#homesonwheels

Week's "Freedom Shard" Word ➳ DEPRIVATION

Deprivation is a word used by many governments as an alternative way to measure poverty (vs using annual income). Deprivation means a household’s inability to make “essential purchases” through having to spend a disproportionate amount of their income on certain costs above others.

We can debate later what “essential purchases” are as we could easily argue that a household’s ability to purchase non-GMO, poison-free fresh fruits and vegetables is essential but we’ll digress. For today, the focus is on the fact that home rental rates have increased by double beyond wages taking up a record proportion of income forcing many renters into deprivation poverty. Harvard University professor Matthew Desmond states “Poor single mothers with young children, particularly African Americans, are at especially high risk of displacement” and that “Hispanic renting families spend at least half of their income on housing.”

In the U.S. the measurement of deprivation poverty are households that pay more than 30% of income towards rent. Up 9% from 1991, today 30% of renters pay HALF of their income on rent. Cut loose!

Google ‪#‎tinyhomes‬ and ‪#‎homesonwheels‬ as unconventional alternatives to renting.