December 2022 Unit Meeting – 2022 Housing Study
Elaine Klos, Chair of the Housing Study Committee and the Housing Committee (Reed Bilz, Linda Hanratty, Steve Epstein and Ann Stevenson) presented an overview of their Housing Study at the December unit meeting.
The committee did a great job identifying the current housing status and options. I want to thank all members who have contributed to this study. This is a difficult issue. There are many contributing factors to housing insecurity and few agencies providing assistance.
2022 provided a worst-case scenario in a search for affordable housing, with evictions on the rise and with the unprecedented soaring cost of housing.
Please review the 2022 Housing Study (user login required).
The following Discussion Questions and proposed Local Program updates were modified by the Committee after the unit meeting based on unit meeting feedback.
HOUSING STUDY QUESTIONS modified 12-17-2022
- What do you consider to be the most compelling barriers to obtaining affordable housing?
- Availability of affordable housing
- Rent vs. income.
- Insufficient financial assistance, public or private
- Lack of a comprehensive list of sources for assistance
- Refusal to accept housing vouchers
- Liberal eviction laws for landlords
- Limitations for construction
- Lack of comprehensive, consolidated list of current available housing
- Lack of comprehensive, consolidated information regarding qualifications and uniform process for applying.
- Inadequate transportation, access needed for schools, childcare, essential shopping
- Lack of Community Support Services (example: Fort Worth, Las Vegas Trail area).
- Institutional discrimination including, income inequality, race, belief system, ethnicity, gender, education, job status, poverty, social status.
- What are ways to remove the above identified barriers?
- More funding, public and private
- More housing choices
- Streamlined and uniform methods for obtaining vouchers including criteria and process
- Coordinated funding resources similar to coalition for mental health services
- Eliminate institutional discrimination of funding and economic areas. Enforce current laws.
- The study committee is asking for consensus to make changes and additions to the current Housing position based on this study.
- Do you agree to proceed with all the proposed changes?
- If not, do we need to remove or amend any of the proposed changes? Please specify.
- Do we need to make any additional changes? Please specify.
- The current language is fine as is and no changes are required.
- Which issues warrant priority action?
- What action, if any, should LWVTC take?
- Write action letters to elected officials
- Make presentation(s) to governmental entities
- Write op-ed piece or letter to the Editor
- Edit and expand referral/resource list and make available for use
- Work with LWVUS and LWVTX on appropriate legislation
- Other
Current LOCAL PROGRAM and Consensus Statement language.
Program:
SUPPORT access to affordable housing for people in Tarrant County League area. 5–89
Consensus Statement: (Changes require membership approval at Annual Meeting)
HOUSING - May 1989 the League of Women Voters of Tarrant County supports access to affordable housing for all people in Tarrant County. with a single source for low-income housing, required criteria for rent or purchase, and tenant resources.
• Funding should come from all levels of government - local, state, county, federal - and from the private sector.
• Support for a variety of housing units for low-income individuals and families including, but not limited to; tiny houses, manufactured housing, single room occupancy, boarding houses, apartments in various settings, and single-family homes, as well as traditional subsidized low-income housing.
• Support for supervised transitional housing for the elderly, mentally ill, homeless, battered spouses, disabled and others needing additional support services while residents work towards more permanent housing.
• Provide for low-income housing residents to pay on a sliding scale based on their income.
• Encourage social service agencies and private organizations to bridge the gap between the need for and the availability of housing and support services.
• Increase funding for existing agencies to increase their staff, to include an increase in case managers who should coordinate landlord and tenant counseling programs, advocacy for residents, and outreach and promotion for community networking.
• Emphasize cooperation among all of those involved in low-income housing: agencies, landlords, managers, and the tenants themselves.
Proposed LOCAL PROGRAM and Consensus Statement language
Proposed Amended Position:
Encourage governmental, social service agencies and private organizations to continue to bridge the gap between the need for and the availability of affordable and low-cost housing and support services.
Proposed Additional Positions:
- Advocate for more consistent and simplified approaches to affordable and low-income housing including the qualification criteria and application process.
- Locate affordable housing near schools, childcare, essential shopping, and neighborhood support services. (e.g., Fort Worth Las Vegas Trail project)
- Advocate to eliminate institutional discrimination including all funding and voucher distribution inequality, and all protected classes under law or local ordinance.
- Periodically review the status of housing for low-income residents and advocate for improvements in laws and regulations, including zoning, at all governmental levels.
- Take appropriate action, as needed, to increase funding to re-open waiting lists for affordable housing.
- Take appropriate action, as needed, to encourage local governmental agencies to initiate planning to find permanent solutions to the affordable housing problem.
- Take appropriate action, as needed, to support appropriate affordable housing proposals.
- Advocate for the extension of the existing Statewide 211 social service line to provide improved clearinghouse services for low-income affordable housing. This clearing house would complement existing homeless coalition services and have low-income affordable focused data on all currently available housing, updated qualification criteria, and uniform application process information.
Proposed Specific LWVTC Actions
This new subsection has been included to describe specific actions that we expect LWVTC to act upon. Although the additional Affordable Housing positions included in this document, above, address LWV beliefs and objectives, the vast majority of those items do not fit within the LWV charter, nor are they achievable within the resources that the LWVTC would be able to apply. However, as made clear in our report, despite significant actions at the federal, state, county, local, and non-profit level, the Low-Cost Affordable Housing Issue in Tarrant County has been getting worse and there are actions that LWVTC can and should take to help improve the situation. The specific actions recommended are listed below. As the years go by, other actions addressing the general bullets in the material above can be added.
- Monitor the proceedings of the United States Congress, Texas Legislature, Tarrant County Commissioner’s Court, City Councils, and other policy making bodies that concern affordable housing topics. Identify items which could benefit from LWV advocacy. [Responsible Lead (name here),]
- Brief the LWVTC membership about Affordable Housing needs twice a year. During the briefings explicitly list legislative and policy topics that could benefit from specific LWVTC leadership and membership actions. Additional actions may need to be taken between briefings. [Responsible Lead (name here), Solicit volunteers to take detailed actions)]