Anyone on the lookout for a new place to buy or rent, or even has successfully found one will tell you housing is just crazy expensive nowadays. While housing prices in major cities like New York, Seattle, and San Francisco have been super high, to begin with, the ongoing pandemic is now causing the crisis to spread across many other cities in the US. The struggle now is to find what the Department of Housing and Urban Development defines as affordable housing. Essentially, affordable housing is housing that doesn’t require you to invest more than 30% towards it.

As you can probably imagine, a lot of Americans will pay more than just that 30%. That problem has extended to affecting millions of Americans. Furthermore, many American families will pay 50% or even of their income just to keep a roof over their heads.

The issue of spending too much money on housing has countless ramifications. For starters, if housing is so expensive, many people won’t be able to afford it, leading to an increase in the existing homelessness crisis. Secondly, assuming that people can afford such expensive housing, it doesn’t leave them with much to spend on other necessities. While these families may have houses to live in, other necessary expenses such as healthcare and education may take a real hit. As we’re currently going through a pandemic, during times of serious misinformation, education and healthcare are two things we really don’t want to be sacrificing. But that just scratches the surface. Families who’re forced to spend that much on housing might end up cutting costs on things such as nutrition and childcare.

Non-Governmental Organizations Are Working To Improve The situation

Understandably, the government won’t be able to help everyone with all issues. Thankfully, there’s a long list of non-governmental organizations (NGO) aiming to help Americans with their issues, among which housing. These NGOs work actively on developing housing or funding programs that will directly benefit those who need them. Furthermore, NGOs will focus on providing those in need with necessary information.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC)

The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) focuses on providing as much information as possible about low-income housing. NLIHC was founded in 1974. The organization makes its goals clear by dividing them into 3 points:

• Educating everyone about the need for affordable housing
• Mobilizing people towards advocating for good housing policies
• Influencing the public opinion on low-income housing issues

On the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) website, you’ll find information on all available affordable housing opportunities. The website can also be a great resource on information for your tenants’ rights.

Here Are A Few Of NLIHC’s Achievements

As the organization makes it very clear, their goal is to provide better access to affordable housing for qualifying low-income families. Among the efforts NLIHC puts forth is influencing certain housing policies in the US.

All families and individuals who received an eviction notice at least 30 days before actually getting evicted have NLIHC for that notice. NLIHC pushed forward the NLIHC CARES act. This act requires landlords of – properties covered by HUD, USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) and Treasury (Low Income Housing Tax Credit), as well as, properties with federally-backed mortgages (e.g., FHA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac) – to provide a 30-day notice to tenants prior to eviction.

In addition, NLIHC helped create the National Housing Trust Fund. This fund is “the first new housing resource since 1974 targeted to the building, rehabilitating, preserving, and operating rental housing for extremely low-income people.” This funding program has been absolutely thriving ever since. In 2016,  $174 million were allocated to states, enabling more affordable housing projects for the extremely low-income. In 2021, the National Housing Trust Fund had more than $680 million under its control. The NLIHC states that initial allocation of these funds is of high priority.

Currently, NLIHC spearheads the Housing Trust Fund Implementation and Policy Group. The idea is to protect and expand their resources. One of their main current missions is to convince more members of the Congress to increase support for the Housing Trust Fund. That can be achieved through tax reform, housing finance reform, and investments in infrastructure.

So, What’s The Government Doing About This Housing Crisis?

According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), families shouldn’t pay more than 30% of their income towards housing. As we’ve discussed earlier, that turns out to be more difficult for some than others. As part of the federal government, HUD is responsible for improving the housing situation for Americans. That’s why HUD, among other departments, are constantly working on affordable housing solutions.

Section 8 Housing

This is one of HUD’s flagship housing assistance programs. You may also find this program under the name “Housing Choice Vouchers.” The whole program revolves around, as you might’ve guessed, vouchers. These vouchers are meant to help eligible recipients pay their rent. The idea is that eligible beneficiaries would be able to find “affordable” housing by only paying 30% of their income towards it. If that 30% was sufficient to pay for housing, they obviously wouldn’t need those vouchers. That’s why the vouchers are there to supplement that 30% and pay whatever is left of the rental fee.

As you might’ve imagined, this program is not there for just anyone. Programs such as section 8 aim to help a certain group of people. The intended target of programs such as Section 8 are low-income individuals and families. Families and individuals must earn less than 50% of their local income median so HUD can recognize them as of low income. You’d also be right to assume that these programs are not that easy to apply for. Besides the long lists of paperwork and background checks, if accepted, HUD will place you on a pretty long waiting list.

FHA Loans

This is another one of those housing assistance programs that’d be great should you overcome the challenges involved. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) created this loan program to help more Americans to afford buying their own houses. The idea is that if housing is getting more and more expensive, why not help Americans pay for it over a longer period of time?

When a person/family has low income, their credit scores are likely to be quite low. Having a low credit score can have such a huge impact on private financial assistance options you may have. Private lenders, such as banks, will be afraid of lending money to people with low credit scores, fearing the loan would default. To be fair, that’s quite understandable. But, how would low-income folks then get themselves out of that financial rut? That’s where FHA loans step in to make it a little easier.

The idea is that through this loan program, the government will be your guarantor for loans you apply for. These loans have to, specifically, pay for a new house (i.e a mortgage). FHA loans can be an awesome option for those whose credit scores are over 580. Those people can enjoy mortgages that would cover up to 96.5% of a house’s value. FHA loans can also be pretty good for those whose credit scores are between 500 and 579. In that case, FHA loans can help get mortgages that’ll cover up to 90% of a house’s cost.

To Sum Things Up..

There’s no denying that the economy has seen better days. Besides the evident increase in wealth difference between the top 1% and the rest of the country, this whole pandemic situation has really affected everyone’s wallets. As a result, a lot of people are struggling to make ends meet. Fortunately, the government, as well as NGOs are working on finding solutions to keep people from living on the streets. It’s important however to explore all of your options and to read all available information to find your best route towards affordable housing.