An estimated 5.1 million American households face worst-case housing needs, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Receiving little or no government housing assistance, these families are unable to find a decent place to live at a price they can afford to pay. They are also forced to pay more than half their income for housing, endure overcrowded conditions and live in houses with severe physical deficiencies, and thats just in the U.S.; worldwide more than 2 billion people live in poverty housing. While the number of families in poverty is growing, the number of affordable rental units is shrinking, and most families who qualify for government housing assistance aren’t receiving any aid. Working in partnership with low-income families to build decent homes they can afford to buy, Habitat for Humanity helps to break the cycle of poverty and hopelessness. By the end of 2005, more than 1 million people worldwide will live in decent, affordable Habitat for Humanity houses. Ive been researching HFH for about 2 months now because I am planning to join during the summer and Ive realized that the need for decent, affordable housing is great and HFH helps fill that need.
The Essay on Venice Family ClinicThe Uses Of Poverty: The Poor Pay For All
Poverty is a persistent social phenomenon. A functional analysis (Robert Merton) of poverty may explain positive functions as to why such phenomenon continues to persist, as seen by Herbert J. Gans’ study, “The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay for All”, which expresses thirteen positive functions of poverty and further expresses its consistency with the functionalist perspective. In society, ...
Today Im going to tell you why HFH is needed, how HFH helps, why you should get involved and what you can do to help. First Ill tell you why its needed. Next Slide MORE THAN 11 MILLION AMERICANS FACE WORST-CASE NEEDS According to a report prepared for Congress in 2003 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), 5.1 million American households face “worst-case housing needs.” These families: are renters receiving no government assistance; make less than 50 percent of the area median income; pay more than 50 percent of their income for rent and utilities and/or live in housing with severe physical deficiencies; include some 3.6 million children, 1.6 million elderly adults and 1.3 million disabled adults. Worldwide, the need is even greater. Some 2 billion people worldwide live in poverty housing.
More than 1 billion live in urban slums, and that figure is expected to double by 2030. Many of these people earn less than US$2 per day. Housing problems have far-reaching consequences. The high cost of housing leaves low-income families little money for other basic necessities like food, clothing or health care. Substandard housing can endanger the health and safety of its occupants, erode their hope and self-worth, and impair their children’s ability to succeed in school. Next Slide Affordable Housing Statistics THE UNITED STATES’ HOUSING NEED IS GREAT More than 30 million U.S. households face one or more of the following housing problems: Cost burdens: paying an excessively large percentage of income on housing costs.
More than 13 million households pay more than 50 percent of their income for housing. Overcrowding: the number of people living in the house is greater than the total number of rooms in the house. About 6.1 million households live in overcrowded conditions. Physical inadequacy: severe physical deficiencies, such as having no hot water, no electricity, no toilet, or neither a bathtub nor a shower. One out of every seven poor families lives in severely physically inadequate housing. GOVERNMENT AID IS NOT HELPING MOST OF THOSE IN NEED Of the 30 million households with housing problems, 14.5 million qualify for government aid, yet only 4.1 million are actually receiving any. In fact, most of the U.S. government’s housing subsidies do not benefit the poor.
The Term Paper on Middle Class Income Wages Percent
Being middle class has emerged as a vital part of the 20 th-century American pscyhe. The majority of Americans define themselves as middle class, regardless of their actual income level. This perception is obviously off-base, but with no official definition, it's hard to pin down how much Americans overestimate their middle-class status. It's not difficult to understand why they do it, though. ...
For example, in 1995, homeowners earning more than $100,000 per year received a total of $28.9 billion in federal income tax deductions on mortgage interest payments. By comparison, the entire 1999 budget of HUD was only $25 billion. AFFORDABLE HOUSING IS GETTING HARDER TO FIND For every 100 very low-income renters, only 76 affordable rental units are currently available. Between 1997 and 2001, the number of available units declined 13 percent; there were 1.8 million fewer units that very low-income renters could afford. To afford the fair-market price of the average U.S. two-bedroom rental unit, renters working full-time need to earn at least $15.28 per hour. That’s almost three times the current federal minimum wage and 37 percent more than renters needed to earn in 1999.
For the 14.8 million U.S. households that make $10,000 or less per year, a year’s rent costs about 70 percent of their annual income. More than 2 million housing units have “severe physical problems.” This includes 1.4 million that have severe plumbing problems. About 1.6 million have one or more rooms without electrical outlets. Next Slide AFFORDABLE HOUSING IS NEEDED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD Currently there are some 1.2 billion people worldwide experiencing “income poverty,” meaning they live on the equivalent of less than one dollar per day. 1 The United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS) has estimated that 1.1 billion people are living in inadequate housing conditions in urban areas alone. 2 They have also estimated that some approximately 21 million new housing units are required each year in developing countries to accommodate growth in the number of households during the period between 2000 and 2010 period. Some 14 million additional units would be required each year for the next 20 years if the current housing deficit is to be replaced by 2020.
3 In Latin America, households need 5.4 times their annual income to buy a house. In Africa, they need an average of 12.5 times their annual income. The highest rents are found in the Arab States, where a household spends an average of 45 percent of its monthly income on rent. Real estate costs are highest in Asia and the Pacific where one square meter of land for a serviced plot costs an average of $3.10 in U.S. dollars. PEOPLE WORLDWIDE NEED DECENT HOUSES IN DECENT COMMUNITIES Less than 20 percent of households in Africa are connected to piped water, and only 40 percent have piped water within 200 meters of their home. In the developing world, 29 percent of cities have areas considered as “inaccessible” or “dangerous” to the police. In Latin America and the Caribbean, this figure is 48 percent.
The Essay on Jurassic Park Millions Of Years
Mr. Spielberg, While your movies Jurassic Park and The Lost World are entertaining, they are not accurate portrayals of the ecosystem in the Jurassic period. Through close examination of the animal and plant life in your movies, my high school environmental geology class has come to the decision that your movies are typical misleading Hollywood fabrications of historical data. Our most outstanding ...
In cities of the developing world, one out of every four households lives in poverty. Forty percent of African urban households are living below the locally defined poverty line. Less than 35 percent of cities in the developing world have their wastewater treated. In countries with economies in transition, 75 percent of solid wastes are disposed of in open dumps. Now Im going to tell you a little about how HFH helps. Next Slide What is Habitat for ….
