Affordable Housing for All

We must redefine "affordable housing." Rising housing costs in the 8th District often make it impossible for the young to own or even rent in their community. This pushes new generations away to more affordable neighborhoods and threatens the fabric of family and community. We should be able to grow, work, retire and see our children settle in our community if they wish. This basic freedom demands that family housing be affordable, and that community housing be preserved.

I envision a new housing paradigm in which housing is redefined as a universal need and made available at an affordable cost--extended not only to the poor, but also to the working and middle classes.

We do not control periodic market cycles that rebuild neighborhoods. But we can help residents remain in their homes and reverse neighborhood disinvestment. We can bring business, government and community together in a compact for affordable housing and stable communities.

The models that make housing affordable already exist. We routinely build successful mixed-income residential developments all over the country. Programs that counter disinvestment like Sharp, syndications and Section 8 work. Indeed, while only 1 percent of public education funds come from the federal government, 75 percent of affordable housing funds are federal. Congress must invest more.

But why limit these programs to the poor? What of working and middle class communities displaced by gentrification? Should we not help them preserve their communities? I believe we should, and we can, by supporting residents to compete successfully in the new housing market.

I propose to help residents preserve community. No new programs, no new bureaucracies, but a set of systematic adjustments to existing eligibility criteria. For example:

.Raise income criteria in first-time home ownership programs, allowing working-class families to participate, while providing different levels of interest rate subsidies.

.Adjust rents up instead of evicting people from subsidized housing when they start working or their income grows.

.Adjust tax credit subsidies in syndication projects to allow greater participation by "moderate income" families; indeed, redefine "moderate income" to include more working families.

Together, we can stop the elderly from being priced out of their homes, help our children rent and buy in the neighborhoods they grew up in and stop the erosion of our communities.

Alex Rodriguez, a resident of Boston and a former deputy assistant U.S. treasury secretary, is one of 10 Democrats running to represent Cambridge and the rest of the 8th district in the U.S. Congress.