Maxwell Drever shares in most cities across the globe, it is challenging for middle-income families to rent or purchase a house in their work area because of their stagnant wages and the increasing cost of living in these city centers. Along with this, the limited supply of residential units has created a hardship for the workforce. Now you must be reckoning about who these individuals are? The workforce population, coming from the rural sector, engages in different professions and serves society in multiple aspects.
Teachers, firefighters, police officers, and medical practitioners are middle-income workers. The limited supply of residential units in the city centers leads these individuals to the fringes of the industrial hub. Hence, it results in long commute time, high traffic levels, and other negative consequences. The government needs to provide the workforce population with workforce housing. It has become an increasingly used term in the real estate industry.
Delve into the definition
If you go by records, you will see that workforce housing or residences are affordable to families earning between 60 to 120% of a mi or area median income. The workforce housing targets low and middle-income workers, including different professionals, as Maxwell Drever discusses. Households that require workforce housing do not qualify for residential subsidies by higher authorities. Hence, special programs and policies are designed for them so that this problem of the affordable housing crisis gets addressed.
Origin of the issue
Workforce housing originates with the backdrop of affordable residences. Hence, you can better understand workforce housing when comparing the same with affordable housing. Initiating in the 1940s, affordable housing gets driven by the supply-side mechanism of the government. Remember that there is always a gap between the demand and supply of affordable housing estates.
Local governments, federal governments, and higher authorities are trying to rehabilitate old properties to help low and medium-income individuals. The worldwide pandemic in 2020 has further increased the demand for affordable housing units. It is because the workforce population is struggling with their stagnant wages.
Significance of workforce housing
Workforce housing is not something new. As already mentioned, it originated in the 1940s. Since then, demand for these residential units has only seen a high. Although various governments have come forward to support the demand side of this crisis, additional legislation and policy backup can help real estate agents and hotel owners undertake this issue.
Maxwell Drever states that old properties get re-evaluated and transformed into workforce housing in the present scenario. It’s because this process is cheap and less time-consuming. The affordable workforce housing landscape requires the backing of the government. More so, a positive role of different sections of society has become the need of the hour. The workforce housing crisis is not only a problem of the workforce population but every section of society. Hence, every individual must come forward to resolve this issue and grab positive consequences. Affordable housing is a pressing problem that needs immediate attention.