Government money
Quick analysis of the federal funding that helps Habitat build affordable homes in Albany and Troy, NY
If there were a federal funding freeze or elimination, my organization would stand to lose somewhere around $4M of funds either awarded but not yet received or in pending funding applications over the next 12 months.
Remember, the market isn’t gonna build affordable housing. If you could make housing affordable — in our current context — without subsidy, someone would have done it by now. The businesses that do manage to make a profit off of affordable housing development? They’re getting big government subsidies too through programs like the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit.
While we’re talking about federal spending, I personally drew this budget visual, with my son’s markers, based on this mnemonic in Robin Sloan’s newsletter.
Housing, along with transportation, infrastructure, scientific research, the FDA, FEMA, foreign aid, law enforcement, courts, national parks and forests and more make up only the cute little pinky finger’s worth of the federal budget.
Good to keep in mind, just in case somehow the federal budget becomes a big news topic anytime soon…
It’s always the right time to share my favorite graphic about federal expenditures on housing!
This morning I spent about 20 minutes in conversation with someone who bemoaned how all of the housing assistance goes to folks who don’t work.
But actually — actually! — the U.S. spends so much more money to subsidize housing costs for the wealthiest homeowners among us than it does to help the poorest Americans. Delighted at an opportunity to share this chart and raise friendly class consciousness at the same time, I grabbed my laptop and we looked at this together, ultimately bemoaning instead the barriers that so many of us face when it comes to securing safe, decent and affordable housing. We’re all much closer to homelessness than we are to the billionaire class, don’t forget it.
If we care about the fundamental right to shelter, we need to create a society and government that will fund it. It’s impossible to speculate about what is to come, but in the meantime, we remain committed to working alongside our neighbors to build more homes in our community. We can’t turn back now.
