For those of you old enough to remember Werner Erhardt and EST this may come as a shock. While I never understood why people were so enamoured of him or EST I do think that he made at least one very profound statement. In the process of "Getting it" people were apt to complicate matters a lot. He pointed out that essentially, Life is basically simple. It is just not easy. Sustainable living has the same quality to it. Many of the connections to what makes housing a precious and difficult commodity for some people are very simple but not easy to solve.
There is a powerful study done by the Center for Housing Policy published in October 2006. You can find it at http://www.nhc.org It is entitled A Heavy Load and reports on the combined burden of housing and transportation, especially as it affects the working poor. There are some amazing relationships between what families spend on housing and transportation. Often, in order to find a house they can afford, the additional cost of transportation means that their total cost is higher than if they could qualify for a mortgage to purchase a home closer to work.
Working families are defined in the report as those with incomes between 20k and 50k per year.Working families who are homeowners tend to live in areas that have a high transportation cost burden or a high housing cost burden or both. This means that they live away from the places they work and therefore spend large amounts of time and money getting back and forth. Since they are often buying in older suburban neighborhoods as newer more expensive homes are built even farther from the central business district they seldom have access to public transportation. In order to get to work they have to buy and maintain an automobile with all its attendant expenses.
Working families who rent often have lower incomes and even more limited neighborhood options. They tend to live in areas with high housing cost burdens (as a proportion of their income) and to accept units that are older, smaller and possibly in poor repair in exchange for lower transportation costs. They often take public transportation or walk. These are the people who could not leave New Orleans because they didn't own a vehicle or have the money to put gas in the one they did have.
These are the people for whom the opportunity to buy an older home and leran how to make it energy efficient so that the difference in the utility bill saves enough to make the house payment possible is a triumph. Simple is an amazing thing. I once spoke to an investor who says he only buys single family homes or duplexes in marginal neighborhoods. He then makes them the nicest homes in the block--which doesn't usually take much--fixing the roof and the heat, cleaning the yard, upgrading the insulation and the windows. Then he does a rent to own or lease purchase. He shared with me a secret that he learned from a tenent long ago. He said that he used to try to put nice carpet in his homes and he had problems with them being filthy all the time. He came to show an apartment to a prospective tenant and remarked that the carpet would be replaced before they moved in. They asked if it would be possibly to have linoleum or "that really smooth carpet they put in stores sometimes." He was surprised and wanted to know why they would prefer industrial grade carpet or linoleum. Simple....they could not afford a vacuum cleaner and it would be easier to keep clean. All his units now get vinyl or hard surface flooring.
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