Posted on 02/03/2023 5:56:30 PM PST by SeekAndFind
I struggle to find liberal policies that achieve what they claim to aim at.
Which of course brings up the question: are they actually aimed at achieving what is claimed?
Often, no. Usually no. Occasionally the liberals are merely stupid, not evil. But Occam’s Razor suggests that with a record of being always wrong, the Left isn’t actually trying to achieve what they say. With all those high-powered degrees at hand, at least a few of the policymakers must actually be intelligent.
A great example is “affordable housing” programs. Have you noticed housing getting any more affordable? I sure haven’t. And that is by design.
The Institute of Justice just filed a lawsuit in Seattle over a program that clearly is intended not to ensure more housing for people, but to funnel money into city coffers and the pockets of chosen developers.
The program is perverse, both in intent and result. Housing in Seattle is extraordinarily expensive, and despite a cooling housing market there prices remain astronomical.
Ironically, this is a justification for having affordable housing policies. Except the Seattle Housing Authority was established in 1939 as a New Deal Project, and it has acquired a lot of authority and resources over the years.
If only they had more money and authority, they could really succeed!
So what exactly is the IJ’s lawsuit about?
Anita Adams, a lifelong resident of Seattle’s Central District, had always dreamed of owning her own home. After Anita married her high school sweetheart, the young couple saved up and eventually bought the house on the corner—Anita’s favorite since she was a child. Anita hoped that her children could stay nearby as they grew into adulthood and started families of their own. So when their college dorms closed for COVID-19 (forcing them to move into Anita’s basement), Anita and her husband decided to take out a second mortgage and build them a house next door.
Seattle would allow the Adamses to build that house—for a price. Because of Seattle’s Mandatory Housing Affordability ordinance (MHA), Anita cannot receive a building permit unless she first deposits a lump sum of $77,000 into the city’s “affordable housing” fund (and that’s not including other permitting fees, which add thousands more to the price tag). Alternatively, Anita could agree to construct two additional dwelling units and provide them as below-market “affordable housing” rentals—for 75 years. Like most Americans, Anita cannot afford to do that and still cover the costs of building her desired house. As a result, the space beside Anita’s home remains empty, and Anita’s children have had to leave town to find housing they can afford.
Who, precisely, can dump $77,000 into a government-fun slush fund? You know who: very wealthy people and big developers. Everybody else is frozen out of the market. A middle-class family simply doesn’t have the resources to fight these big players, and that is how the players want it.
You can either buy one of their homes, or better yet for the bureaucrats live in subsidized housing where they have even more control over the plebs.
Heck, it’s kind of surprising that Anita could save up and buy a home in the first place. I’m pretty sure that the city would be just as happy to tear down the homes in her neighborhood and put up either high-density “affordable” units or homes for the wealthy.
Although, come to think about it, Seattle is in the midst of self-destruction due to other insane policies that allow thugs to run rampant, so the latter possibility could be foreclosed soon enough.
Affordable housing policies create a vicious cirle, where prices are driven up by zoning, huge fees, deals between bureaucrats and developers, and other scams. These drive up the price of housing, requiring even more efforts to make “affordable housing.” Rinse, repeat.
And the money is harvested by the powers-that-be, who get rich in the process. It is a kind of farming of the middle class, with money harvested from their pockets and put into the hands of the wealthier. All under the guise of “helping people.”
Lord help save us from the “compassion” of liberals!
Don’t forget another aspect driving up the cost of housing - ever ratcheting upwards building codes.
Sure you’re “safer” - if you could afford to build and live in that new house with all the newly required stuff.
It’s insane how much gets added to the codes cycle after cycle.
Bkmk
Cut planning, zoning and land use regulations to allow capable owner-builders and unlicensed builders. Inspections by the manual. Bust the builders’ rackets. For emergency housing, include random drug testing with controls to assure randomness to separate the drug addicted from the clean. Then see the contrast for the first time.
‘affordable’ < housing voucher price cap
If you have a housing voucher they are affordable.
My friend is now very unhappy in his affordable unit in DC. There have been incidents in the past year or so.
How about just an ‘addition’ to the existing house?
Many old English houses are large because an extended family needed lots of space.
In the next Seattle election, we will have a chance to vote on a $2 billion bond issue to fund affordable rental units.
In my 20 years as a Seattle voter, I cannot recall even one spending initiative that failed to pass!
section 8
And I'm sure millions of new instant residents thanks to unlimited illegal immigration - who all need housing- has nothing at all to do with rising rents.
Supply and demand is a law our elected lawmaker cannot trump.
“My friend is now very unhappy in his affordable unit in DC. There have been incidents in the past year or so.”
This is exactly what happens with almost all of these programs.
The new units look beautiful and at first the Section 8 tenants (x percent of the units) are vetted properly.
What usually does them in is the “grandma effect”.
Grandma is a sweet black old lady who is nice to her neighbors and gets along well with everyone.
However at some point her daughter (who lives elsewhere) has legal or drug problems and loses custody of her kids.
Grandma does the honorable thing and takes in the young ones.
For the first few months everything is fine but then the crime rate in the building starts to increase—petty burglaries, cars broken into, muggings at night etc...and nobody can figure out why...(of course if they looked at the grandson’s gang tats they might get a clue)....
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