HEY Celebrates 10 Years of Advocacy

The Rising Cost of Rental Housing

April 22, 2010 By Olu Johnson Leave a Comment

Affordable housing activists take note, someone working a full-time minimum wage job would be unable to afford a one-bedroom apartment in any county in the country. This grim news comes to us courtesy of “Out of Reach 2010″ a new report issued by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Currently, renters make up a third of all households (38 million) in the country and much of the housing stock may be too expensive for their budgets.

As explained in this article, the situation is predictably worse in certain parts of the country and in the Bay Area two counties in particular (San Francisco and Marin) are amongst the most expensive “jurisdictions”in the whole country. In most parts of the US, a family must earn $38,355 to afford the average fair market rent of $959, whereas in Marin and San Francisco that number rises to $38,855.

The McClatchy summary article is a good and read, but the whole report is available here.

To learn more about affordable housing, what it means, and how it gets decided check out this cool stop motion video.

(photo used via creative commons courtesy flickr user jaaron)

Filed Under: Income Tagged With: family, housing, Income, United Way

What Do They Mean by 'Affordable'?

February 25, 2010 By Olu Johnson Leave a Comment

What Is Affordable Housing? from the Center for Urban Pedagogy on Vimeo.

We often hear the term “affordable housing,” but what does it really mean? Well, our partners at United Way of King County in Washington State have uncovered a video that uses stop-motion to explain exactly what it means. From their Choose The Way blog:

The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), a nonprofit that uses design and art to improve the quality of public participation in urban planning and community design, created a great video and website that explains what the term “affordable housing” means.

For those of you who didn’t already know, the government defines affordable housing as housing that costs no more than 30% of your income.

The video goes on to discuss the implications of affordable housing has on low-income families in different regions.

Although the video is focused on New York, it does a good job of explaining exactly how the term can affect everyone and its implications are quite clear for the Bay Area, which also has a high cost of living.

Filed Under: Income, United Way Partners Tagged With: housing, Income, Parnters, self-sufficiency, United Way

HEY Celebrates 10 Years of Advocacy

May 6, 2009 By Maria Stokes Leave a Comment

The future looks brighter for the hundreds of Bay Area foster youth who age-out of the system every year: The “HEY Guide: Housing” is now available to help them find safe, affordable housing in the Bay Area, as they make the difficult transition to independence. The Guide is also a resource for other “disconnected” youth, who lack traditional family supports as they transition to adulthood.

The Guide was researched and written by three youth who have experience in the foster care and homeless systems. It was released today, during the first week of National Foster Care Month, by Honoring Emancipated Youth (HEY), which is celebrating its 10th anniversary as an advocate for Bay Area emancipated and foster youth.

“Within 18 months of leaving the foster care system, nearly half of emancipated youth are homeless because they lack the resources and support to find safe, affordable places to live,” said Sara Razavi, executive director of HEY, a community project of United Way of the Bay Area

Former homeless youth Valarie Cizek and emancipated foster youth Dylan Ruggles created the guide with assistance from young, local designer Graham Misenheimer. Ruggles, a Mills College student who served on HEY’s Emancipated Youth Advocacy Board in 2006, came up with the idea for the guide after experiencing difficulties finding housing when he emancipated from foster care in 2004. Cizek experienced homelessness as a teenager and wanted to help others by contributing to the Guide.

The free guide can be downloaded at www.heysf.org. It includes practical advice about searching for, keeping and paying for various types of housing, as well as sample rental applications and leases, and interactive games to help youth evaluate a housing option’s suitability.
The “HEY Guide: Housing” is the first in a series of guides that HEY plans to produce. Future guides will focus on other issues relevant to youth who age out of care and other disconnected, transitional-age youth in the Bay Area.

For more information on Honoring Emancipated Youth, please visit the website at www.heysf.org