Potential gameplan developed against QCA housing insecurity

With rising prices across most facets of life, Illinois representative Eric Sorensen (D) hosted a roundtable discussion with local affordable housing leaders in the Quad Cities to figure out root problems causing housing insecurity and homelessness.

Over the past few years, the housing market in the Quad Cities has become strained. Fewer people want to leave what is typically considered a starter home, straining the housing ‘ladder’ and requiring people to spend more money.

“They may be stretching their own budget, and so then they’re not living in something that would be considered an affordable home for them,” said Ashley Velez-Hagler, the Humility Homes and Services CEO.

This means a big chunk of a person’s income has to go to housing. Sometimes that causes people to choose which necessities they can afford.

“Sixty percent of your paycheck is now going to housing. We need to change things,” said Sorensen. “We need to make sure that people can get ahead.”

When people cannot move up to the next rung of the housing ladder, the middle of the market becomes strained. That causes the bottom of the market to crumble because affordable housing becomes scarce. Humility Homes and Services and other local non-profits are working to find a solution. One that could be found just North.

“Rockford is really leading the way in the nation for bringing homelessness to a functional zero, and they’re doing it per population,” said Velez-Hagler.

Rockford partners with Winnebago County to apply for all possible section eight vouchers. Typically, a city and county apply for vouchers separately. That partnership found they can hit all necessary audiences if they work as a team. This cuts back wait times for housing from five years to one or two years. Velez-Hagler says this blueprint could work in the Quad Cities.

“Similar demographic, similar income, that type of thing,” said Velez-Hagler. “Then you’ll have city and county working together and then you’re getting people into the right bucket, for lack of a better term.”

The vouchers wouldn’t help create more starter homes; the QCA does not have the supply to meet the demand, but it could keep the system from falling apart at the bottom, slowing the rate of housing insecurity in the Quad Cities.

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