In the past five years, housing prices in Fairfax County, Virginia have grown 12 times as fast as household incomes. Today, the county's average family would have to spend 54% of its income to afford the county's average home; in 2000, the figure was 26%. The situation is so dire that Fairfax recently began offering housing subsidies to families earning $90,000 a year; soon, that figure may go as high as $110,000 a year.
过去五年中，弗吉尼亚州费尔法克斯县房价的上涨速度是家庭收入增速的12倍。如今，该县一个普通家庭必须拿出54%的收入，才买得起县内一套价格居中的住宅；2000年时这一比例仅为26%。情况严重到费尔法克斯县最近开始向年收入9万美元的家庭提供住房补贴；不久后，这一门槛可能提高到年收入11万美元。
Seventy years after President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that the Depression had left one-third of the American people "ill-housed, ill-clothed and ill-nourished," Americans are well-clothed and increasingly over nourished. But the scarcity of affordable housing is a deepening national crisis, and not just for inner-city families on welfare. The problem has climbed the income ladder and moved to the suburbs, where service workers cram their families into overcrowded apartments, college graduates have to crash with their parents, and firefighters, police officers and teachers can't afford to live in the communities they serve.
罗斯福总统宣布大萧条使三分之一的美国人“居无良屋、衣不蔽体、食不果腹”七十年后，美国人已经衣着体面，而且越来越营养过剩。然而，可负担住房短缺正演变成一场日益严重的全国性危机，受影响的并不只是依靠福利生活的市中心家庭。这个问题已经沿收入阶梯向上蔓延，并转移到郊区：服务业工人把一家人挤进拥挤不堪的公寓，大学毕业生不得不借住父母家，消防员、警察和教师则住不起自己所服务的社区。
Home ownership is near an all-time high, but the gap is growing between the Owns and the Own-Nots—as well as the Owns and the Own-80-Miles-From-Work. One-third of Americans now spend at least 30% of their income on housing, the federal definition of an "unaffordable" burden, and half the working poor spend at least 50% of their income on rent, a "critical" burden. The real estate boom of the past decade has produced windfalls for Americans who owned before it began, but affordable housing is now a serious problem for more low- and moderate-income Americans than taxes, Social Security or gas prices.
美国住房自有率接近历史最高点，但“有房族”与“无房族”之间的差距正在扩大，“有房族”与“房子离工作地80英里的有房族”之间的差距也在扩大。如今，三分之一的美国人至少把收入的30%花在住房上，达到联邦政府定义的“不可负担”程度；一半有工作的穷人至少把收入的50%用于房租，构成“严重”负担。过去十年的房地产繁荣给此前已经拥有房产的美国人带来了意外之财，但对越来越多的中低收入美国人来说，可负担住房已经成为比税收、社会保障或汽油价格更严重的问题。
America used to care a lot about affordable housing. Roosevelt signed housing legislation in 1934 and 1937, providing mortgages, government apartments and construction jobs for workers down on their luck. In 1949, Congress set an official goal of "a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family," and in 1974, President Richard M. Nixon began offering subsidized rent vouchers to millions of low-income tenants in private housing. For half a century, most housing debates in Washington revolved around how much to expand federal assistance.
美国过去十分重视可负担住房。罗斯福在1934年和1937年签署住房法案，为陷入困境的工人提供抵押贷款、政府住房和建筑业岗位。1949年，国会确立了“让每个美国家庭都拥有体面住宅和适宜居住环境”的正式目标；1974年，尼克松总统开始向数百万租住私人住房的低收入者发放房租补贴券。半个世纪里，华盛顿关于住房的争论大多围绕联邦援助究竟应扩大多少展开。
But for the past two decades, the only new federal housing initiative has been HOPE VI, a Clinton administration program that has demolished 80,000 units of the worst public housing and built mixed-income developments in their place. The program has eliminated most of the high-rise hellholes that gave public housing a bad name and has revived some urban neighborhoods. But it has razed more subsidized apartments than it has replaced.
然而在过去二十年中，联邦政府唯一的新住房举措是克林顿政府的“希望六号”计划。该计划拆除了8万套条件最恶劣的公共住房，并在原址兴建不同收入群体混合居住的社区。它清除了大部分让公共住房声名狼藉的高层贫民窟，也使一些城市街区重获生机；但它拆掉的补贴住房比补建的更多。
Overall, the number of households receiving federal aid has flatlined since the early 1990s, despite an expanding population and a ballooning budget. Congress has rejected most of President Bush's proposed cuts, but there has been virtually no discussion of increases; affordable-housing advocates spend most of their time fighting to preserve the status quo.
总体来看，尽管人口持续增长、预算不断膨胀，获得联邦援助的家庭数量自20世纪90年代初以来却一直停滞不前。国会否决了布什总统提出的大部分削减方案，但几乎没人讨论增加援助；倡导可负担住房的人把大部分精力都用在设法维持现状上。
And it's a tough status quo. Today, for every one of the 4.5 million low-income families that receive federal housing assistance, there are three eligible families without it. Fairfax County has 12,000 families on a waiting list for 4,000 assisted apartments. "It's golden when you get one—nobody wants to give it up," says Conrad Egan, chairman of the Fairfax housing authority. It sounds odd, but the victims of today's housing crisis are not people living in "the projects", but people who aren't even that lucky.
而这个现状相当严峻。如今，每有一个低收入家庭获得联邦住房援助，就有三个符合资格的家庭得不到援助。全美获得援助的低收入家庭有450万户；费尔法克斯县则有1.2万户家庭排队等候4000套受补贴公寓。县住房管理局主席康拉德·伊根说：“一旦拿到一套，就像得了金子一样，谁也不愿放手。”听来有些反常，但今天住房危机的受害者并不是住在政府公共住宅区的人，而是那些连这种幸运都没有的人。
Some liberals dream of extending subsidies to all eligible low-income families, but that $100 billion-a-year solution was unrealistic even before the budget deficit ballooned again. So even some housing advocates now support time limits on most federal rent aid. The time limits included in welfare reform 10 years ago were controversial, but studies suggest they've helped motivate recipients to get off the dole. And unlike welfare, housing aid is not a federal entitlement, so taking it away from one family after a few years would provide a break for an equally deserving family.
一些自由派人士希望把补贴扩大到所有符合条件的低收入家庭，但这个每年耗资1000亿美元的方案，即使在预算赤字再次激增之前也不现实。因此，现在连一些住房倡导者也支持对大部分联邦房租援助设定期限。十年前福利改革中规定的领取期限曾引起争议，但研究表明，它们有助于促使受助者不再依赖救济。与福利不同，住房援助并非法定的联邦福利权利；几年后停止向一个家庭提供援助，就能给另一个同样值得帮助的家庭一个机会。
"It's a no-brainer," says David Smith, an affordable-housing advocate in Boston. "You can't sustain the internal contradiction of no limits."
“这是再明白不过的道理，”波士顿的可负担住房倡导者大卫·史密斯说，“援助没有期限这种内在矛盾不可能长期维持。”
The root of the problem is the striking mismatch between the demand for and the supply of affordable housing—or, more accurately, affordable housing near jobs. Fifteen million families now spend at least half their income on housing, according to Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies; many skimp on health care, child care and food to do so. Others reduce their rents by overcrowding, which studies link to higher crime rates, poorer academic performance and poorer health; Los Angeles alone has 620,000 homes with more than one person per room. Other workers are enduring increasingly long commutes from less expensive communities, a phenomenon known as "driving to qualify."
问题的根源，在于可负担住房的需求与供给严重不匹配——更准确地说，是工作地点附近的可负担住房供需失衡。哈佛大学住房研究联合中心的数据显示，目前有1500万户家庭至少把一半收入花在住房上；许多家庭为此不得不削减医疗、儿童照护和食品支出。另一些家庭靠多人挤住来降低房租，而研究认为拥挤居住与犯罪率上升、学业表现变差和健康状况恶化有关；仅洛杉矶就有62万套住宅平均每个房间住着一人以上。还有一些劳动者不得不从房价较低的社区进行越来越漫长的通勤，这种现象被称为“开车开到买得起房的地方”。
This creates all kinds of lousy outcomes—children who don't get to see their parents, workers who can't make ends meet when gas prices soar, exurban sprawl, roads clogged with long-distance commuters emitting greenhouse gases. "I don't think we're creating strong communities by forcing people into their cars four hours a day," says Cathy Hudgins, chairwoman of the housing committee for the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. Affordable housing also helps make communities competitive; it's not clear how Fairfax can keep creating jobs if workers can't afford to live there.
这造成了种种糟糕后果：孩子见不到父母；油价飙升时，劳动者入不敷出；远郊无序扩张；道路被长途通勤、排放温室气体的车辆堵塞。费尔法克斯县监事会住房委员会主席凯茜·哈金斯说：“强迫人们每天在车里待四个小时，我不认为这样能建设出有凝聚力的社区。”可负担住房也有助于保持社区竞争力；如果劳动者住不起费尔法克斯，这里如何继续创造就业岗位还是个问题。
The best thing local officials can do to promote affordable housing is to get out of the way—stop requiring one-acre lots and two-car garages, and stop blocking low-income and high-density projects.
地方官员要促进可负担住房，最有效的做法就是别再挡路——不再强制要求每户占地一英亩、配两个车位的车库，也不再阻挠面向低收入者的高密度住宅项目。
Washington politicians, on the other hand, have the federal budget at their disposal. But Congress hasn't supported new construction since the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit of 1986, which creates nearly 100,000 units of affordable housing a year, enough to replace half the units that are torn down or converted to market rents. Bush proposed a home-ownership tax credit during his 2000 and 2004 campaigns, but it turned out to be the rare tax cut he didn't pursue. A bill pending in Congress would divert a percentage of profits from federally chartered institutions such as Fannie Mae to a national affordable-housing trust fund, but it seems stalled. The only affordability ideas with any traction at the national level are not really housing ideas; for example, one way to make housing more affordable to workers would be to raise their incomes—through higher minimum wages, lower payroll taxes or an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit.
另一方面，华盛顿的政客掌握着联邦预算。但自1986年推出“低收入住房税收抵免”以来，国会再未支持新的住房建设计划。这项抵免每年促成近10万套可负担住房，数量只够补上一半被拆除或改按市场价出租的住房。布什在2000年和2004年竞选时提出自有住房税收抵免，但它成了少有的、他并未推进的减税方案。国会正在审议的一项法案拟从房利美等联邦特许机构的利润中划出一定比例，注入全国可负担住房信托基金，但法案似乎陷入停滞。全国层面上仅有的几项得到一定支持的“可负担”主张，其实并非住房政策。例如，要让劳动者更能负担住房，可以通过提高最低工资、降低工资税或扩大劳动所得税抵免来增加其收入。
There is one clear solution to the affordable-housing crisis: a real estate crash. It's the one housing issue that attracts media attention—because it would hurt the Owns. But while an easing of prices could be devastating for lower-income Owns with risky mortgages, it probably wouldn't bring home ownership within reach for many Own-Nots. Prices have too far to fall; in 2000, two-thirds of the home sales in Fairfax were for $250,000 or less, but last year, fewer than one-twentieth were. And even a modest price slump could trigger a construction slowdown that would make shortages of affordable housing for moderate-income families even worse.
解决可负担住房危机倒有一个明确办法：房地产崩盘。这是唯一能吸引媒体注意的住房议题——因为它会伤害“有房族”。但房价回落虽然可能重创那些背负高风险抵押贷款的低收入有房者，却未必能让许多“无房族”够得着自有住房。房价需要下跌的幅度实在太大：2000年，费尔法克斯三分之二的住房成交价不超过25万美元，而去年这一比例还不到二十分之一。即使只是温和下跌，也可能导致建筑业放缓，使中等收入家庭面对的可负担住房短缺进一步恶化。
Eventually, politicians may rediscover housing—not as an urban poverty issue, but as a middle-class quality-of-life issue, like gas prices or health care. Home ownership is often described as the American dream, but these days many workers would settle for a decent rental that won't bankrupt their families.
最终，政客们或许会重新认识住房问题：它不只是城市贫困问题，也是像汽油价格或医疗保障一样关系中产阶级生活质量的问题。拥有自己的住房常被称作“美国梦”，但如今许多劳动者只求租到一套体面的房子，不至于让全家破产。