the median income for full-time employees working all year round in 2020 was €40,415 [$44,723 U.S.] for women and €46,292 [$51,227 U.S.] for men. Normally, this includes the basic salary, bonuses, annual leave payments, and sick pay.")

"Cost of Living in Vienna," Numbeo, 2023, https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Vienna • ("A family of four estimated monthly costs are 3,483.6$ (3,153.1€) without rent (using our estimator). • A single person estimated monthly costs are 1,008.7$ (913.0€) without rent. • Vienna is 33.7% less expensive than New York (without rent, see our cost of living index). • Rent in Vienna is, on average, 75.1% lower than in New York.")

Transportation. “The Public Transport System,” Visiting Vienna, https://www.visitingvienna.com/transport/public/ (“The public transport system is definitely one of Vienna’s good points. Cheap, frequent, fast, clean, efficient, and rarely overcrowded.”)

Vienna; Excerpts from Francesca Mari, “It Might Look Like Vienna; Soaring real estate markets have created a worldwide housing crisis. What can we learn from a city that has largely avoided it?” Magazine, New York Times, May 26, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/23/magazine/vienna-social-housing.html

Note: I found this to be one of the best sources regarding the Vienna social housing program. Rather than trying to link each of these excerpts to the precise language in two of the column’s paragraphs they are simply listed in the order in which they appear in this New York Times Magazine article – thereby making them easier to find.

Questions the reader may have about any of my assertions should be answered by one or more of them.

Conversion from Austria Euros to U.S. dollars with ExchangeRate.com, https://www.exchangerate.com/currency-exchange-rate-cities/vienna.html

Viennese law dictates that rents in public housing can increase only with inflation, and only when the year’s inflation exceeds 5 percent. By the time she retired in 2007, Eva’s rent was only 8 percent of her income. Because her husband was earning 4,000 euros a month, their rent amounted to 3.6 percent of their incomes combined.

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In Vienna, a whopping 80 percent of residents qualify for public housing, and once you have a contract, it never expires, even if you get richer. Housing experts believe that this approach leads to greater economic diversity within public housing — and better outcomes for the people living in it.

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49 percent of American renters — 21.6 million people — are cost-burdened, paying landlords more than 30 percent of their pretax income, and the percentage can be even higher in expensive cities. In New York City, the median renter household spends a staggering 36 percent of its pretax income on rent.

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In Vienna, 43 percent of all housing is insulated from the market, meaning the rental prices reflect costs or rates set by law — not “what the market will bear” or what a person with no other options will pay.

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The mean gross household income in Vienna is 57,700 euros [$63,151 US] a year, but any person who makes under 70,000 euros [$77,462 US] qualifies for a [social housing] unit. Once in, you never have to leave. It doesn’t matter if you start earning more.

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80 percent of all households in Vienna choose to rent.

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Vienna prioritizes subsidizing construction, while the United States prioritizes subsidizing people, with things like housing vouchers. One model focuses on supply, the other on demand. Vienna’s choice illustrates a fundamental economic reality, which is that a large-enough supply of social housing offers a market alternative that improves housing for all.

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[T]he average waiting time to get a [social housing unit] is about two years (at any given moment there are 12,000 or so people on the waiting list, and each year about 10,000 or more people are housed). Vienna residents — anyone who has had a fixed address for two years, whether they are a citizen or not — may apply, and applications are evaluated based on need.

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City housing officials point out that having wealthier tenants in ["social housing"] helps thwart the problems that accompany concentrated poverty, creating a more stable, healthier environment for everyone. Unlike in the United States, where public housing is only for the poorest . . . the relative integration of ["social housing"] means that they are not stigmatized.

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[One social housing project] housed 5,000 people in 1,400 apartments. These apartments were coveted. “It had two central laundries, two communal bathing facilities with tubs and showers, a dental clinic, maternity clinic, a health-insurance office, library, youth hostel, post office, and a pharmacy and 25 other commercial premises, including a restaurant and the offices and showroom of the BEST, the city-run furnishing and interior-design advice center,” Blau writes. Now fewer than 3,000 tenants live [there] — not because it’s undesirable but because living standards have improved and, in response, Vienna has allotted tenants more space . . . [combining] some of the units to create larger ones.

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Vienna has succeeded in curbing the craving to own. It has done it by driving down the price of land through rezoning and rent control.

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Living in Alt-Erlaa, Willie enjoyed access to seven rooftop swimming pools, seven indoor swimming pools, tennis courts, gyms and acclaimed art. When the rest of the delegation joined us, he led us toward one of his favorite aspects of the buildings: two murals in the lobby of the second building meditating on the role of the news media and labor in society.

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The spiral of overvaluation in housing, which makes the housing-haves rich and the have-nots desperately poor, has brought us to a point where only something radical can solve it. The problem with housing in the United States is that it has been locked in as a means of building wealth, and building wealth is irreconcilable with affordability. The housing crisis in the United States is proof. Even in 2017, before the pandemic, around 113 million Americans — some 35 percent of the nation’s population — were living with a serious housing problem, such as physically deficient housing, burdensome costs or no housing at all, notes Alex F. Schwartz, an urban-studies professor at the New School.

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The United States government intervenes heavily in the housing market. It’s just a two-tiered system, as Gail Radford, the historian, argues. There’s generous support for affluent homeowners and deliberately insufficient support for the lowest-income households. In 2017, the United States spent $155 billion on tax breaks to homeowners and investors in rental housing and mortgage-revenue bonds, more than three times the $50 billion spent on affordable housing.

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Though “social housing” represented a large initial government outlay, Vienna’s social housing is now self-sustaining. Guess how much of the residents’ salary goes toward the program. One percent. Social housing drives down rents in the private market by as much as 5 percent. Vouchers may appear cheaper in the short term, but directly financing well-regulated public and limited-profit construction is the only way to mitigate speculation and hedge against ever-increasing housing costs. In 2020, New York and California spent $377 and $248 per capita, respectively, in housing development, while Vienna spent just $124 — and approximately half of Vienna’s spending is on low-interest financing that will be repaid and then re-lent.

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Local social-housing programs, many of them inspired by Vienna, are underway in Montgomery County, Md.; Seattle; and California. And they have a long legacy in New York, which built 66,000 affordable apartments and 69,000 limited-profit co-op apartment units from 1955 to 1981.

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Seattle. “A place to live, a place to grow; Providing housing and supportive services for people with low incomes,” Seattle Housing Authority, 2023, https://www.seattlehousing.org/

Montgomery County, Maryland. “Housing,” Montgomery Planning, July 19, 2023, https://montgomeryplanning.org/planning/housing/

California. “Five More Jurisdictions Designated Prohousing,” California Department of Housing and Development, 2023, https://www.hcd.ca.gov/

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How Do You Know?

What to Believe or How to Think?
Nicholas Johnson
The Gazette, July 7, 2021, p. 6
A lifelong friend we’ll call “Ralph” told me his father always asked, upon Ralph’s return from school, “Did they teach you what to believe, or did they teach you how to think?”

The Harvard Business Review published “Why China Can’t Innovate” and concluded, “The problem . . . is not . . . the Chinese people . . . but the political world in which their schools . . . need to operate, which is very much bounded.”

Americans’ innovative, entrepreneurial, economic, artistic and intellectual comparative success is largely driven by the educators who have taught us “how to think.”

As you may have noticed, for the past six years America has been sliding from the “shining city on a hill” down toward the pit of authoritarian dictatorship with the uncontrolled speed of a kid on a plastic sledding saucer in winter.

A democracy can no more stand without supporting institutions than a beach home can stand without pilings. Democracies need their respected and protected “columns of democracy” – professional, independent, journalists; wise, impartial, non-partisan judges; electoral procedures that encourage ever-increasing numbers of voters – and dedicated public school educators teaching students “how to think.”

President Thomas Jefferson wished “most to be remembered” as “Father of the University of Virginia,” not president. Iowa’s early 12,000 schools made it number one. When I was teaching at UC Berkeley, California’s tuition-free education fueled its position as, today, the world’s fifth greatest economy. [Photo Credit: Iowa Department of Education (“Here is the original well of an 1800s school house located near Shellsburg in Benton County.”) And see, Tom Morain, “One-Room Schools,” Iowa Pathways, Iowa PBS, undated, https://www.iowapbs.org/iowapathways/mypath/one-room-schools (“The first schoolhouse in Iowa was built in 1830 in Lee County.”)]

Educators’ freedom is as essential to our economy as to our democracy and our “pursuit of happiness.”

Chinese journalists explained to me the freedoms they have – so long as they don’t use the wrong words.

Fortunately, the Iowa Commissar of Acceptable K-12 Vocabulary does not understand education.

Some years ago, I was asked to speak to Iowa’s National Issues Forum high school students at the Herbert Hoover Library. I shared a basic general semantics tool: “What Do You Mean and How Do You Know?” (Asking yourself and others, “What facts brought you to the verbal generalizations you just used?” and, “What were your sources supporting that conclusion? Why do you believe them reliable?”) The technique was successfully used by a couple Metro High School teachers after that talk, became the subject of a doctoral dissertation, and a published book.

Teachers should ask their school board’s lawyer about HF 802's restrictions. But as I read it, teachers are free to present, or better have students find, historic facts about African-Americans’ lives during the last 400 years; answer students’ questions; ask students, “How do you know?” and let them draw their own conclusions and generalizations. In other words, teaching them “how to think” and evaluate research. Like Chinese journalists, Iowa’s teachers still have their freedom to teach – just so long as they don’t use the Commissar’s forbidden words and phrases.

Ralph’s dad understood education. So do Iowa’s teachers. It’s just a little more challenging to teach, or do journalism, within an authoritarian dictatorship.
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Nicholas Johnson, Iowa City, is the author of Columns of Democracy and What Do You Mean and How Do You Know? Contact: mailbox@nicholasjohnson.org

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SOURCES Regina M. Abrami, William C. Kirby, and F. Warren McFarlan, “Why China Can’t Innovate,” Harvard Business Review, March 2014, https://hbr.org/2014/03/why-china-cant-innovate (the full last paragraph reads, ““The problem, we think, is not the innovative or intellectual capacity of the Chinese people, which is boundless, but the political world in which their schools, universities, and businesses need to operate, which is very much bounded.”)

Courtney Vinopal, “2 out of 3 Americans believe U.S. democracy is under threat,” PBS, July 2, 2021. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/2-out-of-3-americans-believe-u-s-democracy-is-under-threat

“City on a hill.” Matthew 5:14; Ronald Reagan’s use, “A Vision for America,” Nov. 3, 1980, “City upon a Hill,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_upon_a_Hill

Amy Meadows, “How to Install Piling for a Beach House,” https://www.ehow.com/how_7891751_install-piling-beach-house.html

Democracy’s supporting institutions. Columns of Democracy (2018)

Jefferson’s epitaph. “Jefferson’s Gravestone,” Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia, Jefferson Monticello, https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/jeffersons-gravestone (“Before his death, Thomas Jefferson left explicit instructions regarding the monument to be erected over his grave. In this undated document, Jefferson supplied a sketch of the shape of the marker, and the epitaph with which he wanted it to be inscribed:

"... on the faces of the Obelisk the following inscription, & not a word more:

Here was buried Thomas Jefferson Author of the Declaration of American Independence of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom & Father of the University of Virginia

"because by these," he explained, "as testimonials that I have lived, I wish most to be remembered.")

12,000 Iowa schools. “A walk through Iowa’s one-room schoolhouses,” Iowa Department of Education, https://educateiowa.gov/walk-through-iowa-s-one-room-schoolhouses (“more . . . than any other state in the union”)

Tom Morain, “One-Room Schools,” Iowa Pathways, Iowa PBS, undated, https://www.iowapbs.org/iowapathways/mypath/one-room-schools (“The first schoolhouse in Iowa was built in 1830 in Lee County.”)

California tuition-free education. Lilia Vega, “The history of UC tuition since 1868,” The Daily Clog, The Daily Californian, Dec. 22, 2014, https://www.dailycal.org/2014/12/22/history-uc-tuition-since-1868/

“Economy of California,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_California (“If California were a sovereign nation (2019), it would rank as the world's fifth largest economy, ahead of India and behind Germany.”)

Theodore R. Breton, “The Role of Education in Economic Growth: Theory, History and Current Returns,” Educational Research, v55 n2 p121-138 2013, https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1036518, (“The paper presents evidence that education has direct and indirect effects on national output. Educated workers raise national income directly because schooling raises their marginal productivity.”)

What do you mean? What Do You Mean and How Do You Know? (2009), ch. 5, p. 49

Use in Metro High School. Although the author used the Metro experience as a major part of the book, Metro was presented as an anonymous high school. Jane Bolgatz, Talking Race in the Classroom (2005)

The law prohibiting reference to such words and phrases as “systemic racism” originated as House File 802, and can now be found, as enrolled, at https://tinyurl.com/myesry7j

Samantha Hernandez and Ian Richardson, “Iowa Poll: More than half of Iowans oppose new law limiting certain concepts from racism, sexism training,” Des Moines Register, June 29, 2021, https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/iowa-poll/2021/06/29/iowa-poll-law-targeting-critical-race-theory-schools-ban-teaching-some-racism-sexism-concepts/7720792002

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