At the end of World War Two approximately 8 million U.S. service members returned to the United States. They returned at the rate of 22,000 per day between 1945 and 1946 and following that period the number of veterans reentering civilian life totaled nearly 16 million.
They all needed homes whether they returned to the one they had known before the war or not.
The GI Bill provided education and training benefits to roughly 8 million veterans and over 4 million received home loans.
The term Affordable Housing had not been invented.
Veterans required a job and given a job, they could determine for themselves what they could or could not afford.
Jobs came first.
My former father-in-law went door to door with a chain saw in Southern California looking for work. He moved his family, his wife and daughter, into a chicken coop which he renovated until they could rent or purchase anything better.
My uncle two thousand miles away in Highland, Indiana did the same thing. As a carpenter he ironically also found a chicken coop to repair and secure and move into with his wife. He later built every house he ever lived in and attained proficiency as a master carpenter and general superintendent of heavy construction.
Chicken coops must have been readily available after World War Two, as a third family member recalled living in one and “never being able to get rid of the smell.” She lived to a venerable old age at the head of a prosperous family that could eventually live anywhere they wanted.
So when Affordable Housing becomes the celebrated phrase of political conversation, there is no need to seek for chicken coops or delve into history books. Examples of real Affordable Housing live among us. They exist, for instance, on the street I walked today canvassing for a seat on the Dane County Board of Supervisors for District 7.
On that street are two prefabricated Lustron houses, constructed after World War Two of enameled steel and looking just as bright and durable today as they did seventy to eighty years ago. That’s sustainability. They average 713 to 1,021 square feet and they were built at a cost then of about $10,500 which even adjusted for 1273% inflation is today $144,169.
What makes that notable is the fact at a public forum this week attended by about forty-five people, a well placed Madison official stated it is “very difficult” to build a single family Affordable Housing unit for less than $500,000. If you care to find one with the help of a local housing authority you must wade into forms that rival your income tax statements plus questions pertaining to your personal habits, personal history and prospects, all of which will be required to determine and validate your eligibility for Affordable Housing.
It’s gets complicated and complications are usually expensive.
If not for the prospective resident, then the established property owners who are taxed to subsidize Affordability.
The term Affordable Housing renders itself meaningless.
It rises or falls with the question, “What can I afford?” and that question is ultimately answered by income. The answer differs with each and every individual and is best answered by the individual themselves and not a corporate formula which states in so many words, ‘We determine you are eligible or not for Affordable Housing’.
That’s where it gets politically complicated, not politically correct, and even more so when Affordable Housing must look like it came from a real estate brochure where everyone is entitled to their dream home today or tomorrow whether or not they ever served their country, whether or not they ever did without due to economic necessity or the pure desire to stay out of debt or because they decided to wait for what they wanted in the hope they could do it for themselves and didn’t want anyone else to do it for them.
That is called Self-Reliance.
It turns every house of whatever cost into a home.