Smart Bombs: Nowhere to go

As with health care, our nation tends to wait for emergencies before stepping in to help with housing. Spokane is no different as it grapples with the sudden – yet predictable – problem of low-income renters being pushed out of downtown apartments. It’s great leaders are rallying to do something, but shortsighted policy decisions don’t give them many long-term options.

The challenge is daunting when you consider the decline in affordable housing units and the failure of government assistance to keep pace. Statistics compiled by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies tell the story.

In 2003, about 25 percent of renters shelled out more than half their incomes to cover rent and utilities. Forty-four percent of renters paid more than 30 percent.

Thirty-four percent of elderly renters pay more than half of their fixed incomes on housing; 57 percent pay more than 30 percent.

Twenty-nine percent of single-parent renters pay more than half their incomes for housing.

And if that weren’t depressing enough, here is a stat showing how woefully inadequate government aid has become: Half of all subsidized renters pay more than 30 percent out of pocket for housing.

Commutation hits home. As a parent, I see nothing good coming from this get-out-of-jail-free card that the president has handed Scooter Libby.

Son: “We object to the chores list you’ve drawn up.

Me: “On what grounds.”

Daughter: “Excessive.”

Me: “But these chores fall well within the guidelines followed by parents from time immemorial. Kids everywhere are doing the same.”

Son: “We respect the decisions of those parents. We just think the list goes too far.”

Me: “Couldn’t you at least do them once before reaching that conclusion?”

Daughter: “We’ve suffered enough. I can cite precedents from the Libby case.”

Me: “I’ll bet you can. So, how many of these chores should you do?”

Son: “We’ve thought about that, and because the president commuted Libby’s sentence before he spent a single day in jail …”

Me: “You’ve got to be kidding …”

Son: “Now, we understand that chores are a serious matter …”

Me: “You’re not kidding!”

Daughter: “No chores.”

Me: “Now that’s what I call excessive.”

Daughter: “That’s so not funny. Need I remind you of embarrassing information we harbor about you and the fruit bowl and the Carmen Miranda album?”

Me: “Hand me the mop.”