A Broadband Hookup in Every Home

Has a fast Net connection become as essential a modern utility as electricity and running water? The state of Kentucky thinks so.

By Dustin Goot Wired.com

Taking an aggressive stance on the issue of the digital divide, the Kentucky Housing Corporation, or KHC, has listed broadband Internet access among the inalienable rights of its low-income housing residents.

As part of an effort to enact universal design standards for public housing, the KHC passed a mandate (PDF) stating that all new housing units funded more than 50 percent by the KHC must be equipped with access to high-speed Internet service.

"Over time we think (everyone) is going to have a computer and a printer, just like you have a refrigerator and a range," said KHC Chief Executive Officer Lynn Luallen.

Public housing authorities in Nebraska, Oregon and Wisconsin have also pushed developers to wire for broadband by giving them preferential access to low-income housing tax credits. However, Kentucky is the first state to actually require the practice.

"I’m very proud of being the first," said Luallen, explaining that he views the Internet as an opportunity for low-income families to "raise their educational level and therefore their income level."

To ensure the policy’s impact, Luallen is also working on programs to provide poor families with low-cost computer hardware, subsidized Internet service and a special online portal where they can search for jobs and learn about available health-care and financial resources.

Luallen got the idea to prioritize broadband access from a service and advocacy group called One Economy, which wants to bring broadband access to low-income people nationwide.

One Economy is preparing to launch a two-year, nationwide campaign with city and state public housing authorities, encouraging them to enact policies that either mandate broadband access or, as in Nebraska, promote it through the Low Income Housing Tax Credits program. The organization estimates that 12 to 15 states will have passed these measures within a year.

Also on One Economy’s policy agenda is a bill (PDF) in Congress, sponsored by John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), that would require state housing authorities to include broadband access among their criteria for choosing recipients of low-income housing tax credits.

One Economy’s Tom Kamber, who is working on broadband projects with several public housing developments in New York City, said that having broadband in the home is even more essential for low-income families than their middle-class counterparts. Low-income families are less likely to have high-speed Internet at work, Kamber said, and they need the Internet to get access to more productive social networks.

According to a Department of Commerce study, among households making less than $15,000 per year, 23 percent use the Internet for job searches, compared with 14.6 percent for households making over $75,000. The Internet is also used in 37.1 percent of low-income households to complete school assignments, versus 24.6 percent of wealthier households.

New York is one of several cities beginning to experiment with broadband services for low-income families. One of Kamber’s current initiatives is a program that would offer, at one of the city’s recently wired communities, access to an online tutoring product that has been proven to raise students’ scores by one letter grade.

In Chicago the housing authority is just now breaking ground on a "model" development that will include broadband connectivity through a fiber and wireless infrastructure. Furthermore, the agency’s chief information officer, Walter Smith, said that bridging the gap in broadband access is one of the mayor’s priorities.

Asked what he thought of Kentucky’s move to mandate broadband access, Smith said, "It’s a sensible policy … we’re building homes for the 21st century."

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,57249,00.html