One of the toughest, no-holds-barred Republican presidential primary seasons I’ve ever witnessed will culminate next week in Cleveland at the Republican National Convention. While I’ll be covering the convention for Fox News, I will also have another mission.
On July 19, I will be co-hosting a benefit concert to support Make Room, an initiative aimed at drawing national attention to our nation’s rental affordability crisis. The event is sponsored by the J. Ronald Terwilliger Foundation for Housing America’s Families along with several other housing organizations.
Thanks to country-music superstars, Big & Rich, for headlining the concert and to my daughter Ayla, a country-music artist in her own right, who will also be performing.
The continuing problems in housing represent some of the most important challenges facing America, but they are also among the least discussed by our nation’s leaders and in the media. The Terwilliger Foundation calls what’s happening in housing the “silent crisis.”
Today, a record number of renter households, 21.3 million, spend in excess of 30% of their income just on housing. Of this number, 11.4 million devote more than half their income to rent and utilities. For countless numbers of families across the country, the first day of each month has become a moment of truth: Can we afford to pay the rent? This often means having far less to spend on other life essentials like nutritious food, transportation to a job, clothing for children, and necessary medical care.
While rents are rising across the country, the national homeownership rate has plummeted – sadly, it’s approaching a 50-year low. In part because of high rents, many young adults, especially Millennials, are finding it increasingly difficult to save for a mortgage down payment. For some, the idea of owning a home has become nothing more than a distant aspiration.
The issue of housing is deeply personal for me. By the time I turned 18, I had lived in 17 different homes. My mother suffered through a string of abusive relationships. Money was always a problem. Constant moves with new schools to attend and new friends to make were the norm. For my sister and me, the sense of stability and comfort that a home should provide was in very short supply.
As a result of God’s grace and some lucky breaks, I was somehow able to rise above these difficult circumstances. But I know most people in similar situations are not so fortunate.
For me, doing nothing in the face of record-high rent burdens and a near-record low homeownership rate is simply not an option.