Affordable Housing: Can Nimbyism be Transformed into Okimbyism?

See, e.g., Mary Williams Walsh, Boom Times a Bad Time for Poorest, Study Finds, LOS ANGELES TIMES, Jan. 19, 2000, at A1 (Federal Reserve study reports that net worth of lower income persons fell during 1995-1998 period; a separate study by the Economic Policy Institute and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities claims the income gap between the top fifth and the bottom fifth widened); NATIONAL LOW INCOME HOUSING COALITION, Out of Reach: The Gap Between Housing Costs and Income of Poor People in the United States, available at http://www.nlihc.org.oor99(1999) (millions of working families continue to have difficulty obtaining affordable rental housing); Winston Pitcoff, Millions of Working Americans Still Lack Affordable Housing, 21 SHELTERFORCE 24 (1999); Department of Housing and Urban Development, The Widening Gap: New Findings on Housing Affordability in America, available at http://www.huduser.org/publications/affhsg/gap.html(Census Bureau's American Housing Survey reveals that 8.87 million rental households-25 percent of all renter households-have incomes at or below 30 percent of area median income, but only 36 percent of that total are residing in or have access to affordable rental housing) [hereinafter HUD, The Widening Gap]; Study Asserts Homelessness On Rise Among Working Poor, Lack of Housing Cited as Cause, 27 HOUS.& DEV.RPTR 266, (1999); Booming Economy Has Aggravated Low-Income Housing Crisis, According to New HUD Report, 26 HOUS.& DEV.RPTR 727 (1999) (number of persons and time spent on waiting lists for assisted housing have increased); Strong Economy Fails to Help Homeless, Says Mayors' Survey, 26 HOUS.& DEV.RPTR 519 (1998) (predicting an increase in homelessness despite the strong economy).The national median family income in 1999 was $47,800.Fiscal 1999 Median Income Figures Released by HUD, 26 HOUS.& DEV.RPTR 630 (1999).Thirty percent of that figure is $14,340, appropriately $4000 more than the annual earnings of a person working full time at the current minimum wage of $5.20/hour.2. The report accompanying Resolution No. 111, adopted by the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association in 1995 stated in part:For example, by 1980 the average African-American who resided in one of the ten largest metropolitan areas lived in a neighborhood that was 80% African-American.See