What is affordable housing and how can it help society?

We all want to have a roof over our heads so that we have a safe place for ourselves, where we can relax and have our own privacy. Being housed, have money to spend, being able to use proper help and health care are the basics of our existence and that is agreed up on by society, as is written in the Declaration of Human Rights. So we need to up-hold that principle. But is this what is happening in society? No it isn't, there are still too many people homeless, live in poor conditions, are needy or simply cannot access the needed help. And this is a shortcoming of our society. How can affordable housing help and why is it a necessity for society to arrange for everyone?

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Table of contents

Thirty percent rule affordable housing
Housing gets too expensive
Payable rooms and apartments
Subsidized housing
Declaration of Human Rights article 25

We all want to have a roof over our heads so that we have a safe place for ourselves, where we can relax and have our own privacy. Being housed, have money to spend, being able to use proper help and health care are the basics of our existence and that is agreed up on by society, as is written in the Declaration of Human Rights. So we need to up-hold that principle. But is this what is happening in society? No it isn't, there are still too many people homeless, live in poor conditions, are needy or simply cannot access the needed help. And this is a shortcoming of our society. How can affordable housing help and why is it a necessity for society to arrange for everyone? 

Thirty percent rule Affordable housing

Having enough money to go around, means that one can pay for their mortgages and the renting prices of rooms, houses or apartments. A general rule for renting or buying a roof over one's head, is that one should spend not more then thirty percent of one's income on the cost of renting or mortgage (lit.1). This means one has enough money left to spend on other necessary things in life, such as food or doing fun things. This rule has some consequences as well. If one is below this rule then one is buying or renting in a very prude or safe way. But if one is over this rule, then one needs to save on other things with their spending.

Housing gets too expensive

The prices of buying and renting have been growing in time, but incomes haven't. And that means that the room for spending is decreasing and thus more and more people need to rent something above the stated thirty percent rule. But this also means that more people with low income, are losing the possibility to rent of buy anything. And thus the only choice they have is to sleep elsewhere, take a place at friends or family or in the worst case need to sleep in their car, or in or without a tent on the streets. So housing has become too expensive for those with low income, resulting in an explosion of homeless people or of those who are needy. It shows itself in the quantity of people using stamps for food (even those with housing) or living in the worst conditions.

Payable rooms and apartments

If people want to stay comfortable, with a roof over one's head and with enough money to have a full stomach and live in good health, then there must be a good ratio between what money is spent on. The thirty percent rule is a good way to see if you are overpaying or not, as you need to have money to buy clothes and house-hold items as well. For this you need to rent payable rooms or apartments. And this obviously needs to be provided by the society and thus society as a whole needs to make sure that everyone can rent a place and has the possibility of getting a place for themselves. And for this it is important for society to make rooms and apartments payable, anywhere on this planet. If it isn't provided then that must be seen as a shortage of living-space for those in need and thus it must be arranged.

Subsidized housing

Another method to cope with this situation is by subsidizing housing for those in need or who are homeless. And this needs to be implemented on a large scale. Too many people are suffering in poverty, living in their car or on the streets as they simply cannot pay it. So from this point of view government has a job to do, as they need to take care of everyone, not excluding anyone. By subsidizing housing and setting up cheap housing programs, also the needy and poor have the opportunity in getting a roof over one's head. And that is the primary job of our government, as it is stated so in the Declaration of Human Rights. It is the only way to make housing affordable again for everyone.

Declaration of Human Rights article 25

"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control" (lit.2). And this means that society as a whole has responsibility to provide this right and thus affordable housing is a must. This article also shows that we need to provide the security in case one loses one's job, has health-problems, loses one's partner or gets old. But what we see happening instead is that the needy are being ignored, the homeless are left alone and forgotten, and no-one listens to the poor. And this tells a lot about the state of the World and why we need to change our ways. If we really want to succeed as a society, then the least we must do is to uphold the "Declaration of Human Rights" for sure. And everybody in this World has the same right as we are all the same (as we all have a heart and a brain). So we can change this World by simply following the rules stated as our general rights. Help the homeless poor and needy on our planet by giving care, help, money and help them get in touch with proper organizations so that they can get into housing as well. Everyone has the right on affordable housing as we all have agreed up on this to do so, and thus we as society need to uphold this now.

Sources:
Lit.1: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/14/how-much-of-your-income-you-should-spend-on-housing.html
Lit.2: https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights