Affordable Housing: A California Primer

Halfway to Concord ^ | 3/8/6 | Bill Gram-Reefer

[SmithL]

With every developer West of the Mississippi drooling over the chance to develop some 1/4 acre of the Concord Naval Weapons Station, it seems every politician and city planner worth their salt is now talking about “affordable housing.” But what is “affordable housing” in California?

Since normal people know that “affordable housing” doesn’t really exist in the regions of California where normal people really want to live, what is it that big-government, pro-redevelopment politcos really mean when they yap on and on about “affordable housing” this campaign season?

Two words: Subsidized Housing.

When you look at it, most everything about housing in California (and the U.S. for that matter) is subsidized in one form or another, from FHA loans for the poor to IRS exemptions for home mortgage interest for the rich. Call it whatever you think will make it sound prettier: set-asides, below-market rates (price or interest), aging-in-place residencies for seniors, whatever… it’s still government interference in markets either by price controls, poor management of fannie mae, cash assistance, bond funds, transit village mania, or eminent domain. There’s even subisidies (artificial costs) for organized labor in prevailing wages and Project Labor Agreements! And don’t forget subsidies for governments themselves: building codes, child development fees, Measure J dollars for street repairs, and don’t forget property taxes and special district bonds. Everybody’s got their hand out.

What is affordable housing? These days, it’s whatever the California Legislature wants it to mean, since it decides what protected groups and favored interests get a taste of the action in a $500-kazillion industry. And usually that definition includes the sad fact that some unprotected or out-of-favor class or interest other than you is paying for the difference of what you paid and what it really costs.

That’s called Progressive Social Policy.

And Redevelopment is what happens when ten thousand people move into Concord’s new “high-density” downtown developments.

And when they all get into their cars to go to the Safeway on Willow Pass at 6:00 p.m., it’s called City Planning.

[madtier1]

agenda 21?

[LNewman]

As a matter of promoting a new housing development some years back, the area was advertised as having "NO AFFORDABLE HOUSING." Thought that was a hoot. Very little California housing is "affordable" as a practical matter, but to boast the construction of UNaffordable housing was completely laughable.