Homelessness/Affordable Housing

Where are we as members of society in Lehigh Acres pertaining to helping our community with affordable housing? Were are we in helping the homeless in Lehigh? Did you know that statistics show that more than 42% of homeless people are now families!? That means children. Can you imagine why? Well I can surely venture to say that it’s the cost of housing. Who can afford to live with these rising prices? When a home that was purchased three years ago at $72,000. and is sold in today's market at $200,000, who can afford the cost of that? The average mortgage at 7% APR for a 30yr fixed rate is just over $1,300.00 a month not including taxes and insurance. A $200,000 home would cost around $2,000.00 in taxes and you might as well think at least another $1,500.oo for the rising insurance cost. So a whopping approximate payment of $1,600.00 per month or $372.00 per week (based on 4.3 weeks in a month). This is for a bottom line home. For a family (both working) at minimum wage is making $6.67 per hour at 40 hours a week makes $533.00 per week and then when you take your 22% off for taxes the family is left with a little of $400.00 per week. Add it up…it doesn’t work! Ok so you say most are making more than minimum wage and I agree with you-but, you get my point. You wonder why we have so much homelessness? It is directly related to the wages vs. housing cost. So what is the answer? I definitely don’t have all the answers but I do know that I want to be part of the solution. Myself and few other advisory members of the United Way House will be forming a coalition committed to teaching people to expand their skills so that they can attain higher paying jobs. The first will be a series on basic computer, Internet knowledge and selling on Ebay. The classes will be held at the local Lehigh Acres United Way House and will be open to all. There will be a nominal charge for the class but there will be sponsorship scholarships for anyone that can not afford to pay for the class. I will update you on the classes when they happen. I welcome any comments and ideas on this one.