Systemic Change to Make Housing Affordable: What It Would Look Like

Joining Forces for Affordable Housing advocates for system change to make housing more affordable in our region. Recently, someone asked the sensible question of “What would it look like if the system changes were in place?” Here are four things that we believe help to answer that question. 

1. Policies would encourage and support development of and access to affordable housing.
2. Funding would be available to develop an adequate supply of affordable housing.
3. Funding would be available to provide subsidies and homelessness prevention assistance for people who need help now.
4. Programs would be in place to preserve existing affordable housing developments and rental housing and to support landlords who rent to low-income people. 
5. All sectors of the community pitch in to create the political will to make change. 

1. Policies Would Encourage and Support Development of and Access to Affordable Housing: 

Currently, local ordinances often make it difficult to create affordable housing by restricting what can be built where. They increase development costs by requiring multiple public hearings and redundant approval processes. Additionally, practices at all levels prohibit people with low incomes, Housing Choice (Section 8) vouchers, and histories of poor credit, eviction, or justice involvement from being accepted as tenants, even in market-rate housing, and even if they have the money to pay for their housing.  
 
What would System Change look like? 

• Zoning would not prohibit efficient affordable development with anti-density restrictions around minimum sizes, numbers of units, parking requirements, etc. 
• Zoning approval processes would not obstruct progress on affordable development or increase expenses. 
• Municipalities would be required by the state to have affordable housing plans in place and to achieve minimum levels of affordability, with the goal of meeting the actual need. 

• State-level plans would include strategies for housing political, economic, and climate refugees, as well as low-income people. 
• Credit scores could not be used as a proxy for discrimination against people with vouchers, criminal backgrounds, or evictions. 
• Credit scores could only be used to deny renters who have a history of not paying rent. 
• Use of vouchers would be widely accepted by landlords. 

 
2. Funding would be available to develop an adequate supply of affordable housing. There is currently an overall shortage of housing at all prices, which exacerbates the shortage of affordable housing. Government funding is absolutely necessary if we are to build enough affordable housing to meet the needs in our communities. Federal funding is distributed to states, state funding is distributed to municipalities. Funding needs to be increased at all levels.    

What would System Change look like? 

• The federal government would appropriate more money to national housing programs such as the National Housing Trust Fund, the multiple housing development programs of the Department of Housing & Urban Development, and the IRS’s low-income housing tax credit program.  
• The State of Illinois would appropriate more money for all line items related to affordable housing development—maybe housing would even become its own section of the state budget! 

• Municipalities would seek and then access revenue to use as gap funding for affordable housing development. 

 
3. Funding would be available to provide subsidies and homelessness prevention for people who need help now. Building enough affordable housing will take longer than many people can wait. We need subsidies in place for those who need long-term assistance to pay for the housing that exists currently, and we need financial assistance for those who need temporary help so that they do not become homeless.    

What would System Change look like? 

• Funding for emergency situations would be readily accessible and flexible to prevent people from losing their housing. 
• Funding for short- and long-term subsidies would be increased at the federal, state, county and municipal levels. 
• Funding for case management would be made available through new government grants for people who need it, including those paying for their housing with vouchers and other subsidies. 

4. Programs would be in place to preserve existing affordable housing developments and rental housing and to support landlords who rent to low-income people.   

What would System Change look like? 

• Plans and funding would be in place to renew affordability agreements for developments where the affordability is due to expire. 

• Funding would be allocated to preserve existing public housing. 
• State and local programs that incentivize and support affordable landlords would be expanded. 
• Repair programs would be created and funded to help small landlords keep their buildings functioning as needed. 

 
5. Political Will Is the Key 
For these four pieces of our vision to become reality, one other thing needs to change: All sectors of the community need to pitch in to create the political will to make change.  
 
What would System Change look like? 

• Community members, government staff, and elected officials would be vocal about the need for more affordable housing and would have the knowledge to actively counter mis-information about affordable housing, homelessness, and efforts to increase affordability. 
• Government staff and officials at all levels would make affordable housing a priority and would make decisions and corresponding votes to appropriate more funding for affordable housing and pass laws that remove barriers to affordable housing. 

• Neither legislators nor a vocal majority of community members would tolerate NIMBY-ism based on race, socio-economic status, source of income, ethnicity, disability status, and other inequitable and unfair barriers to housing. Hyper-local preferences would not be considered more important than the greater good. 
• The public would use political stances on housing as ways of screening candidates and would elect office-seekers who support affordable housing. ​