The lack of affordable housing in Granville negatively impacts lower and middle-income families, and by extension, hurts the entire community. The high cost of housing prohibits middle-income professionals, employees in restaurants and other local businesses, as well as many professors at the local college to live in the community in which they work. The dearth of reasonable priced housing in Granville creates an environment that lacks diversity. Generating living opportunities for people of all socioeconomic levels would benefit Granville by establishing a more diverse and healthy place to live for a wide range of people. The average income of a restaurant server is twenty-two thousand dollars per year; the median income of a Granville …show more content…
An article published by Shelterforce investigating affordable housing states, “The fears tend to relate to increased traffic; additional school costs; increased demands on other municipal services, such as fire and police; stresses on water and sewer systems; concerns about developer quality or experience; decreases in property values; various types of environmental degradation; and, perhaps least tangible of all, adverse changes in the character of the town.” (Bratt, et. al., 2012.) Many Granville residents have expressed similar concerns for Granville, especially having to do with decreasing property values. Later in the article, the authors discuss studies that have been initiated to investigate whether or not adding more rental options resulted in the concerns people had expressed. The study took place in a wealthy community in Massachusetts named Wellesley and comprised of building an apartment complex for those who could not afford the half a million dollar housing. Similarly to Granville, many of the municipal employees were unable to live in the town of their work place due to costs. The study found that the apartment complex had no affect on traffic accidents, environmental impacts, infrastructure impacts, or property values. Investigations such as this one can be applied to Granville by proving that …show more content…
When every cent of a person’s earnings is going towards paying for housing, other crucial aspects of a healthy lifestyle are overlooked. In a study conducted by Housing Partners researchers found that affordable housing contributes to a variety of health benefits. Having to pay less for housing creates a healthier living environment by increasing the amount of money that can be spent on healthier food and medical care. The study done by Housing Partners goes on to explain the reasoning behind this by stating, “The data shows that families in unaffordable housing tend to spend less on health care than families in affordable housing. A similar trend is apparent in some (but not all) data sources for food expenses. Studies also show a positive correlation between housing affordability and various child health outcomes; one potential explanation is that families in unaffordable housing do not have enough residual income after paying their housing expenses to afford adequate health care or nutrition.”( ) The outcome of affordable housing would create better physical well being for citizens along with a healthful