Rebuilding America: One Dream at a Time

Submitted to: Bernalillo County City of Albuquerque

Date: March 22, 2016

Mike McConnaughey
Special Education
123 Fake Address Dr.
APT #456
Albuquerque, NM 78901
(505) 123-4567 x890
Greetings:
It is with great enthusiasm that I bring you an idea that could revolutionize
the Albuquerque housing market, strengthen our economy, reduce poverty,
and all in one fell swoop. It may seem too good to be true, but similar actions
have been taken with great success in Utah.
In Utah, chronic homelessness has been reduced by over 91% since enacting
their Housing First program in which they give apartment to the homeless.
Fewer than 200 chronically homeless people are left in the entire state, and
the state has reaped many benefits from the program including saving
money and boosting their own economy. In this program, they charge the
previously-homeless resident $50 monthly or 33% of their income, whichever
is greater.
The proposal I have is a little bit different and addresses low income families,
but leaves room for a sister program to the one Utah has put into place. My
proposal simply addresses the needs of the next bracket up from homeless
those at risk of it.
Sincerely

Mike McConnaughey

Project Abstract
This proposal seeks to call the City of Albuquerque to action in regard to the
rising housing crisis sweeping the nation and our own city by bringing forth a
series of actions intended to shrink the rate of poverty and bolster the
middle class of our city, building by default of this action a stronger
community. The intent of this action brings to the forefront the City of
Albuquerques heart as a city of compassion and strength through working
together to create a more powerful presence. This action calls the people not
just within New Mexico, but the United States as a whole to rise up as a
stronghold for the American Dream.
Statement of Need
Out of the roughly 550,000 Albuquerque residents (1), 13.5% of those
currently live on or below the poverty line, leaving more than 73,000 people
struggling just to put food on the table.(2) Many solutions to this problem
have been introduced across the country and many of them are working to at
least some extent. However, all of them have wide margins for improvement.
It is time to take a similar concept to some of these solutions and make it
work for our city, to bring us up from a city of high poverty to one of power
and unity. With the opportunities presented, Albuquerques poor families
stand a real chance at achieving the very idea of what is supposed to make
the United States a place to want to be: life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness.
Truly Affordable Housing
People who don't make much, such as single moms living on minimum wage
frequently have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, leaving them no
time to work with their children on learning important skills or with
homework. Especially since it has become rare for a company to hire fulltime so they can get away with not giving benefits to their employees.
To present an example scenario, the following paragraphs detail an all-tootypical state of many American families.

Say a single mom of one toddler works at McDonalds--a common situation-for 17 hours a week. That's $127.50 before taxes per week. That's $510 a
month gross income from McDonalds. The cheapest apartment on the first
website I looked at was $490--that's her entire paycheck from her first job
and then some once you deduct taxes! So she picks up a second job, this
one at 7 Eleven. She gets hired for graveyard, working midnight to 6am four
days a week. That's 24 hours per week, times $7.50/hr is $180/week or $720
a month.
Now our theoretical mom makes a total of $1,230 gross income per month.
Subtract 20% for estimated taxes. Now we're down to $984. Subtract $490
for her apartment (3), now we're at $494 to get her through the month.
Extremely luckily for our single mom, The Arbors has paid utilities according
to the ApartmentHomeLiving website. But, because she's gone so much, she
has to leave her child at daycare or hire a sitter. Let's say she's lucky enough
that she can leave her toddler with her mother during night shifts. This still
leaves her with 17 hours a week to get child care for. Because she only
needs 17 hours of care rather than a full day five days a week (40 hours), it
would cost her less to hire an individual. Say she lucks out again and can
work with a family member--a niece that takes evening classes--who is
willing to work for less than the $13.50/hr going rate, working for $10/hr
instead. That's still $170 per week, leaving her $356 in debt. We have not yet
even touched on how she gets to work, how she pays for groceries or basic
necessities like toilet paper and toothpaste.
To stretch her money as far as possible, she does not have a car, instead
paying $30/month for a month-long bus pass. Now we're at $386 in debt.
Add another $10/week for laundry and we're up to $426. Our hypothetical
mother is now $426 in debt and still has yet to pay for groceries, medical
care for herself and her toddler, household supplies, and forget if she has
any sort of emergency situation.
For the sake of argument, let us eliminate child care costs completely, saying
her niece watches the toddler for free. $494 is what is left. At an average of
$1 per meal, three meals per day, for two people, that takes another $180
off for groceries. Our budget is down to $314. Take off the $30 for
transportation, the $40 for laundry, $30 for household supplies (toilet paper,
cleaning supplies, toothpaste, shampoo, hand soap), and that $314 drops to
$214, add in the phone she will be required to have for her jobs, and at
minimum we have to take off another $40. $174 is all we have left with
which to pay for doctors and dental appointments, prescription medications,
clothing, diapers, vitamins, vaccinations, and planning emergency situations
like having to replace furniture because the bathroom flooded. Considering
an average basic medical insurance alone costs about $620 in premiums (4),
that alone adds another $52 per month to our costs.

With no child care costs, our theoretical family can sort-of squeak by, but
they have no ability to better themselves, no ability to plan for the future,
and no hope of improving their status within society or providing a safer,
more comfortable place for their children. With child care, our family is out
on the street with even less hope. But what about all of these costs together,
to see a basic number we can call a minimum budget with which to survive
in Albuquerque? That number would be $1,560 if our family never went to
the movies, never had a birthday party, never travelled to see sick family,
never had emergencies.
Because of her income, it is not logical for her to apply for a credit card, so
she can only get what she has cash on hand for, regardless of the budget
scenario we use.

Proposed Plan of Action

I would like to, as a result of this, propose an idea about foreclosed homes
that are just sitting around costing banks and the city money as a means of
getting low income families into a situation giving them a fair shot at upward
mobility. There are over 2330 foreclosed homes in Albuquerque, meaning

over 2330 chances for improving lives right this second. Many of these
homes are in pretty bad shape and need extensive repairs, but say a family
is put into a home currently only worth about $30,000 with many currently
costing less (5) and instead of paying rent, they pay the utilities and $200
per month or so in repairs, the receipts for which they turn in as if they would
for rent. The family gets a break, the home begins regaining value, and as a
result, both the family and the entity that currently owns the home are
getting something out of it instead of the home just sitting there doing
nothing.
This does not even touch the abandoned homes in our city, which cost the
community and city a great deal by lowering home values, dropping interest
in living in the neighborhoods, and reduced tax revenue not just on the
revenue lost on the home but throughout the neighborhood (6). The
increased crime drives up the rate of police activity, causing additional costs
(7).
By the end of 150 months - 12.5 years, $30,000 in repairs have been put into
the home. At this point, the family could be considered done with their
"program" and every $200 after that could be considered a mortgage
payment until the end of a total 30 years--a common mortgage term. The
$200 per month could go toward further renovations, if needed, in turn
further increasing the homes value, or be given to the bank or other
responsible entity.
By the end of 12.5 years, the value of the home has doubled, a family has
been given the opportunity to genuinely reach for the American Dream, a
money sink for a company or the city has been turned into a slow but steady
income, and the general appeal of the surrounding neighborhood has
improved, bolstering the value of homes throughout.
Everybody wins.

References
(1)http://www.abq.org/Demographics.aspx
(2)http://www.city-data.com/poverty/poverty-Albuquerque-NewMexico.html
(3)https://learn.unm.edu/courses/1/37196.201610/db/_2951107_1/201603-08%2007_53_52-1%20Bedroom%20Albuquerque%20Apartments
%20for%20Rent%20under%20%241100%20-%20Find%20Apartments
%20in%20Albuq.png
(4)http://www.commonwealthfund.org/interactives-and-data/maps-anddata/health-insurance-marketplace-premiums

(5)http://www.trulia.com/for_sale/Albuquerque,NM/10000p_price/price;a_s
ort/1,2,3,4_ft/
(6)http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/documents/true-costs.pdf
(7)https://www.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/em/winter14/highlight1.htm
l