Shelterforce Magazine

While the burst of the housing bubble recedes into the past, its echo continues to reverberate throughout the economy and in communities across the land. The U.S. housing market remains a mess. Home values have steeply fallen from their 2006 peaks, loan defaults have reached historic levels, and the implosion of the housing finance system may take years to rectify. The latest figures from the Mortgage Bankers Association report over 8 percent of all mortgages were at least one month late during the first quarter of 2009, which is the highest figure since tracking began almost 40 years ago.

Tough economic times are straining what is already a maxed-out system of social services. Despite the attention being paid to beleaguered homeowners, renters are being squeezed as well. Since an increasing number of Americans simply earn too little to afford to rent a decent home, one vital element of our social net is the provision of rental housing assistance. To help these families meet their basic needs for shelter, the federal government spends more than $25 billion a year through a mix of housing vouchers and direct subsidies to help about four million households.

In standard U.S. policy-speak, “poverty” is an income concept. The “poverty line” is an income measure, access to social programs is largely related to income, and when policymakers examine distributional effects of a policy, they turn to income quintiles.

Like many others in the community development field, Marianne Garvin recognizes that moving up and out of poverty requires not just a stream of income but also a reservoir of assets. As the executive vice president of the Community Development Corporation of Long Island (CDC), her challenge is to assemble an array of tools that can help her clients increase their earnings and become homeowners. To do this, Garvin knows, combining entrepreneurship and collaboration is the key.