Editor's Kid

Housing crisis isn’t being addressed

Posted admin

We face many pressing needs, but one that doesn’t seem to be adequately addressed is housing. Did you know:

–1 in 7 homes that go on the market today are bought by investors?

–The cost of starter homes are rising seven times faster than renter incomes?

–The typical renter needs 27 years to save for a 20 percent down payment, in part because rents are so high?

But little is being done.

Situation here

Here in Carroll County, AR, the county still has $2 million available under the American Rescue Plan, so why not allocate this money to a group like that can work on addressing the housing needs. We already have a non-profit working on this. Echo Village offers temporary housing and could be persuaded, I think, to do more with more funding and get things rolling a bit faster.

According to a count conducted on March 10 we have 60 homeless families in the Eureka/ Berryville, AR, área. Yet the closest shelter for them is Fayetteville or Harrison, both 40 miles away.
Same elsewhere
Look at the “help wanted” signs all around us. We need people to work in restaurants, entertainment venues and motels, yet have no housing those workers can afford. We have an opportunity here and elsewhere to help, so let’s do something.
And in San Marcos, TX

Before we moved to Arkansas nine months ago, I had served for seven years on the city Planning & Zoning Commission. That city faced the same problems as the community I live in now, yet little seemed to be helping.

Motel conversion

Both here and in San Marcos, ambitious developers helped convert older motels into efficiency apartments that were affordable. And that works fine for a while. What if, however, a young couple in that efficiency has a child? Where can they go? Neither community had an answer.

My daughter in Iowa

My daughter and her fiance in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, also would like to move from their rental home to a home of their own. But as soon as they find something, they find it snatched up by an investor for an inflated price. So they sit and wait.

Protection of neighborhoods

Everyone seems happy to see the prices of homes skyrocket — as long as you’re already in one. But what good does it do? When you sell at that inflated price, you then have to buy another home at another high price.

And what about selling to out-of-state investors? That was a huge problem in San Marcos, a college town, and it’s a huge problem here in Eureka Springs, a tourist town. Shouldn’t there be a way to control sales to owner-occupied homes only? I know it could be a bureaucratic nightmare. But it should help.

Something should happen fast

Taking advantage of grants, keeping home prices for sale and rent low enough to be affordable and keeping homes out of the hands of investors are things that should be at the top of everyone’s housing list.

Please address this, lawmakers, and please let’s elect those who will.