Yesterday, I attended a forum sponsored by University Neighborhood Housing Program and hosted by Fordham University. The occasion marked the 30th Anniversary of UNHP with the release of a report, Nowhere to Go: A Crisis of Affordability in the Bronx. The report, a short, straight-forward and succinct research document, demonstrates clearly what all of us who work and live in the Bronx already know – incomes have stagnated; living wage jobs are non-existent; and families struggle each and every month to hold off eviction and the resulting homelessness. What is more, rents have been rising nearly 50% faster than inflation. This is a recipe for disaster, and the disaster is here. [Think 50,000 homeless crowding our city shelters. Consider that evictions in the Bronx are about double the average for the rest of the city. Also consider that half of our neighbors pay more than 50% of their incomes for rent.]
What was most heartening about the forum was not how the sponsors laid out a solution – they admitted there were no easy fixes – but the refreshing manner of how the issue was framed. Where so many of our “leaders” simply accept poverty and push to either criminalize it or profit from it, discussion at this forum was focused on how to ensure that those who are struggling have opportunities for work and other avenues of economic advancement; and if a person has a full-time job, that person should be able to earn a living wage — regardless of position or market sector.
This is the next struggle. Stay tuned for more activity around this issue. Click onto the links for a copy of the report and the article in the Bronx News segment of the New York Daily News.