Taking a long, hard look at the issue of housing insecurity

There are certain topics of conversation that come up frequently here in the offices of the News Journal. Among those is the seemingly worsening issue of homelessness and housing insecurity in our local communities.

All you have to do is look around, and you will notice that there are more people than ever before who are asking for help. Their specific requests may vary depending on each individual situation, but the one common theme seems to be that they have nowhere to call home. It’s really sad, and the effects of this issue go far beyond just those who are dealing with it directly. It truly is affecting us all, which is what I am hoping to illustrate over the course of the next several weeks.

We have dedicated many column inches in the pages of the News Journal to covering various efforts to combat housing insecurity in our local communities over the years, so in one way this is nothing new. I feel like we can do more, though, by really digging deep into those ongoing efforts, as well as maybe talking to a few folks whose points of view have yet to be shared.

For example, much has been written about Corbin’s White Flag Ministries since it was first established about eight years ago. We have also covered some happenings at Emergency Christian Ministries in Williamsburg, but what about looking deeper into the specific issues that led to folks needing to seek out the help of those particular ministries in the first place?

Something else that we have written about in the recent past is the Whitley County Health Department’s new online health assessment, which can be accessed at www.dashbaords.mysidewalk.com/whitley-county-health-assessment. This useful online tool offers a wide range of data on pretty much everything that you could imagine concerning the overall health and well-being of our community, including issues related to housing insecurity.

According to the health department’s findings, approximately 20% of households in Whitley County are categorized as low-income households that are “severely cost burdened.” Another stat is that there are nearly 1,400 occupied housing units at any particular point in time where the gross rent accounts for 30 percent or more of the occupant’s income. Likewise, there are just over 1,800 occupied housing units where owner housing costs account for 30 percent or more of income.

When breaking things down by demographics, Whitley County ranks at-or-below the state average for home ownership in just about every category. Of course, we would all like to see those numbers trend upward so that we can rank above average, but it’s not going to happen overnight.

I really like the following paragraph from the county health assessment that says, “Owning a home leads to more opportunities—owning a safe, affordable home leads to even more opportunities for health and wealth. The ripple effect of homeownership on other areas of life and for children in a home is far-reaching, including financial, social, and physical health benefits. For families who can’t afford to own a home due to the cycle of poverty or historical barriers, such as restrictions on housing purchases for certain racial groups, those added health benefits are unattainable.”

So, how do we plan on shining a light on this increasingly burdensome issue?

Well, over the next 5-6 weeks I am hoping to speak to several different people to ask the questions “why is this happening,” “how is it affecting the community,” and “what specifically needs to be done?” Those people will include local ministers, local law enforcement, housing authority directors, behavioral health professionals, adult education professionals, community action organization representatives, and more. By the end of this series of articles my hope is that we will at least have a better understanding of the core issues behind housing insecurity in our local area, and that folks will know where they can turn if they happen to be dealing with any of those issues themselves.

Thanks in advance to all who end up helping out in this effort.