Each must be addressed fully in order for any to be meaningful. It is in America s self-interest to assure good housing for everyone and to strengthen the economic foundation of every community. The well being of each citizen is interdependent with the well being of all. This is the foundation of a civil society. The burden of the affordable housing crisis weighs most heavily on those without sufficient income to compete in the housing market.
Homelessness is an ever-present condition in virtually all communities regardless of affluence.
All too often it is a daily worry for those who have housing, but have few personal resources. Community disinvestment burdens most directly the people left in neighborhoods where the economic base and the public infrastructure have withered. However, no one is immune from the ill effects of the crisis in affordable housing and declining communities, just as no one is immune from the toll that poverty extracts from our society. There is an economic cost, with public expenditures on ameliorating symptoms of poverty such as crime, homelessness, chronic illness, school failure, child neglect and economic disinvestment. There is a social cost, with people living in isolation from one another and lacking basic understanding of the culture and worldviews of people different from themselves.