Who Can Afford to Live
in Delaware?
Annual Report on Housing Affordability in Delaware
Affordability Gap:
New Castle County:
“How much do you need to earn to
afford rent and utilities on a modest
two-bedroom apartment?” *
Homeowners: -$68,474
Tenants: -$608/month
Kent County:
Homeowners: -$82,663
Tenants: -$480/month
The 2016 National Housing Wage is
$20.30/hr
Delaware’s Housing Wage is
$21.70/hr
Sussex County:
Homeowners: -$212,074
Tenants: -$548/month
*at fair market rent
2016
HousingForAll.org
Delaware Housing Coalition
WhyNIMBY.org
WHO CAN AFFORD TO LIVE IN DELAWARE?
2016
Board of Directors
Letter from the Executive Director
Carrie Casey
Deborah Gottschalk, Esq.
Bobbie Hemmerich
Sarah Keifer
Dorothy Medeiros
Joe L. Myer
Brenda Osborne
Jim Peffley
Susan Starrett
Bill Swiatek
Amy Walls
Brad Whaley
"The Out of Reach data reflect a grim reality across the nation. There is no place
in the United States where a minimum wage worker can afford a two-bedroom
apartment,” said Diane Yentel, President and CEO of the National Low Income
Housing Coalition upon release of the Out of Reach data in May. "We as a
nation must respond by investing in affordable housing for the lowest income
households in America. The new national Housing Trust Fund is one solution,
but it will require many more resources to address the need."
Staff
Patricia Kelleher, Executive Director
Jeannine Knight, Office Manager
Editorial Staff:
Stephanie Ferrell
Ken Smith
Delaware is the 12th most costly rental market in the U.S. with a housing wage
of $21.70. Therefore, if a housing choice voucher (formerly known as Section 8)
or subsidized unit is not available, many are forced to spend more than 50% of
their household income on housing and skimp on other necessities - such as
food and healthcare – or to live in units that are inadequate or dangerous. And
in fact, Delaware’s waiting lists for vouchers are either closed or encompass
several thousand persons. Families faced with these realities are often unstably
housed and unable to save for emergencies, and so are at risk of becoming
homeless if a crisis occurs and they are forced to skip a rent payment. The
financial and psychological stress endured by these households adds to their
overall burden. Society has failed these households.
The demand for rental housing is at its highest level since the 1960s. In the past
decade, the U.S. has added nine million renter households, but only 8.2 million
rental housing units. Vacancy rates are at their lowest levels since 1985 and
rents have risen at an annual rate of 3.5%, the fastest pace in three decades.
The nation’s 10.4 million extremely low income (ELI) renter households currently
face a shortage of 7.2 million affordable and available rental units; in Delaware,
there are only 32 affordable and available units for every 100 ELI renter
households.
Contact Information
Delaware Housing Coalition
PO Box 1633
Dover, Delaware 19903-1633
Phone: 302-678-2286
Fax: 302-678-8645
www.housingforall.org
www.whynimby.org
Wage stagnation and income inequality contribute to the gap between what
people earn and the cost of their housing. From 2007 to 2015, the bottom 10%
of wage earners saw a 0.2% increase in real hourly wages, while the top 5%
saw an 8.7% increase, continuing a long-term trend of growing income equality.
Contents:
Summary
1
Cost to Live in Delaware
2
Delaware Rental Housing Out 3
of Reach
Delaware Housing Cost
Burdens and Income
5
Special Housing Needs
7
Homeownership and
Foreclosures
9
Solutions
10
Sources
10
Homeownership has been the traditional route to housing stability and wealth
accumulation in the U. S. but is becoming more difficult to achieve for low and
moderate income households, because of tighter credit and underwriting
regulations and soaring costs. In Delaware, the gap between what is affordable
and what is available is widening, most astonishingly in Sussex County where
that gap is now -$212,074. The irony is that a mortgage payment may well be a
lot more affordable to low and moderate income households than renting in a
tight and expensive market.
The answers are not simple or cheap. However, inadequate or indeed, no
housing for the up to 8,300 Delaware households who face homelessness each
year, leads to expensive and unwanted outcomes in our society. Therefore,
more investment is needed in housing choice vouchers, affordable rental
housing, permanent supportive housing for special populations and the
chronically homeless, and in making homeownership viable for low and
moderate income Delawareans.
Trish Kelleher, DHC
Download a .pdf version of this report
Go to www.housingforall.org and click “Publications”
Delaware Housing Coalition HousingForAll.org WhyNIMBY.org
1
Summary
Housing Burden Among the Very Poor
Of the 103,775 renter households in Delaware, 25,521
– or 25% - are severely cost- burdened spending more
than 50% of their income on housing.
There is an estimated 18,322 sub-standard units,
12,788 owner occupied and 5,534 occupied by renters.
There are 24,290 extremely low-income renter
households, that is, at or below 30% of Area Median
Income (AMI), and 77% of those households are
severely cost-burdened.
For every 100 extremely low-income households (at or
below 30% of AMI), there are only 32 units of
affordable housing available.
There is an immediate need for 16,820 affordable
housing units to fill the state deficit for extremely low
income Delaware households.
Approximately 8,300 households experience
homelessness in Delaware each year.
Special Housing Needs
Delaware is one of 17 states where the average onebedroom rent is higher than monthly SSI payments.
We are one of only 4 states where the one-bedroom
rent exceeds 100% of SSI in every part of the state.
In 2015, in Delaware, a person with a disability
received SSI benefits equal to $721 per month.
Statewide, this income was equal to 17.0% of the area
median income.
On average a person with a disability receiving SSI
pays 106% of their monthly income to rent an efficiency
unit and 123% of their monthly income for a onebedroom unit.
Renters
Of the 50 states, Delaware has the 12th highest two
bedroom housing wage at $21.70.
The Fair Market Rent for a two bedroom apartment
ranges from a low of $952 in Kent County, to $1,012 in
Sussex to a high of $1,210 in New Castle County. The
rental gap in Sussex County has increased by $199 in
only two years, a much higher pace than either of the
other two counties.
In all three counties, monthly two bedroom fair market
rents far exceed – by a range of $488 to $548 – rents
affordable to a four person extremely low income
household.
In Delaware, the average hourly wage earned by
renters is $16.03, which is $5.67 less than the hourly
wage needed to afford a typical two bedroom unit.
A Delaware earner must earn $21.70 per hour, or
$45,138 annually, to afford a typical two bedroom
apartment. In New Castle County the hourly wage
needed is $23.27, in Sussex County it is $19.46.
Homeownership
In the final quarter of 2015, the median purchase price
for a house in Delaware ranged from $194,100 in Kent
County, to $215,000 in New Castle County and
$316,260 in Sussex County.
Foreclosure filings fell from 2,856 in 2014 to 2,200 in
2015. However, filings at the end of April 2016 totaled
1,146, a number that causes concern for the rest of the
year.
There were 1,334 sheriff sales in 2015, but the trend is
again worrying for 2016 as 645 had taken place by the
end of April.
Continuing tight credit guidelines and high sales prices
prove challenging for aspiring first time homebuyers.
Wages, Income, and Wealth
The poverty level income for a one person household
in Delaware is $11,770. For a family of four, it is
$24,250.
There are 107,101 households at or below the poverty
level, that is 12% of the population, and 35,052 (17%)
children under the age of 18 are living in poverty.
The average income of the top 1% is 16.2 times that
the bottom 99%.
Although recent adjustments have raised the minimum
wage in Delaware to $8.25, it remains far below the
housing wage of $21.70.
Of the 28% of Delaware households that are
renters, 23% are extremely low income earning less
than 30% of AMI.
Declining upward mobility and growing political and
economic inequality perpetuate harmful social
conditions that undermine civil society and thwart the
missions of charitable and philanthropic organizations.
For an online glossary of terms, go to www.whynimby.org.
WHO CAN AFFORD TO LIVE IN DELAWARE?
4
2
2016
AFFORDABLE HOUSING:
THE 30% RULE OF THUMB
Cost to Live in Delaware
The 30 percent “rule of thumb” represents an evolution of empirical norms and public
policy dating from the era of the Great Depression. During that period, “one week’s
pay for one month’s rent” was the norm and was accepted. This formula was
subsequently incorporated into public policy which both identified housing need and
eventually, was used as a Housing Cost to Income Ratio (HCIR). We use the 30%
rule here for simplicity and in order to compare to other research including the
previous editions of Who Can Afford to Live in Delaware?
Kent
New Castle
Sussex
Delaware Homeowners
Median Home Price
$194,100
$215,000
$316,260
Affordable Price (low income, 50% AMI)
$111,437
$146,526
$104,186
Gap between Median and Affordable Prices
–$82,663
–$68,474
–$212,074
$952
$1,210
$1,012
89
113
94
$472
$602
$464
– $480
– $608
– $548
Delaware Tenants
2-Bedroom Rent (Fair Market)
Minimum Wage Hours of Work Required per Week
Affordable Monthly Rent (low-income, 30% AMI)
Gap between Fair Market and Affordable Rents
About Statistics:
HOMEOWNERS: Delaware State Housing Authority, U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development.
Affordability is calculated for a household with an income of 50% of Area Median Income with a mortgage
at 3.75% for 30 years, 33%-38% debt-to-income ratio, and $200/month for taxes and insurance and “other
debt” of 12%.
TENANTS: Out of Reach 2016, National Low Income Housing Coalition. Minimum wage in Delaware is
$8.25. An extremely low income household has an income at or below 30% of the Area Median Income.
Source: Out of Reach, 2016, NLIHC.org
Delaware Housing Coalition HousingForAll.org WhyNIMBY.org
35
Delaware Rental Housing Out of Reach
New Castle County
Average Renter Wage
$17.36
2-Bedroom Housing Wage
$23.27
Number of Renter Households
61,784
Hours at Minimum Wage Needed for 2-BR FMR
113
Number of Jobs Needed at Minimum Wage
2.8
Kent County
Average Renter Wage *
$15.78
2-Bedroom Housing Wage
$18.31
Number of Renter Households
17,205
Hours at Minimum Wage Needed for 2-BR FMR
89
Number of Jobs Needed at Minimum Wage
2.2
Sussex County
Average Renter Wage
$10.92
2-Bedroom Housing Wage
$19.46
Number of Renter Households
17,197
Hours at Minimum Wage Needed for 2-BR FMR
94
Number of Jobs Needed at Minimum Wage
2.4
Rent Vs. Income, by County
$2,500
$2,008
$2,000
$1,500
$1,573
$1,545
$1,210
$1,012
$952
$903
$602
$1,000
$568
$500
$472
$464
$429
$429 $429
$220
$220
$220
$0
Two bedroom
FMR
Rent affordable Rent affordable Rent affordable Rent affordable Rent affordable
at median
with full-time job at 30% of AMI with full-time job to SSI recipient
income
paying mean
paying min wage
renter wage
New Castle County
Kent County
Sussex County
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Delaware Rental Housing Out of Reach
2
4
2016
STATE FACTS
2016
Minimum Wage
$8.25
Average Renter Wage
$16.03
2-Bedroom Housing Wage
$21.70
Number of Renter Households
96,186
Percent Renters
28%
KEY FACTS
105
Work Hours Per Week At State
Minimum Wage Needed To Afford a
2-Bedroom Unit (at FMR)
2.6
In Delaware, the Fair Market Rent (FMR) for
a two-bedroom apartment is $1,128. In order
to afford this level of rent and utilities —
without paying more than 30% of income on
housing — a household must earn
$3,761.50 monthly or $45,138 annually.
Assuming a 40-hour work week, 52 weeks
per year, this level of income translates into
an hourly Housing Wage of:
Number of Full-Time Jobs At
Minimum Wage Needed to Afford a
2-Bedroom Unit (at FMR)
$21.70
per
hour
Rent Vs. Income, Statewide
$2,000
$1,825
$1,800
$1,600
$1,400
$1,200
$1,128
$1,000
$834
$800
$547
$600
$429
$400
$220
$200
$0
Two bedroom FMR Rent affordable at
median income
Source: Out of Reach, 2016, NLIHC.org
Rent affordable
Rent affordable at
with full-time job
30% of AMI
paying mean renter
wage
Rent affordable
with full-time job
paying min wage
Rent affordable to
SSI recipient
Delaware Housing Coalition HousingForAll.org WhyNIMBY.org
5
Delaware Housing Cost Burdens and Income
Housing Cost Burden by Income Group
Total
Renter
Households
Severely
Burdened
Households*
% with
Severe
Burden
Affordable
and
Available
Rental
Units per
100
Surplus
(Deficit)
of Affordable
&
Available
Rental Units
Income at or below 30% of AMI**
24,290
18,858
78%
32
-16,623
Income between 31% and 50% of
AMI
15,380
4,432
29%
58
-16,820
Income between 51% and 80% of
AMI
20,484
1,714
8%
102
1,119
All Renter Households
103,775
25,521
25%
Source: NLIHC tabulations of 2013 American Community Survey (ACS) Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS)
Rental Affordability by County
Total
Renters
AMI
30% of
Rent
AMI
Affordable
at 30%
of AMI
1 BR
FMR
1 BR
Housing
Wage
NEW
CASTLE
61,784
$80,300 $24,090
$602
$1,003
$19.29
KENT
17,205
$62,900 $18,870
$472
$823
$15.83
SUSSEX
17,197
$61,800 $18,540
$464
$756
$14.54
2 BR
FMR
2 BR
Hrs
Avg.
Housing at Renter
Wage MW Wage
for 2
BR
$1,210 $23.27
113
$17.36
$18.31
89
$15.78
$1,012 $19.46
94
$10.92
$952
Source: Out of Reach 2016
* Severely Burdened: Households spending more than 50% of income on housing costs, including utilities.
** AMI: Area Median Income
WHO CAN AFFORD TO LIVE IN DELAWARE?
4
6
2016
Delaware Housing Cost Burdens and Income
Many Delaware renters are extremely low income
and face a housing cost burden. Across the state,
there is a deficit of rental units both affordable and
available to extremely low income (ELI) renter
households, i.e. those with incomes at 30% or less of
the area median income (AMI).
Housing Cost Burden by Income Group
Renter households spending more than 30% of their
income on housing costs and utilities are cost
burdened; those spending more than half of their
income are considered severely cost burdened.
KEY FACTS
103,775
OR
12%
Households in this state that are renters
24,290
OR
95% 90%
86%
79%
Cost Burdened
Severely Cost Burdened
88%
Renter households that are extremely low
income
44%
30%
4%
Deeply Low
Income
(0-15% of
AMI)
Extremely
Low Income
(0-30% of
AMI)
Very Low
Income
(31-50% of
AMI)
23%
12%
0%
Low Income
Not Low
(51-80% of
Income
AMI)
(81%+ of AMI)
$24,250
Maximum poverty level income for a
family of four
16,820
Deficit of units affordable and available
for extremely low income households
Housing Shortage by Income Threshold
The lower the income threshold, the greater the
shortage of affordable and available units per 100
renter households.
$21.70
State Housing Wage
109
0 - 80% of AMI
53
0 - 50% of AMI
34
0 - 30% of AMI
0 - 15% of AMI
21
Source: Out of Reach, 2016, NLIHC.org
The hourly amount a household must
earn to afford a two-bedroom rental unit
at HUD’s Fair Market Rent
25,521
are severely cost burdened, paying more
than 50% of their income for housing
Delaware Housing Coalition HousingForAll.org WhyNIMBY.org
75
Housing Affordability and Delawareans with a Disability (SSI)
2008
2010
2012
2014
Non Elderly Adults with Disabilities Receiving SSI Benefits
8,555
9,253
10,205
10,372
Percent of SSI Needed to Rent a 1-BR Housing Unit
122.3% 123%
124%
123%
Percent of SSI Needed to Rent an Efficiency Housing Unit
108.6% 109%
107%
106%
SSI as a Percentage of One Person Median Income
16.6%
16.6%
16.6%
17.0%
SSI as an Hourly Wage
$3.68
$3.89
$4.02
$4.15
Source: Priced Out in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014, www.tacinc.org
Special Housing Needs
Comparison of Minimum Wage with Efficiency and One-Bedroom Housing Wages
County
Minimum
0-Bedroom
Difference
1-Bedroom
Difference
Wage
Housing
Housing
Wage
Wage
Kent
New Castle
Sussex
$8.25
$8.25
$8.25
$13.13
$15.96
$13.52
($4.88)
($7.71)
($5.27)
$15.83
$19.29
$14.54
($7.58)
($11.04)
($6.29)
Source: Out of Reach 2016, nlihc.org
Monthly Rent Affordable to Selected Delaware Households
by Income Level Compared with Two-Bedroom FMR (=$1,128)
Rent
$1,128
Median Income Delaware Family
Can Afford
$1,825
Gap
Mean Renter Wage Earner
$1,128
$834
($294)
Extremely Low Income Household (4-person)
$1,128
$547
($581)
Minimum Wage Earner
$1,128
$429
($699)
SSI Recipient
$1,128
$220
($908)
Extremely Poor Delaware Renters
Rental Affordability Gaps by County for 4-Person Household
ELI Rent
Sussex (ELI ≤$18,540)
$464
$1,012
$602
New Castle (ELI ≤$24,090)
Kent (ELI ≤$18,870)
2-BR Fair Market Rent
$1,210
$472
$952
Source: Out of Reach, 2016, NLIHC.org; Priced Out in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014, www.tacinc.org
(Note: 2014 is most recent year available)
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Delaware is one of 17 states where the average onebedroom rent is higher than monthly SSI payments.
We are one of only 4 states where the one-bedroom rent
exceeds 100% of SSI in every part of the state.
Special Housing Needs
Delaware SSI Payments and Housing Costs
In 2015, in Delaware, a person with a disability received
SSI benefits equal to $733 per month. Statewide, this
income was equal to 12% of the area median income. On
average a person with a disability receiving SSI would have
to pay 107% of their monthly income to rent an efficiency
unit and 126% of their monthly income for a one-bedroom
unit.
SSI
Monthly
Income
SSI as %
of AMI
% SSI
Needed
for a 1-BR
% SSI
Needed
for Efficiency
Unit
Kent
$733
14%
112%
93%
New Castle
$733
11%
137%
113%
Sussex
$733
14%
103%
96%
Statewide
$733
12%
126%
107%
KEY FACTS
107%
The percentage of the income of
a Delawarean receiving SSI
required for the average
efficiency apartment.
− 7,290
Deficit of Affordable and Available
Units for Delawareans below 15%
of AMI
− 14,580
Deficit of Affordable and Available
Units for Delawareans below 30%
of AMI
10,372
Number of Delawareans
Receiving Supplemental Security
Income
Homelessness and Disability
“Because of their limited incomes and the high cost of housing, many people with disabilities have become
chronically homeless.”
Olmstead and the Need for Permanent Supportive Housing
“Public entities such as state and local governments have a legal obligation to serve people with disabilities in
the most integrated setting possible. On June 22, 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in
Olmstead v. LC, a lawsuit against the State of Georgia that questioned the state’s continued confinement of
two individuals with disabilities in a state institution after it had been determined that they could live in the
community.
“The Court described Georgia’s actions as “unjustified isolation” and determined that Georgia had violated
these individuals’ rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Due to the Olmstead decision, many
states are now working to meet their obligations implementing [“Olmstead Plans” and Olmstead-related
settlement agreements]” -- from Priced Out in 2014
Sources: Technical Assistance Collaborative, Priced Out 2014: the Housing Crisis for People with Disabilities, and
Out of Reach, 2016, NLIHC.org (Note: the TAC report has not been released since 2014)
Delaware Housing Coalition HousingForAll.org WhyNIMBY.org
95
The affordability gap for prospective homeowners in Sussex County continues to grow at an
alarming pace from -$168,240 in 2015 to -$212,074 in 2016. This gap between affordability
and the fair market value indicates that first time homebuyers - and other low and moderate
income earners – are being priced out of homeownership, which erodes their ability to
stabilize housing costs and accumulate assets. The gaps are not as wide in Kent and New
Castle Counties but remain daunting for many households.
HOME OWNERSHIP GAPS
FORECLOSURE FILINGS
800
$316,260
Foreclosure Filings
2014:
2,856
2015:
2,200
2016 YTD: 1,146
600
$215,000
500
$194,100
400
300
$146,526
$111,437
$104,186
200
Median Price (Q4)
Price Affordable to Low Income (50% AMI)
201 0
201 1
201 4
Jan
Sep t
Jan
May
Sep t
Jan
201 3
May
Sep t
Jan
201 2
May
Sep t
Jan
May
Sep t
Jan
May
0
Sussex
( - $212,074)
Sep t
New Castle
( - $68,474)
Jan
Kent
( -$82,663 )
May
100
201 5 201 6
Although foreclosures dropped statewide in 2015, the trends for 2016 suggest that they are
once again on the rise, possibly because Delaware continues to work through a backlog of
delinquent loans. Additionally, data provided by the Delaware State Housing Authority
indicates that 25,389 – or 11% - of homeowners are severely cost-burdened, paying more
than 50% of income towards their housing, and therefore at risk of falling behind in their
payments.
7,000
0
1,146
2,200
2,856
2,288
2,174
1,276
1,000
2,121
2,000
2,204
3,000
2,592
3,853
4,000
4,488
5,000
5,112
6,157
6,000
6,457
DELAWARE FORECLOSURE FILINGS, 2005—2016*
2,121
Home Ownership and Foreclosures
700
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016*
*As of April 2016. Source: DSHA, destatehousing.com
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How We Can Solve the Crisis
Solutions, Sources, and Recommended Reading
Ensure significant funding for the National Housing Trust Fund!
The National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) will provide communities with funds to build,
preserve, and rehabilitate rental homes that are affordable for extremely and very low
income households. NLIHC continues to work to ensure that the NHTF receives enough
funding through dedicated revenue sources to address the urgent housing needs of millions
of Americans. Find out more at www.nhtf.org.
It is also critical to preserve and improve the nation’s public housing stock, expand the
number of housing vouchers, and increase funding for other programs providing affordable
housing to truly end this crisis.
Online Housing Resources
Listed below are some of the organizations in Delaware which are involved in providing information on our affordable housing crisis:
Community Wealth: community-wealth.org
Delaware Housing Coalition: www.housingforall.org
Delaware Housing Needs Assessment 2015-2020: demo.gis.gcr1.com/Delaware_GIS/
Delaware Housing Search: www.delawarehousingsearch.org
Delaware Community Reinvestment Action Council: www.dcrac.org
Delaware Housing Search: delawarehousingsearch.org
Delaware State Housing Authority: www.destatehousing.com
Diamond State CLT: www.diamondstateclt.org
Homeless Planning Council: www.hpcdelaware.org
NCALL Research: www.ncall.org
Technical Assistance Collaborative: www.tacinc.org
Why NOT In My Back Yard?: www.whynimby.org
Recommended Reading
Gar Alperovitz, “Inequality’s Dead End — And the Possibility of a New, Long-Term Direction,” The Nonprofit Quarterly, Spring 2015.
Calculator: www.mortgagecalculator.org
Collins, Chuck, 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do about It.
John Emmeus Davis, The Affordable City: Toward a Third Sector Housing Policy, Temple University, 1994.
Delaware Housing Coalition and others, Community and Choice: Housing Needs for People with Disabilities in Delaware, April 2012.
Delaware Housing C0alition, Community Impact: The Effects of Assisted Rental Housing in Delaware, Econsult and Kevin Gillen,
October 2012.
Delaware Housing Coalition, Investing to Meet Delaware’s Affordable Housing Needs: An Economic Impact Analysis, http://
www.housingforall.org/Final%20DE%20Economic%20Impact%20Study%20November%202004.pdf
Delaware State Housing Authority, Delaware Housing Fact Sheets, Affordability Gap, destatehousing.com.
Delaware State Housing Authority, Statewide Housing Needs Assessment 2015-2020.
Economic Policy Institute (EPI), Minimum Wage Issue Guide, http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/tables_figures_data/
Martin Gillens, Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America.
National Low Income Housing Coalition, Congressional District Housing Profiles, www.nlihc.org
National Low Income Housing Coalition, Housing Spotlight, March 2013 , www.nlihc.org
National Low Income Housing Coalition, Instability Among Our Nation's Veterans. www.nlihc.org
National Low Income Housing Coalition, Out of Reach, 2015 , www.nlihc.org
Steven C. Pitts (UC-Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education) and William E. Spriggs, Beyond the Mountaintop: King's
Prescription for Poverty (Howard University Department of Economics), April 2008. http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/blackworkers/
mountaintop_report.pdf
Report and Recommendations of the Working Group on Extremely Low-Income Housing Needs, December 2009, http://
www.housingforall.org/ELI%20WG%20Final%20Report%20121409.pdf
Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, “Wealth Inequality in the United States since 1913: Evidence from Capitalized Income Tax
Data,” Working Paper 20625, NBER .
Estelle Sommeiller and Mark Price, The Increasingly Unequal States of America: Income Inequality by State, 1917 to 2011, an
Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN) report published February 19, 2014. go.epi.org/unequalstates
Technical Assistance Collaborative, Priced Out 2014: the Housing Crisis for People with Disabilities
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, huduser.org, 2011.
Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, The Spirit Level. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2010.
Summer
Housing
e
Th
Journal
Published by the Membership of the Delaware Housing Coalition
Bigger Isn’t Beer
A LAND ETHIC
Peter Victor
T
We abuse land because we regard it
as a commodity belonging to us.
When we see land as a community
to which we belong,
we may begin to use it
with love and respect.
--Aldo Leopold
A Sand County Almanac
Food Security, Land Use, and Housing
Gina Miserendino
T
he definition of food security has
evolved. Originally developed
for its application to overseas agricultural assistance, the term food
security was later adopted to better describe food insufficiency in
US households. The original definition incorporated three dimensions (1) safe and adequate food
supply at national and households
levels, (2) the necessity to have a
reasonable degree of stability in
the food supply both from one
year to the next, and during the
year, and (3) physical, social, and
economic access to enough food so
that each household can meet its
needs. (International Conference
on Nutrition)
In both the global and domestic
arenas, food security focused on
the individual or household level.
Mark Winne reports as U.S. food
and agricultural issues such as
low farm prices, environmental
concerns, local food systems and
the relationship between diet and
health came to the fore, food security as an individual or household
matter began to merge with the
problems facing food producers
and the larger food environment
under the hybrid concept of com-
2009
munity food security with a generally
accepted definition of “a condition
in which all community residents
obtain a safe, culturally acceptable, nutritionally adequate diet
through a sustainable food system
that maximizes community self reliance and social justice” (Hamm,
2001). Community food security
has focused on the connection between economic viability of the
farm sector and the food security
of low income people.
Food Systems
In his discussion of food systems
Kenneth Dahlberg advocates that
issues exist at each of these levels:
household, neighborhood, municipal, regional, national, and transnational. (Dahlberg, 1993) His issue categories include production
i.e. an area’s ability to grow its
own food, farmland preservation,
the recognition of the association
between urban and agricultural
issues, and an area’s dependence
on outside food. The capacity of
a vicinity to process/manufacture
its food is another issue area; distribution of food includes the ability within an area to gain access to
(see page 6 )
here’s nothing like a good crisis
to make us rethink old ideas.
The depression of the 1930s led
to the rejection of the prevailing
idea that unemployment would
right itself if only people would
work for lower wages. Governments could do very little to help.
These ideas were overthrown by
experience and by the invention
of modern macro economics by
British economist, John Maynard
Keynes. By the end of World War
II, most Western governments had
adopted Keynesian economic policies designed to ensure that total
expenditures were sufficient to
maintain full employment.
Keynesian economists soon discovered that full employment
today meant a bigger economy
tomorrow because some of the in-
vestment expenditures required to
keep unemployment down: on infrastructure, buildings and equipment, also expanded the productive capacity of the economy. So
does an expanding population
and labour force. Initially, governments pursued economic growth
to meet the more pressing concern
of maintaining full employment,
but this soon changed. In the
1950s, economic growth became
the number one economic policy
objective of governments and all
others, such as productivity, innovation, free trade, competitiveness, immigration, even education, became a means to that end.
Until a year or so ago all seemed
to be going reasonably well. Then
came the breakdown in the finan(see page 4)
Homes Still Cost Too Much
John Wasik
Y
ou would think with home
prices still dropping like hailstones in most areas, that homes
would be bargains.
The present buyer’s market obscures a key fact about the housing crisis though: millions sought
the refuge of cheap credit, subprime and adjustable loans during
the boom because they were the
easiest routes to homeownership
in a time when house prices far
outpaced income growth.
The sad fact is that the Great
American Dream is still out of
reach for far too many, and it was
the declining affordability of decent houses that was one of the
triggers of the housing bust.
It’s not that home prices haven’t
plummeted as banks unload foreclosed homes at fire-sale prices.
The national median home price
fell to $169,000 in the first quarter, according to the National As-
sociation of Realtors. Bank-owned
properties are selling at 20 to 50
percent discounts.
“Contrary to popular belief,” says
Jeffrey Lubell, executive director
of the Center for Housing Policy,
“the recent decline in home prices has not resolved the nation’s
(see page 4 )
The Housing Journal
2|
Summer 2009
The Housing Journal
Summer 2009
EDITORIAL AND DISTRIBUTION
Linda Cloud, Joan Edwards, Andrea Illig, Gina Miserendino, Tina Riley, Ken Smith
CONTRIBUTORS
Khalil Bendib, Ted Keller, Gina Miserendino, Bill Roupp, Ken Smith, Peter Victor,
John Wasik
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Augusto Cordova, Karen Curtis, Lorraine deMeurisse (President), Helen Drayton,
Leslie Holland (Treasurer), Patricia Kelleher, Dorothy Medeiros, Joe Myer, Veronica
Oliver (Secretary), Ray Paylor, Sandy Spence (Vice President), Susan Starrett, Van
Temple, Amy Walls, Serena Williams
The Housing Journal is published quarterly by the membership of the Delaware
Housing Coalition to promote thought, discussion and action on housing issues.
Readers’ contributions of all forms are warmly encouraged.
The MISSION of the Delaware Housing Coalition is to advocate for safe, decent and
affordable housing throughout the state. Our goal is to affect, impact and shape
the environment relating to housing. We are committed to fostering the growth
and long-term flourishing of grass roots constituencies which develop their power;
nurture their own problem-solvers and leaders; and work together to change the
conditions which prevent them from obtaining safe, decent and affordable housing.
DHC is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization. Our United Way (Delaware) nonmember designated giving number is 09294.
The Delaware Housing Coalition, PO Box 1633, Dover, DE 19903-1633
Phone: 302/678-2286; Fax: 302/678-8645
www.housingforall.org
Email: dhc@housingforall.org
Who Can Afford to Live in Delaware?
2009 Summary
Housing Burden
There are 61,215 households in
the state with incomes at or below
half of the area median.
22,541 of these households are severely cost-burdened, paying 50%
or more of their income for housing.
15,540 of these severely cost-burdened households have incomes at
or below 30% of the area median.
There is a deficit of 20,444 units
statewide that needs to be filled in
order to house these households
affordably.
When a “fair share” measure for
very low-income households is applied to the state’s census tract districts, every census district in the
state – except for the City of Wilmington – is found to have a deficit
of affordable housing.
There are almost 28,000 extremely
low-income households in Delaware — 13,422 in rental units and
14,414 in owner-occupied units —
in need of affordable housing due
to cost burden.
25,000 very low-income families
pay 30% or more of their income
for housing costs or are on waiting
lists for assisted housing.
Homelessness
1,479 Delawareans were identified
as homeless in the January 2009
Point in Time survey, with nearly
7,000 state residents experiencing
homelessness during the year.
A disabled person dependent on
SSI cannot afford an efficiency (zero-bedroom) apartment anywhere
in the state.
The efficiency apartment housing
wage stands at $13.43 for Dela-
This issue of the Housing Journal is supported by the Administrative Commission on the Speer Trust (New Castle Presbytery), the Bank of America
Foundation, and the membership of the Delaware Housing Coalition.
DAY FOR HOUSING: DHC Member Tina Riley and DHC Board Member Susan Starrett
at the registration desk.
ware, 188% of the state minimum
wage, an annual salary of $27,934.
Delaware needs 648 new supportive housing units, along with
1,000 new rental subsidies in order to house the 2,000 individuals
who are most in need and most at
risk of homelessness.
Renters
The Fair Market Rent for a twobedroom apartment ranges from a
low of $714 in Sussex County to
$774 in Kent County to a high of
$1005 in New Castle–an increase
of as much as 20% since 2004.
A worker in Delaware must earn
$17.75 per hour–or $36,917 annually–to afford an average twobedroom apartment.
46% of all workers in New Castle,
45% in Sussex and 63% in Kent
can not afford a two-bedroom
apartment in their county of employment.
Delaware has 4,604 project-based
Section 8, Low Income Tax Credits, or Rural Development units
that could lose subsidy or affordability restrictions between 20082012.
Homeownership
In late 2008, the median purchase
price for a house in Delaware
ranged from $206,000 in Sussex
County to $230,000 in New Castle.
House price increases since 2000
range from 51% in Sussex County
to 81% in Kent.
Median household income in
Delaware ranges from $58,600 in
Sussex County to $77,800 in New
Castle.
The state’s homeownership rate
is 76%. However, only 41% of
Hispanic families own their own
homes. African Americans have a
50% home ownership rate.
Incomes
15% of Delawareans (131,000)
live below the poverty level which
in 2009 is $22,050 for a family of
four.
Five of the six top growth occupations in Delaware do not pay a median wage adequate to buy a house
in the state nor rent a 2 bedroom
FMR in New Castle County.
227,000 DE workers have median
wages below that needed to rent a
two-bedroom FMR apartment in
their county.c
www.housingforall.org
Delaware Housing Coalition
|3
Day for Housing 2009
Dr. James Kushner
Affordable Housing in a Time of Climate Change
CHANDLER HEIGHTS I
2 CHANDLER STREET
SEAFORD, DE 19973
Chandler Heights I is a multi-family apartment complex which
consisted of 91 low-income rental apartments. Chandler
Heights I was established in 1969 by Better Homes of Seaford,
Inc. (BHS) and was constructed with HUD funding with initial
rent up in 1972. There were 12 apartment buildings with office space in one apartment building.
In 2004, after 32 years of service, it was time to upgrade and
renovate in order to preserve housing for future generations.
Low income housing tax credits, BHS accumulated equity,
with mortgages with the Delaware State Housing and Delaware Community Investment Company were obtained for
funding for the renovation. Three of the apartment units were
eliminated to make room for a community building which
consist of office and storage space, a community room, a kitchen, a conference room, a computer learning center, a library
and a laundry room.
All of the apartment buildings received a complete renovation
including new interior walls, new insulation, new electrical
wiring , all new plumbing, new floors, new windows, new
doors, new kitchens, new bathrooms, adding central air and
carpeting. All ground floor apartments were made handicap
accessible. Security was enhanced by adding security cameras
and key pad operated doors to common area hallways. Covered porches with railings and ramps were added to all buildings. The apartments are fully rented and there is an ongoing
wait list.
In 2007 Chandler Heights I received the Charles L. Edison
Tax Credit Excellence Award, a
national competition 2nd place
award for rural development.
The award was presented by
Senator Tom Carper in Washington, D.C.c
1. Limit house sizes: tax buildings or dwellings that exceed 400
square feet per occupant
2. mandate use of green building
codes; tax non-green development
3. Reuse existing structures
4. Plant shade trees
5. Permit parking no closer than
the closest transit stop
6. Permit only new development that is either car-free, traffic free, or traffic reduced
7. Dedicated transit corridors
8. Implement congestion pricing
9. Raise parking meter fees
10. Set maximum parking limits
11. Create walkable communities
12. Build pedestrian trails
13. Dedicated paths for bicycles
14. Limit all urbanization to
within 1 - 2 miles of a station or
stop
15. Narrow the streets in commercial and residential areas and
reduce speed limit to 15 mph
16. Reduce available parking
incrementally each year
17. Close selected streets incrementally each year
18. Subsidize electric bicycles for
light-rail and bus riders to travel
between their homes and the station to avoid the need for parkand-ride lots.c
DAY FOR HOUSING: DHC Members Tracey Harvey and Denise Freeman
IN THIS ISSUE:
Front
Bigger Isn’t Better
Homes Still Cost Too Much
Food Security, Land Use, and Housing
Two
Who Can Afford to Live in Delaware?
Three
Chandler Heights - Why Not In My Back Yard?
Affordable Housing and Climate Change
Five
Presbytery Statement on Communities
Six
Minquadale Village Owns Their Land
Back
What Do We Mean by “FAIR SHARE”?
The Housing Journal
4|
Homes Still Cost Too Much
(from page 1 )
housing-affordability problem.”
Homes cost too much even before
the bubble, so homebuyers were
willing to do anything to get into
the domicile of their dreams. After
all, homeownership is an American birthright, or at least that
promise was sold to Americans
starting in 1946.
“Buy as much house as you can afford!” That’s what the bankers and
real estate agents were telling us
for generations because of generous tax breaks and easy, often government-guaranteed financing.
Unfortunately, the cost of land,
homebuilding, taxes and homeownership far exceed what millions of households are able to
cover with nearly stagnant personal income growth in this century.
Inflation simply ate away at wages
that just weren’t enough to pay
ever-rising bills for property taxes,
maintenance, health care, education and energy.
Even at the height of the boom, researchers at Harvard’s Joint Center
for Housing Studies found that almost 18 million homeowners were
paying more than half of their incomes for housing (about onethird is considered reasonable).
They were also hit hard by rising
energy costs, which rose twice as
fast as total spending from 2004 to
2006.
That wasn’t always the best advice.
The Harvard group last year found
that “nowhere in America does a
full-time minimum wage job cover
the cost of a modest two-bedroom
rental at 30 percent of income.”
Those stranded in the low-wage
service economy, left behind by
the technological revolution of the
1990s, could barely afford to rent
a decent place in most cities, much
less buy.
Those families who are paying
more than half of their budget for
housing have little to nothing left
over for health care, food, clothing
and education. That hurts more
than 14 million children living in
low-income households, whose
families had less than $600 per
month on average for other essential expenses.
So was anyone surprised when
brokers and subprime lenders targeted minority and low-to-middle-income neighborhoods then
walked away when they sold trillions of these mortgages to Wall
Street and the largest banks? They
were selling the American Dream!
From sparkling new suburbs in
the Sun Belt to inner cities, cheap
money and neutron-bomb adjustable loans meant nobody had to be
house poor -- at least for a year or
two. Then the explosion hit, and
we’re still feeling the aftershocks.
Further exacerbating the affordability crisis was the tendency for
municipalities to favor upscale,
sprawling home developments
over middle- and low-income
housing.
Since home values are directly
fueling property-tax income in
most places, nearly every community can get more money for
schools and public services. When
you base property-tax revenue
on home valuations, bigger price
tags translate into better-equipped
schools, fire stations and libraries.
Yet, building McMansion subdivisions only inflated the housing
bubble and reduced the stock of
affordable homes. From 2002 to
2005, home prices soared 45 percent in areas restricted to upscale
building versus 24 percent in unrestricted areas. Moreover, by creating these “spurbs” -- sprawling
John F. Wasik http://www.johnwasik.com, author of Cul-de-Sac Syndrome: Turning Around the Unsustainable American Dream, is a personal-finance columnist for
Bloomberg News and the author of several books. His most recent book, The
Merchant of Power, was praised by Studs Terkel and well-reviewed by the New
York Times. Wasik has won more than 15 awards for consumer journalism, including the 2008 Lisagor and several from the National Press Club. This article is
based on reearch in Cul-de-Sac Syndrome: Turning Around the Unsustainable American Dream (Bloomberg Press, 2009) and originally appeared on the AlterNet,
online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/140744/
Summer 2009
urban areas unconnected to transportation and city centers except
by endless highways –- homeowners’ costs rose to catch up with
needed infrastructure, schools and
other public services.
The housing crisis has given us a
rare opportunity to re-evaluate
and reinvent the American Dream.
As I note in my new book, /The
Cul-de-Sac Syndrome/, if we’re to
increase the homeownership rate,
government will have to create incentives to build more affordable
housing.
We’ll also have to find a way to delink property taxes from funding
local services to reduce the number
of overpriced homes in a handful
of areas. Perhaps even eliminating
tax breaks for mortgage interest
would keep prices at realistic levels, because you wouldn’t be subsidizing ever-larger mortgages.
Ultimately, though, the American
home and community will have to
be reinvented. Houses will need to
be ultra-energy efficient to reduce
long-term ownership costs and
even produce their own energy.
This can be done with factorybuilt, green homes.
Then we’ll have to build – or rebuild – high-density, walkable
communities that are close to jobs
and retail outlets. This is already
happening throughout the U.S.,
although building and zoning
codes need to change to allow this
to happen on a large scale. Even
more federal incentives are needed
for green building.
We have just experienced a great
teaching moment in history. The
American Dream as we know it
was not sustainable. Now we have
the chance to make it affordable,
ecologically sound and socially
beneficial.
It’s a rare opportunity.c
Bigger Isn’t Beer
(from page 1 )
cial sector followed quickly by a
recession that through globalization, spread further and faster
than swine flu. Now governments
are congratulating themselves for
acting together to stimulate spending to get the economies back on
course, much as Keynes might
have recommended. But times
have changed since his day. World
population has increased almost
three times, world economic output has increased ten times and
with this massive expansion of
the human presence on earth, we
are confronting limits to the availability of cheap energy, to fresh
water, and to the capacity of the
atmosphere to absorb increasing
emissions of greenhouse gases. At
the same time we are destroying
the habitat of numerous species of
flora and fauna and the security of
our own food supplies is threatened.
It is time to rethink the old idea
that the solution to all our problems lies in the incessant expansion of the economy. Rich countries like Canada should explore
alternatives, especially if poorer
countries are to benefit from economic growth for a while in a
world increasingly constrained by
biophysical limits. Some deny or
simply ignore these limits and argue that economic growth in rich
countries is necessary to stimulate
growth in poorer ones. Others say
that with ‘green’ growth we can
expand economic output as we
reduce the demands we place on
nature through more efficient production, better designed products,
fewer goods and more services,
compact urban forms, and organic
agriculture. While these measures
may well help in a transition they
are an unlikely prescription for
the long term. What is required is
a radical rethinking of our economies and their relation to the natural world.
Although no 21st century Keynes
has emerged to prepare the intellectual ground for such a change
in thinking, we do have a body
of knowledge built up over many
decades and now thriving under
the name of ‘ecological economics’. Ecological economists understand economies to be subsystems
of the earth ecosystem, sustained
by a flow of materials and energy
from and back to the larger system
in which they are embedded. It is
understandable that when these
flows were small relative to the
www.housingforall.org
earth they could be ignored, as they
have been in much of mainstream
economics. Economists are not
alone in treating the economy as
a self-contained, free standing system largely independent of its environmental setting. It is a widely
held view that environmental protection is just one among multiple
competing interests to be traded
off against the economy. And anyway, this mainstream perspective
teaches that if resource and environmental constraints are encountered, scarcities will be signalled by
increases in prices that will induce
a variety of beneficial changes in
behaviour and technology. Should
this system of scarcity, price, response fail then economists can estimate ‘shadow’ prices which can
be imposed directly through taxes
or used indirectly through policies
based on cost-benefit analysis to
fix the problem.
To ecological economists, this is an
inadequate response to the myriad
problems of resource depletion,
environmental
contamination
and habitat destruction confronting humanity in the 21st century.
They question the pursuit of endless economic growth and contemplate a very different kind of
future.
In my own work, I have examined
whether and under what conditions a country like Canada could
have full employment, no poverty, much reduced greenhouse
gas emissions, and maintain fiscal
balance, without relying on economic growth. Using a comparatively simple model of the Canadian economy I have explored
scenarios in which these objectives
are met. The ingredients for success include a shorter work year to
reduce unemployment yet retain
the advantages of technological
progress, a carbon price to discourage greenhouse gas emissions, and
more generous anti-poverty programs.
In such an economy, success
would not be judged by the rate
of economic growth but by more
meaningful measures of personal
and community well-being. We
would adjust to strict limits on our
use of materials, energy, land and
waste, guided by prices that pro-
Delaware Housing Coalition
vide more accurate information
about real rather than contrived
scarcities. We would enjoy more
services and fewer but more durable and repairable products, and
we would value use over status
when deciding what to buy. Rampant consumerism would be history, advertising would be more informative and less persuasive, and
new technologies would be better
screened to avoid problems to be
fixed later, if at all. Infrastructure,
buildings and equipment would be
more efficient in their use of energy and we would think and act
more locally and less globally. With
more free time at our disposal we
would educate ourselves and our
children for life not just work.
Is all this simply wishful thinking
of a sort that flourishes in troubled
times? I think not. The undercurrent of discontent with modern life
is rich with ideas for a better future, one that is not dependent on
economic growth. For example, in
March of this year the UK’s Sustainable Development Commission delivered its report ‘Prosperity without Growth?’ to the British
Government endorsing and amplifying many of the ideas expressed
here. The Centre for the Advancement of a Steady State Economy
based in the USA has obtained
over 3000 signatures on its position statement designed to help
change the goal of the economy
from growth to sustainability. At
the local level, Transition Towns
has spread in less than four years
from the UK to many countries including Canada, to raise awareness
of sustainable living and to build
local resilience in response to the
combined threats of peak oil and
climate change. Even mainstream
economists are moving with the
tide. Nobel Laureate economist
Robert Solow said last year: “It is
possible that the US and Europe
will find that…either continued
growth will be too destructive to
the environment and they are too
dependent on scarce natural resources, or that they would rather
use increasing productivity in the
form of leisure.” Let’s add Canada
to the list and go from there.c
Economist Peter A. Victor is Professor in Environmental Studies at York University and author of Managing without Growth. Slower by Design, not Disaster (Edward
Elgar Publishing, 2008). “Bigger Isn’t Better” first appeared in the Ottawa Citizen (ottawacitizen.com) and then was reprinted in the electronic newsletter of
the E. F. Schumacher Society (smallisbeautiful.org).
|5
From Homelessness to Hope:
Constructing Just, Sustainable Communities
for All God’s People
I
n June 2008, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church
(USA) “affirm[ed] the complexity
of issues surrounding homelessness and the need for a holistic
approach that (1) addresses ministry to those experiencing or risk
of homelessness and (2) the structural components necessary for a
comprehensive solution.”
Principles affirmed as foundation
to faithful ministry with persons
who are homeless include: universal access to safe, decent, accessible, affordable, permanent housing
is a measure of a just society, The
church is called the create communities of hospitality, The church is
called to create sustainable communities where people can be securely housed, The church is called
the challenge society to provide
safe, decent, accessible, affordable,
and permanent housing for all
persons who cannot secure such
housing through their own means.
The Assembly encouraged congregations, presbyteries, synods, and
other church-related entities to
pursue comprehensive responses
to the crisis of homelessness and
affordable housing, including providing the physical space and the
spiritual openness to address the
problem, including:
Shelters, transitional housing,
mixed income communities, and
other affordable housing and links
to service providers
The impact of employment practices, including sustainable wages and benefits, employment of
youth and adults reentering the
workforce after being homeless or
institutionalized
Links with local, regional, and national coalitions that advocate for
worker justice, green design in
homes, and affordable housing
Supporting residents in public
housing in their efforts to organize
and have a voice in their communities
Application of stewardship strategies in the area of homelessness,
such as allocating physical space
for services and tithing capital
campaign proceeds
The Assembly affirmed ...public
policy recommendations in four
categories:
Housing and Services: preservation of Section 8 Housing Choice
Voucher Program; restoration and
expansion of Project-based Section 8, including revitalization of
2.5 million units; development
of housing trust funds at the municipal, state and national levels;
enactment of inclusionary zoning policies and other strategies to
achieve mixed-income communities; and improved enforcement
of existing nondiscrimination laws
with regard to housing and home
financing.
Services for Persons Experiencing
Homelessness or at Risk of Homelessness: revision of municipal
zoning codes to include temporary
housing and to prohibit discrimination based on housing status; increased funding for the federal departments that serve the homeless,
including the Dept. of Housing and
Urban Development, the Dept. of
Health and Human Services, and
the Dept. of Veterans’ Affairs; expansion of adequate funding for
supportive housing (housing plus
services); increased investment in
the McKinney-Vento Act Homeless Assistance programs; and
continued investment in several
programs that help low-income
people obtain and stay in housing.
Lending Practices: development of
foreclosure prevention strategies
and programs to benefit households at risk; and restrictions on
predatory and abusive lending
practices.
Taxation: support fiscally responsible federal budget priorities and
adequate revenues to ensure longterm funding for the programs
outlined above; tax incentives that
encourage “smart growth;” more
equitable distribution of tax benefits for those at lower income
levels, including expansion of the
EITC and CTC to more low-income
people, and the development of a
refundable tax credit targeted to
low-income renters.c
from Loaves & Fishes, September 2008, www.meetingground.org
6|
The Housing Journal
Minquadale Village Owns Their Land
S
aturday, July 18 was the birthday of Nelson Mandela. It also
marked the celebration and culmination of a truly significant
and long-term piece of affordable
housing advocacy.
The residents of Minquadale Village manufactured home community have bought the land beneath
their homes and will henceforth
operate and govern their community cooperatively. The community has been transformed from an
investor-owned community (IOC)
to a resident owned community
(ROC). Instead of a land rent, they
will be paying into a fund to satisfy
the new mortgage on their own
land. Their monthly bill is staying the same, $420 a month, and
could go down with the addtion
of new homeowners. Collectively,
they will be in charge of property
maintenance, legal and financial
matters, new homeowner selection, community rules, and all
other aspects of the community’s
operation and future.
With the help of an extended network of affordable housing professionals and the passage of a new
state law, a resident right-of-firstoffer law, the residents bought
their community from the previous owner, their long-time landlord, for $1.9 million. Minquadale
Village is the first manufactured
housing community in Delaware
to make use of this law.
President Ken Shaw thanked a
number of people, on behalf of
all the residents, including legislators who had helped to get the law
passed. Representatives Valerie
Longhurst and Pete Schwartzkopf,
along with Representative J.J.
Johnson, who represents the community, all congratulated the residents and the advocacy network
which made the day possible. Absent but warmly thanked, as well,
were former Representative Bob
Valihura and Senator George Bunting.
Chris White of Community Legal Aid, Andrea Levere of CFED,
Brian Keenan and Keith Timko
of READS, Paul Bradley of New
Hampshire Community Loan
Fund, Cheryl Sessions of ROC
USA, and Dawn Poczynek-Hold-
ridge of FannieMae were among
the happy team of technical assistance providers and support network members participating in the
event.
Also present were members of
DMHOA, the Delaware Manufactured Home Owners Association,
the group which has been most
interested in, and most responsible for, the establishment of the
right-of-first-offer law: Ed Speraw,
DMHOA President, Fred Neil, and
Bobbie Hemmerich.
Resident-owned
communities
(ROCs) exist in other states, especially New Hamlpshire, where
their number is above 80. The
model has been so successful there
that the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund has created a national program, ROC USA, which
is taking the model to other states.
The right-of-first-offer law passed
in the 2008 legislative session after a long struggle in which all
the groups so far mentioned were
deeply involved. Representative
Valerie Longhurst chaired the
Manufactured Housing Committee and authored the bill.
Lieutenant Governor Matt Denn,
among others who addressed the
residents, congratulated the community, DMHOA, and their allies. “You had no riches, no inherited power, but you petitioned
your government. You did it. You
pulled it off.” he said.
Representative Schwartzkopf and
Paul Bradley of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund both
pointed out that the road ahead
would not be easy and to expect internal challenges, as well as external ones. “Hang together,” Bradley
told them.
Another group involved in the
network which brought this about
was NCALL Loan Fund. Karen
Kollias and David Callahan of the
local CDFI helped to bring a second loan to the deal which made
it possible.
The quest for greater security of
tenure for manufactured home
owners, for treatment of their
homes as real property rather than
‘chattel’, and for fair and equitable
lending practices on those homes
has been a critical and elusive concern in Delaware.
The most recent surge of advocacy
began with the birth of DMHOA
and with the convening of statewide meetings on manufactured
housing as an affordable housing option. These meetings were
convened by Terri Hasson of Citigroup and Lorraine deMeurisse
of Deutsche Bank Trust Company
Delaware.
Minquadale Village ROC has been
the work of many hands, a true
colloboration in which many in
Delaware have come together to
create new opportunities for those
precariously housed. It was a truly
land mark occasion.c
Summer 2009
Food Security, Land
(from page 1)
food through public transportation
as well as inter urban area transportation like trucking and rail
shipment. Warehousing of food
including ensuring an emergency
supply is another factor. Access to
supermarkets, food programs, etc.
is also a topic. Food handling and
safety come under the use category. Food Recycling includes food
gleaning and food banking; his last
category includes waste stream issues such as composting and waste
stream reduction efforts. Patricia
Allen (Allen, 1993) also illustrates
the point of interconnectedness:
“Agriculture does not exist and
cannot function except at the intersection of society and nature.”
Delaware’s Food Security
A disturbing finding in a 1997 review of Delaware’s food insecurity status was the loss of farmland
despite the implementation of an
agricultural lands conservation
program. According to the Delaware Department of Agriculture
the state lost 384,000 acres of
farmland between 1950 and 2005
— much of it to scattered, lowdensity development, commonly
referred to as sprawl. The good
news is from the Delaware Agricultural Lands Preservation Foundation (5/09) that the preservation
program has saved 152,603 acres
on 1,023 farms and 2,131 acres of
forestland on 22 properties.
The American Farmland Trust
www.housingforall.org
nd Use, and Housing
praises this program as...striking a
balance between two important goals:
preserving a critical mass of crop and
forestland and open space to sustain
Delaware’s number one industry and
quality of life, and providing land
owners an opportunity to preserve
their land in the face of increasing development pressures and decreasing
commodity values.
Land Use Policy Tools
The American Farmland Trust’s
motto No Farms No Food succinctly
states that land use and community food security issues are tightly
intertwined. As Americans memory-- and subsequently its appreciation -- of the land/food connection
fades, there is an urgent need to
reinstate this core understanding.
This may ensure that land necessary and desirable for production
remains available in large tracts
of farmland, mid-sized pieces for
smaller scale production, small urban garden plots, and even rooftop
growing.
Land Use: Just as knowledge has
been gained of the connection between land use and health, such as
suburban environments discouraging walking or bicycling, land
use regulations are under examination as to how they encourage
or discourage the way food is produced, distributed and consumed.
Too often food system considerations are overlooked or uncoordinated during local planning
processes especially with regard
to the impact of food security on
lower-resourced neighborhoods.
Poor policies can lead to loss of
farmland,
discourage
grocery
stores to locate in underserved areas, or allow for concentration of
fast food outlets. Alternately good
coordination can encourage family
farmers to stay on their land, create jobs, support the economy, and
ensure that everyone has access to
quality food. Land use regulation
can be used as a tool for change in
the areas of land use, open space
planning, housing, transportation/
circulation conservation, noise,
safety, and jobs and economic development.
Zoning: Zoning is also an important tool; through good planning
and public hearing opportunities,
Delaware Housing Coalition
zoning can be amended to attract
desired—and restrict less desired—
land use to promote communitybased systems. (Bournhonesque,
et al., 2007)
The Delaware Department of Agriculture gives guidance for the
County Land Comprehensive
Planning Guidelines affirming
Dahlberg’s and Allen’s premise
that agriculture is integrated on
many levels to other land use/life
functions. It suggests that all Delaware counties “1) Recognize that
the County is a Part of a Greater
Regional Agricultural Community
and 2) Develop and Incorporate
Goals and Objectives in Support of
the Agricultural [Community].”
A local, prime example of the
critical importance of the need
for good planning was recently illustrated by Dr. Bill McGowan,
Sussex County Extension Educator, at a Heart and Soul of Sussex
community meeting, part of the
University of Delaware’s Coastal
Community Enhancement Initiative.
Using the current comprehensive
land use plan of the AR-1 base zoning of two units to one acre with
some cluster zoning of four units
to one acre, McGowan projected
as many as 850,000 residential
housing units are possible with
500,000 buildable acres remaining in the county. Although this
scenario would take many years to
reach, it is possible without revision of the current Sussex County
Comprehensive Plan. (MacArthur,
6/29/09).
Food Policy Councils: Another
mechanism that has been successfully used in various parts of the
country to address comprehensive community food security is
the food policy council. Composed
of multidisciplined members ranging from urban planners to nutritionists, food policy councils have
been created in part to address the
challenges in understanding local
food systems and educating the
public and policymakers with regard to the importance of the food
systems. Food policy councils embrace the philosophy that in order
to reach their food security goals,
a multidimensional, multilevel approach is necessary (Ashman et
al., 1993).
Food and Housing Security
There are tools available to ensure
both security of tenure and security of access to quality food and
both are rooted in good land use
planning. For example, by adding
a food security impact requirement
to development plans, this vital
component would be reinstated
back with other planning basics. The town/community center
concept highlights mutually supportive, mixed uses with cluster
developments allowing for open
land or other alternative-to-sprawl
options. This, as part of deliberate smart growth and equitable
growth policies would help ensure
access to public transit and communities of high opportunity can
help brake the current momentum
toward sprawl and infrastructuredevoid development. Affordable
housing and access to food are
infrastructure! This has been recognized by the state of Vermont
in the creation of the Vermont
Housing and Conservation Board.
VHCB is an independent, statesupported agency which works
through the provision of grants,
loans, and technical assistance for
the development of perpetually affordable housing and conservation
of important agricultural and recreational lands, natural areas and
historic properties.
In Sussex County, the New Horizons Cooperative and Diamond
State CLT are working on an innovative development which will
provide permanently affordable
housing through new, high quality
manufactured and modular housing installed on permanent foundations on community land trust
land. The homes will be part of a
well thought out community featuring facilities such as a community room, recreation areas, open
space, and a one acre community
garden which the members will
work cooperatively. The UD Cooperative Extension has provided
technical assistance for the agriculture component. Variations of
this Delaware example of integrating food security into housing development are being implemented
elsewhere. Farms are being included in addition to other amenities such as pedestrian and cycling
trails in at least 200 planned developments throughout the country.
The assigning of farmland, sometimes operated as community supported organic agriculture (CSA),
is occurring after open spaces have
been designated (Appelbaum,
7/1/09).
Conclusion
It is clear that overall appropriate
land use is essential for the growing of crops as well as other ac-
|7
tivities related to processing and
distributing food. As a society we
have progressed from the knowledge that food is a basic necessity
for sustenance of individuals to a
more comprehensive understanding that food security is essential
for community sustainability. This
multifaceted, multilayered goal includes a broad range of interconnected land use issues. Delawareans have both responsibility and
opportunity to ensure through
democratic processes that farming
is perpetuated, communities are
protected, and that community
food security is preserved for all.c
Resources:
Allen, Patricia (ed.) 1993. Food for the Future Conditions and Contradictions of Sustainability, New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
American Farmland Trust http:// www.
famland.org/programs/states/DE/default.
asp
Appelbaum, Alec 7/01/09. The New York
Times, ‘Organic Farms as Subdivision
Amenities’
Ashman, Linda, Jaime de la Vega, Marc
Dohan, Andy Fisher, Rosa Hippler, and
Billi Roman. 1993. Seeds of Change: Strategies for Food Security in the Inner City. Los
Angeles: UCLA Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning).
Bournhonesque, Fisher, Laurison Spring
2007. An Introduction to Land Use Planning
for Food System Advocates, Community Food
Security News
Dahlberg, Kenneth 1993. ‘Regenerative
Food Systems: Broadening the Scope and
Agenda of Sustainability’, Chapter 3 in
Food for the Future Conditions and Contradictions of Sustainability, New York: John
Wiley& Sons, Inc.
Delaware Agricultural Land Preservation
Foundation May 2009. Current Situation
Report for May 12, 2009. http://dda.delaware.gov/aglands/forms/2009/051209_
CSR.pdf
Delaware Department of Agriculture updated March 2008. County Comprehensive Land Plan Guidelines http://dda.delaware.gov/aglands/Indplan.shtml and
http://dda.delaware.gov/aglands/forms/2007/reports/
TrasDevRgts?DEGrowthFiscal Summary
Diamond State CLT, http://www.diamondstateclt.org/
Hamm, Michael, http://www.foodsecurity.
org/views_cfs_faq.html
International Conference on Nutrition,
1992,
http://www.popline.org/
docs/1513/274733.html
MacArthur, Ron 6/29/09. Cape Gazette
University of Delaware Coastal Community Enhancement Initiative http://www.
ccei.udel.edu/
Heart and Soul of Sussex http://www.
heartandsoulofsussex.org
Vermont Housing and Conservation Board
http://www.vhcb.org/
Winnie, Mark Community Food Security Coalition Issue Brief America’s Farms
Feed America’s Children http://www.
foodsecurity.org/issue_brief_affac.htm
8|
The Housing Journal
Summer 2009
What Do We Mean by “FAIR SHARE”?
T
he Delaware Housing Coalition (DHC)
has begun a project which we refer to
as “Good Neighborhood.” It is a long-term
campaign to address the need for affordable,
accessible, inclusive communities in Delaware and, specifically, to ensure that Delaware’s affordable housing system focuses on
creating housing opportunities for households with very low incomes (
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