Housing Aid Cuts Need Our Response

As Congress cuts federal aid to the poor, poverty will not disappear. It will become, more than ever, a local problem. Local crime. Local hunger. Local homelessness. Local children who lack the basics of life.

Spokane, which did its part last November to vote for the dismantlement of federal poverty programs, will have to do its part to replace them. As home to a large low-income population, Spokane has relied heavily on federal aid.

The toughest challenge, as that aid disappears from the economy, involves housing. In a tight, high-priced real estate market like Spokane’s, federal subsidies and incentives kept landlords interested in the provision of affordable housing. Without inducements, prices will rise out of reach.

Who will suffer? Retirees. Low-income workers. Single moms. Think about the human repercussions if people like these lose housing.

What to do? On Sunday in this space, we prodded the community’s conscience, calling for a higher commitment to housing needs. A response will have to occur in three areas:

The nonprofit sector. The potential here is huge, and largely unexplored. For instance, Spokane has fewer than 200 units of public housing. Yet a hundred people a week seek low-income housing in Spokane. Charitable and public organizations have strong humanitarian motives and no need for a profit. What’s lacking is a concerted effort to shoulder the burden Congress is about to drop. What would happen, for instance, if more of Spokane’s churches launched housing projects?

The commercial sector. The vast majority of Spokane’s low-cost housing comes from for-profit landlords. Congress is trimming the federal aid that keeps them involved. Yet subsidies and other incentives are simply essential; without them landlords would lose their shirts if they offered units at a price low-income folks can afford. Local or state funds, locally managed, are the only apparent alternative, and a structure to provide the aid is yet to be devised.

Government regulations. Building codes raise the cost of housing and deter owners who might reopen old, vacant downtown housing. Zoning restrictions limit the supply of buildable lots and drive up the price. Could these hurdles be redesigned? Policy-makers need the courage to ask. Opposition to apartment projects might lessen if land-use policies defined enough suitable growth areas and levied impact fees to relieve a project’s adverse effects.

Spokane’s leaders can wait for homelessness to multiply. But it would be better for us all if we put to the test the popular premise that local leadership can outshine leadership from Washington, D.C.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board