Rural America's Silent Housing Crisis
Conversations about affordable housing are often dominated with the question of how to get lower-income residents in expensive cities—like New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco (and their surrounding areas)—safe, affordable places to live. That makes sense: Often urban hubs are a good bet for jobs and economic vitality, but they're also prohibitively expensive for many—creating well-known housing problems. But cities aren't the only places that are lacking when it comes to adequate housing at affordable prices. In rural America, it's both prices and the terrible condition of existing homes that are problematic.
Few people think about rural communities—not only when it comes to housing issues, but at all. It's mostly a numbers game. According to data from the Housing Assistance Council (HAC), in 2012 only about 21 percent of Americans lived in rural areas, which means that not many people outside those areas—or about 80 percent of Americans—probably feel much association with rural issues. And that can make it difficult to shed light on the problems that happen there. Making the case to divert funds and attention to parts of the country that house a mere 20 percent of the total population can be an uphill battle, especially in difficult economic times.
It can be hard to understand how finding affordable housing could be an issue in areas where housing is substantially cheaper than it would be in the nearest city or suburb. But the fact of the matter is, despite lower costs of living, income for many in rural areas is also significantly lower thanks to limited economic opportunities and struggling industries, like coal.
"When we are looking at areas that are most challenged economically we're also finding some of the most challenging housing conditions," says David Dangler, the director of Rural Initiatives at NeighborWorks America, an organization that advocates for affordable housing and acts as a network for nonprofit housing groups. Poverty is high in rural areas, with about 17.2 percent of rural residents living below the poverty line in 2012 versus 14.9 percent nationwide, according to 2012 data from the HAC. "Much of the affordable-housing stock in rural housing areas is old and in need of repair. Many of the people who live there don't have the resources that they need in order to keep the houses in good repair," says Sheila Crowley, president of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition.
For example, take Lynne Bouknight, who moved back to her childhood home in Elk Creek, Virginia, after her mother moved away for a job. When she was younger, Bouknight says that her father was able to take care of the upkeep of the place—a two-story, grey brick house—tinkering with things and fixing them as they broke. But by the time she was living in it, the house—built in 1949 by her grandfather—began to show its age. "The water went first," Bouknight remembers. At first it wasn't so bad she says, she was in good health then, and she could haul water inside after the pump broke, and pick up kindling and timber from her property to make fires on her wood-burning stove. "I could build a fire in about a minute. The colder it is the faster I could build one," she said chuckling. She had a friend who'd swing by to help her with small maintenance issues and she could visit neighbors and friends for showers and laundry. But then things took a turn for the worse.
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