The shelter poverty concept relates household income and shelter costs to spending on household necessities, including transportation, food, child care, and health care.
A shelter poverty analysis in Michigan shows that the cost overburden metric misses many households with children or low incomes - which are more likely to be part of racial or ethnic minority groups - a trend that masks the true inequity in housing affordability issues and will worsen with policy changes or cuts to non-cash assistance programs like SNAP and Medicaid.
While data-savvy planners may emulate this shelter poverty analysis for their own jurisdictions, this presentation uses the shelter poverty concept to evaluate housing and economic development projects according to the ability of employees, renters, or homeowners to pay for both shelter and household necessities.
This analysis addresses equity issues by fully counting households experiencing housing affordability challenges. It also informs community resiliency goals, since residents paying truly affordable shelter costs may be able to spend more on local businesses.
Detroit is presented as a case study and the presentation concludes with an exercise and discussion of shelter poverty-informed policies and practices. Closed Captioning
Learning Objectives:
Identify how the cost overburden metric masks the severity of inequity in housing affordability issues.
Evaluate the extent to which members of a local community are helped, exploited, and/or ignored by housing and economic development projects.
Model the effects of the rising cost of living and cuts to the social safety net (SNAP, Medicaid, and other programs) on households, local communities, and local economies.
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