Future Hindsight

The housing crisis started with a policy decision The leading cause was cutbacks to federal funding for housing for poor people starting with the Reagan administration. In 1978, the federal government was funding about over 300,000 new units of affordable housing each year. In 1983, that number had decreased to under 3,000 each year. Currently, only one in four poor people who qualify for federal housing assistance actually receives it. Working men and women who do not earn enough to pay for housing, such as minimum wage workers, cannot afford housing based on affordability guidelines set by the federal government. Housing is a human right Without housing, nothing else is truly possible. Housing is essential for families, children, adults, the ill, and the disabled. Housing is recognized as a human right by the UN and by international treaties, including some that the United States has signed on to. However, even though Congress has set a goal for decent, affordable housing for every family 50 years ago, it h