Imagine what your life would be like if you didn’t have a
home to live in. If you were facing
eviction and you didn’t know where you and your children would live. If you thought that where you were living was
just too expensive but when you looked around, the cost of rentals was higher
than you pay now. Imagine if you were
working, often more than one job, and you still couldn’t afford to live in your
community. How would that impact your work, your sense of self, your health, your
children, your future?
I was stunned, at the recent Commissioners Forum on Housing,
by the speakers’ data and viewpoints on the unaffordability of housing. We see it on a daily basis – our shelters are
full of families (most of them working) who can’t afford housing in our community. But hearing it from a business, health,
planning and educational perspective was astounding. The impacts on our community are so
vast. Dr. Amy Dailey, from Gettysburg
College, shared the data and the correlation between housing and depression,
stress and other health issues. Suzanne
Christianson, a local realtor, shared the difficulties of finding housing for
low wage families and seniors on a fixed income. Rob Thaeler, Principal Planner for Adams
County shared the facts about housing in our local community and how most of
the housing developed here draws from those moving into our area and working
outside of the county - with most houses being built costing above $250,000.
Dr. Chris Echterling from Wellspan Health (also Physician of
the Year in Pennsylvania for 2016) shared stories about how housing
significantly impacts a family’s ability to be healthy and the new data on
addiction and recovery and their strong ties to housing, as well as, the cost
of providing housing compared to providing shelter space, mental health units
and health care - it was so compelling.
Robin Fitzpatrick shared data relating to business and how
local HR reps said that families earning under $50,000 per year can’t afford
housing (and many earning under $80,000 can’t either) and the impact on their
businesses. When she shared that
individuals working in family/social services just earn enough to cover the
costs for a one-person family, that was bad enough, but she went on to share
that those in the service industry - who support our tourism economy don’t earn
enough to even support a family of one – I couldn’t help but think of how big
this problem is.
But most of all, the stories shared by Kelly DeWees, from
Gettysburg School District, about the more than 128 homeless children the
district serves and the story of a family renting a U-Haul trailer by the week
so that their kids could sleep in a shelter that was cheaper than housing in
the community, I was heartbroken.
This isn’t a social services problem! And if you mistakenly think the social
services world has it covered, you are so very wrong. There are nearly no resources to help –
governmental or otherwise. And this
isn’t a people making the wrong choices problem – it is a matter of
numbers. We live in a community fueled
by agriculture and tourism – traditionally low wage jobs- but we live in a college town that is a
bedroom community to Baltimore and Washington.
A beautiful community in a state that offers tax advantages for those
retiring here. Those factors push up the
cost of living – which wouldn’t be a problem if we had wages that enabled
people who work in our community to afford to live here – but for many, that
just isn’t the case. Poverty in our
community is working families who earn low wages (often from more than one job)
and seniors on a fixed income. If you
work in Adams County, you may well be struggling to live in Adams County. We have to fix this! We, as a community, have to change this.
No comments:
Post a Comment