Not the way I thought life would be...

In the affordable housing world, we would always talk about how HUD's guidelines were that your housing expense should be no more than 30% of your income. Last year (because I only have my old numbers), in the DC-Metro area, that would mean a minimum wage earner would have to work over 4 full-time jobs. With our current ability to navigate the space-time continuum only in a linear fashion, that simply isn't possible. It is one reason apartment complexes have problems with 2-4 families living in a single apartment. [This is often called the Sheet Problem, since families will hang sheets from the ceiling to divide up a bedroom.]

Yet the DC-Metro area, as all regions do, simply cannot function without minimum wage and even low-income workers. Stop, for a moment and really, really think about it. Think about how many people who are *working* but cannot meet this threshold. As you drive to work or to the grocery store or to church, think about all the people who make single digit hourly salaries.

A few years ago, a city counsel member discovered that 41% of the residents of the City of Alexandria were in this boat. That meant that 41% of the residents had to work more than one job or double or triple up on living arrangements. At the same time, over 10,000 affordable housing units in the city were lost, primarily to gentrification, usually meaning they were sold for conversion to condominiums or raised to make way for other developments altogether.

Jobs are scarce right now. But even in a strong job market, so very many jobs are for wages that are not really livable for the region. So, sometimes, when people criticize families for having both parents work, it rather drives me crazy. And the sort of blanket condemnation for homeless folk boils my blood. Even for those who live within their means, homelessness is not all that far away. Once there, it is so hard to climb back into housing because of needing first and last month's rent and a deposit and household items and a credit check and a phone number and often a current work history.

The housing market is simply insane...and not just because of all the bad mortgages. It is insane, really, that I could have a tiny duplex place that cost me $1,700 in one city and have a single family home that is nearly 3 times as large that costs $437 in another city. True, as a communications manager I would make more money in the first city than here, but certainly not 4 times as much. And those minimum wage workers here would certainly not make more money in the larger city.

My current situation makes me think about healthcare costs. I mean, to live in a way that I can still function (not taking all that I should be, but just the pain, fainting, and asthma meds), is to spend more money on medication than I will on every other expense in my life (housing, food, clothing, communications, TV, auto & home insurance, firewood, puppy dog, etc.). And that "healthcare" expense will not even cover health insurance, much less any visits to anyone for any type of care.

I have had my own health insurance since I was 18, I believe, first through college and then via jobs. Being chronically ill for so long now, I have always valued health insurance. But I honestly have not pictured a life without it. And yet I am uncomfortable at the thought spending near double on health care than all my other expenses just to stay covered...when...I have no job and very likely will not work again. Is that really the prudent use of the funds that I will have? Is that really good stewardship?

I am Yours, Lord.  Save me!