According to HousingWorksRI, families with incomes of $50,000 or less – which account for 58 percent of the state’s households – cannot afford to own a home in any city or town in the state. (Affordable means housing costs do not exceed 30 percent of gross income.)
Households earning less than $75,000 (78 percent of the state) can afford housing in three communities – Central Falls, Pawtucket and Providence.
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And households earning less than $100,000 (89 percent) can afford homeownership in only 16 of the state’s 39 municipalities.
To understand the implications, it is instructive to look at the conclusions in a just-completed study for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, which examined a similar problem in the Bay State: “If home prices and rents continue to rise … we can expect to see further job erosion, more out-migration and a real challenge to the commonwealth’s prosperity.”
HousingWorks wants to put a $75 million bond issue on the ballot in November to build 1,000 quality, affordable homes. That may seem unreasonable in a state that has recently passed several big bond issues and which faces a large deficit. But consider these facts: The U.S. Department of Commerce says that for every dollar spent on housing, an additional $9 ripples through the economy. The National Association of Home Builders estimates that the construction of 1,000 homes creates 2,448 full-time jobs and $79 million in wages.
Let’s get this on the ballot. It’s about job creation and the long-term health of the state.
GM driven to fantasy with guzzler support
General Motors, which last year lost $8.6 billion, has decided that its path to profitability is paved with gas guzzlers. And it has created a new program to subsidize the gasoline consumption of purchasers of its most gluttonous gas hogs.
If you are a resident of California or Florida and you buy the OnStar navigation system with your new Chevy Tahoe or Hummer H2 or H3, the company will guarantee you won’t pay more than $1.99 a gallon for gas – because it will reimburse the difference between that amount and the actual price at the pump.
“The GM Fuel Protection Plan” is another sign that GM just doesn’t get it. The company doesn’t get that our reliance on oil is driving a dangerous foreign policy, and that conservation, not greater consumption, is needed. By contrast, Gov. Donald L. Carcieri and the General Assembly continue to write laws intended to help the state manage its energy consumption (and with wind power generation, the production of alternative sources, as well).
Maybe GM stands for Get Mine.
