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Lesson 5

We will examine the causes and effects of the dearth of affordable housing in the United States—including the accelerating crisis of homelessness. We will study aspects of the affordable housing debate, interpreting data and forming claims about affordable housing and low-income households in the United States.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I understand the issues and terminology associated with the affordable housing debate as well as the relationships between the shortage of affordable housing and homelessness?

  • Can I locate and interpret data presented in displays about the shortage of affordable housing in the United States?

Texts

Core

  • Digital Access
    • “Everything You Need to Know about the Affordable Housing Debate,” Matthew Yglesias, Vox, 2015
    • “Housing,” National Alliance to End Homelessness, National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2020
    • “Housing Needs by State,” National Low Income Housing Coalition, National Low Income Housing Coalition
  • Unit Reader
    • Rental data displays from “The GAP: A Shortage of Affordable Homes,” National Low Income Housing Coalition, National Low Income Housing Coalition, 2019

Optional

  • Digital Access
    • “America’s Tent Cities for the Homeless,” Alan Taylor, The Atlantic, 2016
    • “I Ain’t Got No Home,” Woody Guthrie, Woody Guthrie Publications, 1961
    • “Woody Guthrie — I Ain’t Got No Home/Old Man Trump by the Missin’ Cousins.,” The Missin’ Cousins, YouTube, 2016

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read – Discuss

As a class, we will read and discuss the opening section of an informational article about affordable housing and the debates that surround this issue.

Read the first four sections of the online 2015 Vox article by Matthew Yglesias "Everything You Need to Know about the Affordable Housing Debate." Pay attention to the organizing questions that function as headings in the article, and summarize the author’s response to each question.

As a class, discuss the summaries you wrote down in response to the following four questions from the article:

  1. What is affordable housing?

  2. How does the government define affordable housing?

  3. What is wrong with the official definition of affordable housing?

  4. How can we make housing more affordable?

Discuss the definitions and concepts of affordable dwelling, low income, and area median income (AMI) as explained by Yglesias. Record the definitions in your Vocabulary Journals.

Activity 2: Read – Discuss

We will work in research teams to examine the other 12 questions about affordable housing from the Vox article and summarize the answers to them.

Join a research team of two to three students. Select one of the 12 additional organizing questions from "Everything You Need to Know about the Affordable Housing Debate."

Navigate to your question on the article’s webpage. Read the information Yglesias presents in response to the question. Prepare a two to three sentence summary of the main ideas and information presented.

Share your question and summary with the rest of the class, either through a class discussion or a document exchange.

As a class, discuss what the perspective and position of the Yglesias article seem to be regarding the affordable housing debate.

Activity 3: Read – Discuss

In order to understand issues related to affordable housing, renting, and Homelessness we will study, analyze, and summarize rental data displays from “The Gap: A Shortage Of Affordable Homes,” a publication by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Step 1

As a class, learn about the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) and its annual report, "The Gap: A Shortage of Available Homes."

Examine the first data display, "Rental Homes Affordable and Available Per 100 Extremely Low Income Renter Households by State." Form data-based analytical claims in response to the following questions:

  1. In how many states are affordable rental homes available to 30 percent or less of extremely low-income households? What is the worst state for affordable housing availability?

  2. In how many states are affordable rental homes available to more than 45 percent of extremely low-income households? What is the best state for affordable housing availability?

  3. What do the overall patterns of availability of affordable rental housing suggest as problems for low-income households? What do they suggest for US society and governments?

  4. How does the data in this display relate to the US map data display from "Everything You Need to Know about the Affordable Housing Debate," which shows housing wage distribution in all 50 US states?

Step 2

Join one of five research teams, each assigned one of the other five data displays from the Gap Report. Examine your team’s data display and form an interpretive claim in response to the following questions:

  1. What aspect of the affordable housing issue does the data display address?

  2. What do the patterns in the data display reveal about the affordable housing shortage and the Americans it most affects?

Report your claim-based findings to the rest of the class.

Step 3

Visit the NLIHC website and find "Housing Needs by State." Use the pull-down menu to navigate to your state or a state of interest to you. Consider the following question:

  1. What do the data displays say about the affordable housing needs and issues in this state?

Activity 4: Read – Discuss

We will visit and analyze a webpage from the National Alliance to End Homelessness to better understand the issues connecting affordable housing and Homelessness.

As a class or in research teams, if sufficient computers are available, visit the "What Causes Homelessness?: Housing" page on the website for The National Alliance to End Homelessness. Read and discuss the information presented on the page, considering the following questions:

  1. What are the relations between affordable housing and homelessness?

  2. What does the National Alliance to End Homelessness suggest is necessary to tackle the crisis?

Activity 5: Listen – Read – Discuss

To enrich our understanding of the phenomenon of Homelessness in America, we will examine the lyrics to a folk song by Woody Guthrie, visit an atlantic Magazine photo essay online, and discuss personal observations about the problem and its causes.

Step 1

Read and listen to the lyrics of Woody Guthrie’s 1961 folk song "I Ain’t Got No Home." Consider the following questions:

  1. Whom does Guthrie suggest are the various victimizers that have caused the speaker in the song to say, "I ain’t got no home in this world anymore"?

  2. How do the targets of Guthrie’s song—the police, the rich man, the banker—relate to what we now know about discrimination and exploitation in the realm of American homeownership?

Step 2

View the Atlantic’s2016 photo essay "America’s Tent Cities for the Homeless" by Alan Taylor. Consider and discuss the following questions:

  1. What stands out to you in the photos?

  2. What do the images make you feel or think about?

  3. How do the images relate to what you have seen or have experienced in your own community?