Branham talks to Lions Club about public housing

Nevada Housing Authority Director Carol Branham recentlly talked to the Nevada Lions Club about public housing and Housing America Month. Submitted photo

Nevada Daily Mail

During a recent meeting Carol Branham, executive director for the Nevada Housing Authority, talked to the Nevada Lions Club about Public Housing and Housing America Month. For more than 70 years it has been the policy of this nation, under the U.S. Housing Act to promote the general welfare of the nation by employing its funds and credit to assist the several states and their political subdivisions to remedy the unsafe and unsanitary housing conditions and the acute shortage of decent, safe and sanitary dwellings for families of lower income.

Branham said according to the State of the Nation's Housing report, nearly 41 million households now pay more than half of their income for housing, with more than four out of five with incomes below $15,000 paying more than 30 percent for housing.

On any given night, there are currently estimated to be nearly 650,000 homeless nationwide and up to 3.5 million persons who experience homelessness at some point throughout the year.

Branham said according to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition's 2015 Out of Reach report, in no state can a full-time minimum wage earner afford either a one- or two-bedroom rental unit at Fair Market Rate. Health care workers and many other working professionals are priced out of home ownership in the majority of U.S. metropolitan areas nationwide.

The Housing Assistance Council shows that 1.5 million (5.8 percent) of rural homes were considered substandard in 2009.

Public housing is home to more than 2.3 million people, 37 percent of whom are children, and faces an estimated more than $26 billion backlog in capital repairs.

The National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials raises public awareness of the importance of affordable housing and community development programs and resources.

October has been declared Housing America Month, part of a year-long, national campaign to inform the public and decision makers of the critical need to address the nation's housing and community development concerns.