05-2003 poll: "Housing a higher priority than tax cuts"? Yes!

[JanMichael]

Looky here, 52% of Americans, or someone they knew, had housing troubles? Hmm. Some recovery, eh? That appears to make Housing issues more important that Taxing issues, at least according to the NLIHC.

http://www.nlihc.org/press/pr070203.html

"Further, a growing majority believes that spending money on low income rental housing is more important than Congress cutting taxes. Fifty-seven percent of respondents agreed with the statement: “Congress spending money to make sure that low income people have housing they can afford to rent is more important than Congress cutting taxes.” This was an increase of 5% since the same question was asked in a similar NLIHC poll conducted in August 2002."

"Only 39% of respondents said they expected to benefit from the tax cuts recently enacted by Congress. The majority of respondents (52%) said they would not benefit, and 9% said they did not know or refused to answer"

The housing difficulty results are disturbing...How would you answer it?

"Fifty-two percent of Americans replied that they or someone they knew well had had trouble meeting monthly housing expenses such as rent, mortgage payments, or household utilities any time in the last year. This familiarity with housing affordability problems extends across income categories, with majorities of respondents earning below $20,000 (56%), between $20,000 and $40,000 (53%) and between $40,000 and $80,000 (57%) acknowledging problems. Only among respondents earning more than $80,000 a year does familiarity with housing affordability problems drop, to 45%."

Maybe this can be used against Bush?

Nah. Housing is a boring issue...

It shouldn't be but somehow it is here in the good ol' U. S. of A.

[w4rma]

1. Good find. (n/t)

[JanMichael]

2. The NLIHC site is great.

http://www.nlihc.org/index.html

Better yet is the "Out of Reach" rent-wage survey of all states, counties, and MSAs in America.

http://www.nlihc.org/oor2003/

The fair market rent is $13.62/hr in Sarasota County, FL for a modest two bedroom apartment. Two people working service jobs might have trouble paying that.

[Imajika]

3. It doesn't matter what people say...

...what matters is how they vote.

And I would be willing to bet, no matter what polls people roll out attempting to show otherwise, that most Americans (not all, but most) will vote for a candidate pushing tax cuts over a candidate wanting to spend more on low income rental housing.

Tax cuts are virtually always a winning issue, even when polls seem to indicate they wouldn't be. At the end of the day, people tend to default to voting tax cuts for themselves, yet often won't admit it because to do so either is, or just seems, selfish.

Tax increases are very often a losing issue, especially when those tax increases would fall on the middle class.

Imajika

[JanMichael]

5. I would guess that if the arguments were accurately presented...

...in the Media then the effect would be different.

Unfortunately with "The Apprentice" and "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire" on that doesn't get done very well.

The framing of the consequences of specific policy is weak to say the least

[LatteLib]

4. This really hits home

My next door neighbor had some health problems. She had to be off work for 2 or 3 weeks after a surgery. Between hospital bills, her house payment, car payment, utility bills, groceries and school expenses for her son, she lost her house. She worked 2 jobs to try to make ends meet. Her son got a job at a local store, probably to help make ends meet. Her elderly mother lives with them too.
They lost their house. It is vacant now because this family couldn't afford to make the payments with 2 people working 3 jobs and Grandma's social security. From what I observed, they lived a fairly modest lifestyle. They were good neighbors, worked hard and were still denied the "American Dream" and we miss them.
:cry:

[buddhamama]

6. problems with finding affordable housing

began to escalate during the Clinton yrs. when the economy was doing good and there was "extra" income people chose to invest in property.
that rise in in properties as an investment caused housing prices to sky rocket.

we're facing an even bigger problem now because money wasn't invested by the government then when times were good.

sad.

[JanMichael]

7. Toss in the Walmartization of jobs and there are some serious...

...problems just over the horizon.

If rents don't decrease significantly with wages then something has to give. Also since many real estate "investors" heavily morgaged themselves a few years back they may not be able to lower rents significantly. Then rapidly increasing property taxes, to make up for broken state and federal budgets, and bang.

[buddhamama]

8. in a nutshell

you got it-- Nickel and Dimed!

and now we have the Bankruptcy Bill being debated in the House and Senate. how many more citizens will be losing their houses this yr?

(visions of the dust bowl dance thru my head)

[buddhamama]

9. something else

as more and more citizens become one of that growing number of working poor, the less time,energy and money there are able to expend on doing anything to change their situation.

having a place to live doesn't mean that they also have the luxury of a phone or a computer, and the time required to keep up with the issue. petitioning local,state and the federal government for help takes time. when you're working your ass off(assuming you have a job) raising kids,etc., who the hell has the time.

my worst fear is that most people will just give up.
without some ray of hope, why wouldn't they!?

[JanMichael]

10. Boot straps!

I can just hear them now...