affordable housing crisis: Residential mobility of poor families and school mobility of poor children, The

Journal of Negro Education, The, Winter 2003 by Crowley, Sheila

Some literature on residential mobility, child well-being, and school achievement cites housing problems as the reason poor children are so transient (Barlett, 1997b; Cohen, 1994a, 1994b). Parents interviewed by the Kids Mobility Project (1998) in Minnesota blame their perpetual quest to find affordable, safe housing for their children's frequent school changes. Teachers and administrators in a New York City school with high student turnover identify poverty-induced residential mobility-evictions, stays in shelters, doubling-up-as the cause of student transience (Hollaway, 2000). Fifty-eight percent of the sixth graders in Chicago public schools who changed schools did so for housing-related reasons; school-related reasons, such as problems at the old school or opportunities at the new school, were cited along with housing-related reasons by 18% of the students (Kerbow, 1996). Public policy intervention to address the housing affordability problems of the poor in order to reduce their residential mobility is also called for so that problematic school turnover can in turn be reduced (Rothstein, 2000; Scanlon & Devine, 2001).

Intervention in housing problems by schools or as school-related strategies also indicates a perceived relationship between housing problems and residential mobility. In Houston, school officials negotiated with landlords to use one-year leases that end on June 30 in order to curtail moves during the school year (Fowler-Finn, 2001). New York City mandated shelter stays for up to one year in order to help families reduce residential mobility (Holloway, 2000). In Rochester, New York, an association of landlords teamed up with local school and welfare department officials and a local foundation to develop a range of housing and community-based strategies to reduce school transience, with impressive results (Cohen, 1994a).

Having established that residential mobility of poor children can impair their school performance, and that the residential mobility of poor children is often associated with housing problems, the discussion now turns to the state of affordable housing in the United States and the role of federal housing policy in the affordable housing crisis.

Housing Affordability

The United States is experiencing a housing affordability crisis that is felt most acutely by the lowest income households (Dolbeare, 2001; Joint Center for Housing Studies, 2002; Millennial Housing Commission, 2002; Nelson, 2001). Fifteen percent (14.9 million) of households in the United States are considered extremely low income, with median household income of $7,000 a year. They spent on average 54% of their income for their housing, far higher than the generally accepted standard of 30%. They are both renters (8.5 million) and homeowners (6.4 million). On a national basis, a full-time worker must earn at least $14.66 an hour, $9.51 more than the federal minimum wage, to afford the rent for a modest two-bedroom home (Pitcoff, Schaffer, Dolbeare, & Crowley, 2002).