Just Below the Line: Disability, Housing, and Equity in the South

Introduction. Just Below the Line: Housing and Marginalization in the South

I come from just the other side of nowhere, To this big time lonesome town. I’ve seen about enough to know where I’ll bound. Give my best to anyone who’s left who ever done me, Any lovin’ way but wrong, And tell ’em that the pride of just the other side of nowhere’s goin’ home. —JOHNNY CASH, country singer and native Arkansan, excerpts from the 2003 release of “Just the Other Side of Nowhere” (original lyrics by Kris Kristofferson, native Texan) 1 With the first wave of baby-boomers entering retirement in 2008, significant media focus has been placed on healthcare, retirement financing, and creating leisure activities for retirees. Simultaneously, an equal amount of press has been given to the economic slump and deceleration in housing production over the first decade of the twenty-first century. Relatively little attention, however, has been paid to the social and economic effects that the more than seventy million aging boomers and more than fifty million people with disabilities will have on the housing in the United States. Compared to the previous generation , it is expected that baby-boomers will live longer after retirement, will seek out widely varying housing designs upon retirement, and will be more outspoken regarding their preferences . The largest percentage of boomers will live in states throughout the South. Upper-income boomers will have the greatest access to choices in both healthcare and housing, while middle- and lower-income boomers will have far fewer options, especially in the rural South. The lack of suitable housing has become a glaring dilemma in the South and will fast become xiii INTRODUCTION Just Below the Line: Housing and Marginalization in the South KORYDON H. SMITH, BRENT T. WILLIAMS, AND JENNIFER WEBB acutely problematic throughout the United States over the coming decades if housing policies and practices are not relined. The problem is not merely an issue of an aging society, though the baby-boomer cohort exemplifies the dilemma. A “perfect storm” has emerged. The rate of disability continues to soar, while the rate of housing construction to meet these demands falls. At a time when many boomers would be trading in their lifelong residences for both a smaller home and a profit, housing values have plunged and retirement savings have dwindled. Likewise, the historic economic downturn of the early twenty-first century has highlighted the affordable housing crisis for people with disabilities . In the South, the situation is most severe. First, the residual effects of Hurricane Katrina are not yet fully realized. There was a pervasive and well-publicized incidence of poverty and disability among New Orleans’s Katrina victims.2 Despite the fact that much of this population has been disbursed throughout other impoverished areas of the South, the primary spotlight remains on New Orleans. Little attention has been given to states such as Arkansas and Alabama who have absorbed thousands of Katrina victims, further stretching already strained healthcare and housing systems. Second, the Southern region maintains both the greatest total population and the highest rate of population increase.3 The United States has seen several eras of migration throughout its history. The initial push was to the West, with the proclamation of “manifest destiny.” The Great Migration during the first half of the twentieth century, on the other hand, resulted in large numbers of rural Southern African Americans moving to industrial cities in the North in search of greater social, political, and financial freedom. The current era is also proving to possess significant migration trends, as Northerners and Midwesterners seek a more hospitable economy and climate in the South. The notion of “moving to a better place” parallels the dreams sought by the mass nomadic culture of the Great Depression, in which there was no specific destination, simply a search of a better place than the last. Third, a large percentage of Southerners live in rural areas. Rural America has less variety in employment, lower wages, and less access to educational opportunities. Rural areas possess fewer housing options, inadequate or nonexistent public transportation , and few readily available amenities (e.g., shopping, healthcare, and entertainment). Poverty and the lack of services xiv JUST BELOW THE LINE exacerbate many problems for persons with disabilities living in rural areas. Millions of U.S. residents remain dependent upon state and federal resources, because little focus has been placed on the role of housing. The primary focus still remains on...