A Manifesto For A Moral Housing Movement

"Woe to you who think you live on easy street in Zion, who think Mount Samaria is the good life.

You assume you’re at the top of the heap,

voted the number-one best place to live."

- the prophet Amos

(Amos 6:1, the Message)

Four Moral Housing Principles

No one should be homeless.

Large homes should be occupied by large households.

Smaller homes should be occupied by smaller households.

Empty Nesters should consider downsizing or taking in extra occupants.

There's a lot of talk about a shortage of affordable housing these days, but is there an actual lack of living space or simply a lack of equitable access to it?

As I travel around Harrisonburg, I see homeless people almost every day, as well as expansive mega-homes with multiple bedrooms and baths that are often inhabited by only one or two people.

What's wrong with that picture?

Meanwhile there are many modest homes, apartments, townhouses and duplexes in the neighborhood that provide adequate housing to individuals and small families, along with many mobile homes and other older dwellings in various states of repair. At the same time, the Harrisonburg Housing Authority has hundreds of people on their waiting list for subsidized housing, and those on low incomes are finding it ever more difficult to find a house or apartment they can afford.

According to a local United Way funded ALICE* Report, a family of two adults and and two children in our area needs a combined income of $66,180 in order to afford housing and other living costs. But based on information available from Trulia.com there are very few 3-bedroom homes available for rent for under $1000 a month, and an equally few homes that can be purchased for under $200,000.

Here are some things we empty nesters and others with more space (and more stuff) than we need, might do to help:

1. Put our home on the market and purchase or rent a smaller place, including the option of some seniors moving into an independent living facility at a retirement community. This would make more homes and more bedrooms available to growing families and encourage us all to downsize and get rid of some of our surplus in a way that would make things a lot easier on our children and others when we pass on.

2. Take in international or exchange students or offer hospitality to other individuals who need a bedroom on a short term or long term basis.

3. Make our home available to an organization like Oxford House or some other kind of group home for  persons in recovery or with special needs--or turn it into a homeless shelter! I know there are zoning issues that could get in the way, but our community should be able to work together to make reasonable accommodations for more moral housing.

4. Join with others in the community in a campaign to help make existing housing more energy efficient, thus reducing housing costs and helping save the planet.

Harrisonburg is known as the "Friendly City." I hope that means being hospitable to the the least of these and not just to the most of these.

*Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed