The housing crisis weakens families and communities, contributes to traffic congestion and air pollution, and makes it hard for growing businesses to find and keep employees. In spite of the robust economy of the last few years the housing crisis for many low-income urban and rural residents has worsened. The dwindling supply of affordable housing is a major part of the problem. Stable neighborhoods and affordable housing are two sides of the same coin. If we fail to preserve the neighborhoods that already house so many low-income families, we will lose far more housing to community deterioration than we can hope to replace through government subsidies.
Housing is likewise crucial to stable low-income communities.
Many families with severe housing needs live there. Housing production contributes to community revitalization by removing blight, stabilizing the population base, attracting reinvestment and restoring weak markets. And affordable home ownership builds family wealth and contributes to a healthy income mix. In communities across the country, some 3,600 CDCs have rehabilitated and built more than 550,000 homes and created 247,000 private sector jobs. The result is that for the first time in a generation, we re not just talking about a successful project here or a renovated block there, but the transformation of entire neighborhoods.