Blog
Local director worries about housing cost/wage gap
In an opinion piece for the local paper, Plymouth's community development director, Bruce Arons, is worried about the lack of affordable housing given that wages have not kept up with the high cost of housing, even though prices have dipped lately. Arons notes that 44 percent of Plymouth's homeowners use more than 35 percent of their income on housing while renters in town use on average 44 percent of their income for housing. And he looks at the current job climate and knows Plymouth is going to need more housing that's affordable:
Low- and moderate-income working households in Plymouth are facing a severe housing cost burden. Recent studies show that “high-tech” jobs are not eliminating traditional occupations that pay traditional wages. Retail salespersons, nurses, maintenance/repair workers, schoolteachers, security guards, hairdressers, administrative assistants, stock clerks, child care workers and firefighters (all traditional occupations) are on the U.S. Department of Labor’s list of occupations with the largest projected job growth for the next decade. This means a large number of working families will continue to earn their incomes from these and other traditional occupations with similar earnings.
The point being, having a job does not guarantee a place to live at an affordable price. Low- to moderate-income workers simply do not earn enough. In recent decades, home prices and rental rates have increased faster than income in most parts of the country, increasing the need for affordable housing. Many of the people you see every day – your child’s teacher or childcare worker, the clerk employed at the local store, the elderly man on the bus, a police officer, custodian, office worker or waiter.
For low- to moderate-income working families, high housing costs are a difficult option that requires major compromises such as shortchanging pensions or savings, becoming indebted or living in homes that are smaller or more expensive than they desire. The gap between what people can afford to pay for housing and the cost of housing is widening – and a major cause of concern, especially here in Plymouth.