The Issue Of Affordable Housing - 1256 Words

On the 9th of December of 2014, I attended a San Jose City Council meeting in the council chambers in the San Jose City Hall. The topic of discussion was the issue of affordable housing in San Jose. There are nearly 5,000 homeless people in San Jose. There are thousands more on waiting lists for affordable housing, some using more than 50 percent of their daily income for rent, or in danger of losing their homes. Homelessness impacts our community, our environment, and our homeless neighbors. Addressing the issue of homelessness is a constant battle between respecting the rights and also meeting the needs of the homeless individuals. This was continuously brought up during the City Council meeting. The members were discussing the†¦show more content†¦The City Council members eventually voted to keep the funding towards housing and not to divert it to transportation. Homelessness is a very complex issue that affects the community from an economic and a social perspective. Homelessness and poverty are inevitably linked. Poor people are frequently unable to pay for housing, food, childcare, healthcare and education. The primary cause of homelessness though is the lack of affordable housing and the limited scale of housing assistance programs. â€Å"Often, poor people can afford to live only in inadequate housing-housing that is unsafe or broken down in a way that degrades the life and dignity of the residents.† (Windley-Daoust, 207). The growing gap between the number of affordable housing units and the number of people needing them has created a housing crisis for the less fortunate. Operating shelters, medical services, day centers and so on cost a lot of money and generally, funding for these programs come from taxpayer dollars and private donations. Many though go unfunded and many homeless are forced to find other methods to meet their needs. Since most communities do not have enough resources to give adequate shelter to the homeless, they will be ultimately forced to find alternate places to sleep and live. This could be behind buildings, benches, doorways of businesses and this can cause pollution within public areas. According to the National