| Winter 1999-2000 Affordable Housing: An important Minnesota NOW issue "Millionaire" wedding makes a mockery of marriage Response to unicameral legislature proposal Response to covenant marriage proposal Call to conference: Is Minnesota nice? Analyzing victim services consolidation State PAC endorses five candidates Friends and colleagues honor Susal Stebbins
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Affordable Housing: An important Minnesota NOW issue
By Colleen Walbran, Legislative committee Politicians, the media, and advocacy groups have in the past few years engaged the issue of the unavailability of affordable housing in Minnesota. Feminists have a stake in this dialogue and the policies it produces because the shortage of housing very negatively impacts women and children, and particularly families on public assistance and those escaping from domestic violence. Appropriately, the Twin Cities Chapter of NOW recently held a round table discussion of these issues. Members throughout Minnesota should consider the impact on women and children of the affordable housing crisis, and support the efforts of advocacy groups and policy-makers to open access to housing opportunity. Forces driving the housing shortage include the recent changes in welfare law and the outpacing of wages by housing costs in Minnesota, both of which hit women and children the hardest. According to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, while the fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Minnesota is $591, the most that a family of three participating in Minnesota’s welfare program can pay for rent is $235 per month. With respect to wages, more female-headed households in the state cannot afford market rents than male-headed households. The JOBS NOW Coalition reported in 1998 that “more than 72% of female workers in Minnesota earn less than that required as a single parent to support a family of three,” while this was true for only 49.6% of men. This gender gap, accompanied by a general downturn in real wages relative to rent costs, means that women and their families are severely impacted by the decrease in affordable housing availability. As a result of these and other factors, more families are being forced to utilize temporary and emergency housing. A recent study by Shinn and Weitzman reported that families make up 40% of the homeless population in the nation. Another contributing factor is domestic violence, an issue that NOW continues to engage. A survey by Homes for the Homeless in 1998 of 777 homeless families revealed that 22% of parents left their homes and became homeless because of domestic violence. And the National Low-Income Housing Coalition reports that “battered women and children comprise an increasing proportion of the emergency shelter population” in the 1999 Advocate’s Resource Guide. The lack of affordable housing clearly impacts women and children in the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota. As Minnesota NOW continues to shape its position on this issue, members can become involved by supporting the work of advocacy groups such as the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund, the Minnesota Housing Partnership, and the Right to Housing Campaign, among others. Insight can be gained from the 2000 legislative agenda of the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless, which includes such goals as the expansion of the emergency services program, the increase in funding for the operation of transitional services programs, the growth in support for the School Stability Demonstration Project, and general promotion of creation of and access to affordable housing. |