Mar
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Blog Post #7 – Housing Inequality – Tiffany Fan
March 15, 2015 | Leave a Comment
Living in the city is evidently expensive since you’re surrounded by opportunities around you and the convenience to job locations. The median rent is highest in Manhattan, which is $1474, which is expected because of its opportunities. If Manhattan were to be divided into different sections such as between the Upper East Side and the Harlem areas, it would show even a greater disparity in income. But since these numbers burden low-income renters, why not try places that might be considerably lower, outside of the city area such as Long Island or New Jersey? There are other options such as living in areas in Manhattan that are cheaper in rent as well.
Figure 3.4 demonstrating the index of median gross rent and median household income in 2013 caught my attention in that there is a sharp decline in median household income as median gross rent continued to increase. This causes a problem because income is declining while prices on goods are constantly rising, which causes for consumers and low-income renters to be faced with a bigger burden. As I was comparing Figure 3.1 and Figure 3.4, Figure 3.1 made a slight increase in Median Gross Rent seem insignificant, but when comparing it to Median Renter Household Income in percentages, it provides a whole new perspective. Yet, there is still some sign of hope with a slight increase of median income from 2011 to 2012
I was quite surprised to find that two-thirds of all city households rent their homes and most spend approximately 32 percent of their income on rent. Over three-quarters of low-income renters are burdened by their rent with 47 percent that are severely burdened. Comparing Figure 3.4 and Figure 3.5, if another bar was added to Figure 3.5 to show the year of 2011, I think there would be slight signs of improvement. I think providing more information from years 2000 to 2012 for Figure 3.4 would be more helpful in drawing more conclusions. If there were slight signs of improvement, it would be at least a step in the right direction and finding out what caused this improvement would be helpful.
Figure 3.7 provides an outlook on median gross rent throughout the years. Median rent for units was close to $1550 in 2012. However, instead of providing tax benefits to developers, the government should take the initiative and provide affordable housing. In addition, part of the problem that is mentioned is how new buildings must opt-in to rent stabilization. Would it be different if it were an opt-out process instead since only 8 percent of rentals were voluntarily in for tax purposes?
Comparing incomes to the rate of inflation in terms of rent, would increasing minimum wage really assist in this income gap then? Increasing minimum wage would cause for production to increase and thus, cause for inflation. So what would be the “right” amount for the minimum wage to avoid other issues yet assist the low-income renters? It seems like a constant cycle to me.
