r
The
housing
story
For more than 35 years, national housing policy has
been based on the belief that every American deserves
adequate, safe and sanitary housing.
Since the 1934 National Housing Act, Congress has
reated program after program seeking to help
communities provide such housing. But something must
have gone wrong.
Even in' a relatively small community like Lincoln, a
casual drive through the city reveals tenements as well as
townhouses, deteriorating dwellings as well as modern
splitlevel homes. This report focuses on Lincoln housing
those who affect and are affected by it.
In recent years Lincolnites have witnessed a housing
authority's establishment, a minimum housing code's
adoption and tenants groups' formations.
It's all part of increased public and governmental
concern over housing conditions, according toCarl
Kopines, Lincoln housing administrator.
"At one time it was perfectly socially acceptable to
buy property on tax sales and rent them for whatever you
were able to get," he said. "Many people felt that the
tenant who rented from a slumlord was getting what he
deserved."
But through a gradual education process, beginning
in the 1960's, attitudes and views started to change,
Kopines said. He attributed this change partially to
the league of Women Voters educational programs and
the development of Lincoln Action Program and
Housing and Neighborhood Development.
Today more and more citizens are being converted to
the opinion that society cannot "continue its practice of
allowing people to rent unfit properties," the housing
administrator said.
As people realize that factors beyond the control of
the low-income and the fixed-income contribute to their
plight, attitudes toward these groups change, Kopines
said. He added that people begin to see the two groups
are not poor only because they are lazy or want to be
on welfare.
The age of decent housing for all is yet to come. It is
hoped that this report will educate and will foster
discussion within the University which might lead to the
dawning of this age.
I- s
R.017 lEICOSlie iiOUSIl
there's nowhere fo move'
By MARSHA BANGERT
The gap between what housing costs and what
low-income families can pay is alive--and growing
wider.
There's the case of an ADC family that receives
$140 a month. It pays $85 rent. That makes the
budget for food and clothing a little tight.
And there's the family recently evicted from their
home. Ten members have been living in a
two-bedroom unit.
Or there's the low-income family that paid a $60 a
month heating bill last winter because of the
condition of its house. The family's utility payments
exceeded its rent, they hesitated to move, fearing
there wasn't any better housing available at a
comparable cost.
Fear-that's a key word. "Low-income people are
afraid to talk or do anything about their housing
problems," said Bea Richmond, City -Wide Tenants
Association president. "They're afraid there's no
where to move."
Lincoln has too few rental units for low-income
people. In a September 1969 report, the Department
of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) listed
Lincoln's vacancy rate, or percentage of rental units
available, at six per cent. This contrasts with the 1.6
per cent vacancy rate for low-income housing quoted
by Gerald E. Henderson, the city's relocation officer.
A three per cent rate is considered a minimum to
accommodate a normally mobile population.
Henderson's relocation office first assists families
who must move because the city purchased their
home or because of the enforcement of the minimum
housing code. Other families are assisted when there
are no such cases pending.
On May 14 Henderson said he had 36 families on
file waiting to be relocated. Approximately two
weeks earlier he told a Lincoln Action Program (LAP)
meeting that he was trying to place 280 families,
Richmond reported.
'The problem is finding an adequate unit at a
price the low-income family can afford," Henderson
said. He added that the larger the family, the more
difficult it is to find low-rent housing.
A family with ten children requiring a three-to
five-bedroom unit might take as long as three months
to relocate, he commented.
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
The Lincoln Housing Authority (LHA) has a
waiting list of 500 for its leased housing program.
This program provides rent-supplements for the poor.
The construction of Lincoln multi-family units
tends toward large projects offering luxuries like
carpeting, dishwashers and laundry facilities,
according to the 1969 HUD report. Recent projects
are mostly one and two-bedroom units renting at an
average $140 and $170 a month respectively. This is
hardly the housing sought by the poor.
A comparison of the 1960 and 1970 Censuses of
Housing also indicates this trend. The median rent
increased 21 per cent from $73 to $88 a month.
The decrease in low-rent units also is notable.
Those renting for under $40 a month decreased 50
per cent, $40 to $59-a-month units decreased 24 per
cent, $60 to $79-a-month units increased 10 per cent
and $80 to $99-a-month units decreased 33 per cent.
On the other end of the scale, units renting at $150
to $199 a month increased 478 per cent.
A family should not pay over 25 per cent of its net
income for rent, according to an amendment to the
1970 Housing Act. The Office of Economic
Opportunity (OEO) lists a family of four making less
than $3,800 as low-income. Each dependent adds
$600 (LHA considers a family of four earning under
$4,400 elibible for its leased housing program.) Each
dependent adds $200 to $400 to the total.
Using these guidelines, a low-income family of
four should be able to pay $79 to $92 a month for
housing.
But how many Lincolnites fall into the
low-income bracket can only be suggested.
The Lancaster County Welfare Department reports
994 cases of Aid to the Aged, 36 cases of Aid to
the Blind and 1,563 cases of Aid to Dependent
Children. Marvin J. Wilson, research analyst at the
State Public Welfare Office, estimated that at least 90
per cent of the Lancaster recipients are from Lincoln.
Ronald Jensen, head of the Advisory Committee
on Aging, said 6.000 elderly fall below the OEO
poverty guidelines. Yet Lincoln has no public housing
for the elderly in a state which has more public
housing for elderly people than any other in the
union, he added.
Jensen noted that in conferences around the state,
old people rated housing among the top nine need
WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 1971