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City Mission Webinar series 1: Causes of Family Homelessness
- 1. WEBINAR SERIES: PREVENTING FAMILY HOMELESSNESS SESSION1: CAUSES OF FAMILY HOMELESSNESS KATIE OMBERG, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
- 2. OUTLINE Who is experiencing homelessness in Massachusetts? Causes Income stagnation Cliff effect Gentrification Housing development What you can do http://www.urban.org/features/stepping-how-cities-are-working-keep- americas-poorest-families-housed
- 3. WHO IS HOMELESS? THE HOMELESS IN MASSACHUSETTS
- 4. “MAKING $50,000 A YEAR AND STILL BARELY GETTING BY IN BOSTON,” BOSTON GLOBE, FEB. 2017 Guerrier works full time at the Boston anti- poverty nonprofit, helping homeless people find housing. To supplement her $43,500 salary, she picks up work landscaping, painting, and housecleaning. https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2017/02/23/making-year-and-still-barely-getting- boston/Le8L10qNaoMmJoRKYvpMeL/story.html
- 5. THE BOSTON FOUNDATION REPORT So much good information! Easy to access online: https://www.tbf.org
- 6. HOMELESS: FAMILIES AND CHILDREN Over 13,000 homeless people and 60% are children Nearly 60% of homeless population in MA are families (national average: 35%) MA is one of two states where family homelessness is on the rise Nationally, rates of family homelessness has decreased 22%, but Boston and MA have had an increase of 42% since 2007 The average homeless family is headed by a single woman with one or two kids (The Boston Foundation Report (2017)) Photo from a 2012 Boston Globe article on families who are experiencing homelessness and are sheltered in hotels.
- 7. HOMELESS: RACIAL DISPARITIES Over half of head of homeless households are white in MA Yet, in Boston 35% are white, and 56% are black Why is this the case? Homeownership: 69% of white families own their own home, whereas only 31% of people of color own their own home Inherited wealth Generational racialized poverty Race of homeless families in Boston (DHCD, FY 2008-16) White Black Racial Makeup of Boston (USCB, 2016) White Black
- 8. THE CAUSES OF FAMILY HOMELESSNESS Working single mother with two children With no savings, a health emergency leads to evicted Denied shelter Cut work hours Given more temporary benefits On waitlist for subsidized housing ALICIA’S STORY
- 9. VERY REAL THINGS THAT IMPACT HOMELESSNESS, BUT WILL NOT BE DISCUSSED IN DETAIL HERE Racism Ableism Homophobia Transphobia Misogyny Classism Xenophobia Addiction Earning potential Keeping a job Access to family money Discrimination in housing Discrimination in hiring Risk of intimate partner violence http://knowyourmeme.com/
- 10. INCOME STAGNATION Chart from Commonwealth Magazine, data from FHFA Housing costs between 1980 - 2015
- 11. INCOME STAGNATION Half the working residents of Boston make less than $35,000 a year. When rent goes up and wages stay the same, there’s a problem. This can cause families to become homeless, no longer be able to afford the housing their wages once allowed them to live in. MA has one of the highest income inequalities in the nation; 16% of families live below the poverty line A family with one full-time minimum wage earner gets $1,333 per month, while the market rate for a 2 bedroom in Greater Boston is $1,454 and the actual median rent in the most affordable neighborhoods is between $1,500-$1,700 2013 ACS data: in Allston, the Fenway, Mattapan, and Hyde Park, the median gross rent was 50% of the median household income. Theodesseyonline.com 1333 1454 4362 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 Minimum wage, FT Monthly Income Monthly Rent on a two bedroom
- 12. THE CLIFF EFFECT
- 13. THE CLIFF EFFECT Data from the Cincinnati Foundation’s Cliff Effect Report. Meme from the internet.
- 14. THE CLIFF EFFECT Definition: As families or individuals make more money, they lose benefits and government assistance. This can lead to families becoming homeless because they may lose eligibility for public housing or other assistance (i.e. food stamps) which they use to stay housed. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (2017), “efforts to become self-sufficient through employment can trigger reduction or termination of their benefits, resulting in net loss of income for their families.” Doesn’t just happen between unemployment and employment, but can also happen with small raises…
- 15. GENTRIFICATION Adrian Tomine “Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn.” New Yorker cover, 2015.
- 16. GENTRIFICATION Definition: Gentrification is the process of renovation of deteriorated urban neighborhoods through an influx of more affluent residents, resulting in higher property values and displacement of low-income families and businesses. This can lead to family homelessness as families become priced out of their own neighborhood and cannot find affordable housing. According to Real Estate Boston (2016), some Boston neighborhoods have seen home prices rise over 50% between 2000-2015. South Boston home prices rose 89%, the population doubled, and percentage of adults with a bachelor’s degree increased from 30 to 70%. Photo by James White, taken in Bushwick
- 17. GENTRIFICATION AND HOME OWNERSHIP http://dj.github.io/bost on/ http://sites.tufts.edu/gis/files/2013/02/Amiton_Rian.pdf
- 18. HOUSING DEVELOPMENT ISSUES Boston’s Housing Crisis According to WBUR (2015) more than half of all renters in greater Boston spend more than 30% of their income on housing. More than a quarter of all renters spend more than half of their annual gross income just to pay rent. Boston’s housing market is tighter than the national average, yet the economy is better than the country as a whole, leading to a very competitive market “Not In My Backyard” (NIMBY) Zoning laws, supported by sentiment from suburban neighborhoods keep developers from developing the kind of affordable housing needed. Lack of Housing A report from The Boston Foundation (2016) states that new construction for public housing has dried up and there are limited numbers of housing vouchers, even as the need increases and rates of family homelessness rises. On average, a family spends 25 months on the HUD waiting list in Suffolk county.
- 19. CONCLUSION Homelessness is not a personal failing Single mothers with children are the average homeless family Causes of family homelessness include income stagnation, the cliff effect, and gentrification There is a significant lack of affordable housing in Boston There is enough data to prove this, that the public conception of homelessness must change and should change.
- 20. WHAT CAN I DO? Share what you learned! Family and friends Elected officials Donate to City Mission. Help support our work to… …support families experiencing and on the verge of homelessness, though our A Lift Up program and Emergency Needs Network …educate people throughout Greater Boston of the needs in our communities, through webinars, HUD 101, MLK Day of Learning, etc.
- 21. WHAT IS NEXT? You’ve just learned about the causes of family homelessness in Massachusetts. Next week (same time, same place), we will study the programs and policies in place in Massachusetts to support families who are homeless or are on the verge of homelessness. A solutions and advocacy webinar will conclude the webinar series, with guest speaker Libby Hayes, the Executive Director of Homes for Families. Tune in on Thursday, July 13 at 12:00 pm for the next installment in this webinar series on family homelessness.
- 22. QUESTIONS? Thank you for joining us!
Editor's Notes
- Guerrier makes around $50,000 a year, which is roughly the median annual income in the United States. The government says that should be enough — she makes too much to qualify for public assistance — but it’s not, especially not in one of the most expensive cities in the country. According to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, Guerrier would need to earn roughly $80,000 a year to adequately support her family of four in Suffolk County.
- Homelessness can happen to anyone. However, there are certain factors that put one more at risk of becoming homeless.
- Race factor… Inherited wealth/generational racialized poverty
- Over the entire 34-year period between 1979 and 2013, the hourly wages of middle-wage workers (median-wage workers who earned more than half the workforce but less than the other half) were stagnant, rising just 6 percent—less than 0.2 percent per year. This wage growth, in fact, occurred only because wages grew in the late 1990s when labor markets got tight enough—unemployment, for instance, fell to 4 percent in 1999 and 2000—to finally deliver across-the-board hourly wage growth. The wages of middle-wage workers were totally flat or in decline over the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, except for the late 1990s. The wages of low-wage workers fared even worse, falling 5 percent from 1979 to 2013. In contrast, the hourly wages of high-wage workers rose 41 percent. (Source: Economic Policy Institute, Wage Stagnation in Nine Charts, 2015). This tells us a few things. The rich keep getting richer, the middle is about the same as it was, the lower wage is a little worse than it used to be. On it’s face, this might seem OK: everyone’s on average about the same, but some of us are getting really lucky. But, when paired with the cost of housing, the differential between earning and payments on necessities becomes terrible. In the USA, housing is 3.5x the cost it was in 1980, and in MA it is nearly 7x the cost.
- The Cliff Effect is only experienced by families and individuals that have both income and public supports. Cliffs can be very steep (WIC) or gentler, with benefits gradually dropping off as earnings increase (MRVP). When several supports decrease around the same income level, this creates a long or steep Cliff Effect. Families may find themselves in a trap of making too much money to get support but not enough to make ends meet. This can result in the decision to work less or just enough to keep benefits. (Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Combining Earnings with Public Supports: Cliff Effects in Massachusetts, 2017). When it comes to being able to afford that $1,500/m apt in Boston while also needing to pay a new $15,00/yr on childcare because you lost your benefits, there is a clear problem. Something has got to give, and this is how families in Boston can end up on the verge of homelessness.
- In general, gentrification happens in affordable, working class neighborhoods, like East Boston, South Boston, and parts of Dorchester, when they start to attract people with higher median incomes and more education. In turn, rents and home prices increase, forcing out (in the worst-case version of the process) many low-income families. (Source: Real Estate Boston, 2016). The most troubling effect is the displacement of the community (tenants who cannot keep up with the rental increases). Social, economic, and physical consequences of gentrification result in political conflict, exacerbated by differences in race, class and culture. (Source: PBS, What is Gentrification).
- .The One on the left is from Daniel Hartman, a student at Northeastern. The data comes from the ACS data from 2008-2013 Here you can see some general trends for homeownership in Boston. On the right is an image developed by a research team at Tufts, highlighting areas that are at risk for gentrification in Boston. The reason only some of them are highlighted is because they only looked at census tracts that are considered low-income. Data from the 2000 census. Here we can see the very true threat of many in Boston being gentrified out of their own homes.
- http://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2015/03/18/boston-housing https://www.tbf.org/~/media/TBFOrg/Files/Reports/2016%20Housing%20Report%20Card.pdf
- Current solutions as appropriate for audience and situation