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The gist is that is significantly harder to build “affordable” housing (where prices are kept artificially low). So if you mandate only affordable housing, the
by flaque 5y ago
The gist is that is significantly harder to build “affordable” housing (where prices are kept artificially low).
So if you mandate only affordable housing, then you help a few people, but restrict the overall housing market, which makes rent prices go up for most people.
(To be clear, affordable housing isn’t bad; but restricting the supply of housing by building 100 affordable units instead 80,000 market rate ones is)
- newbie789 5y agoWhy is it not possible to build more than 100 affordable units? Do “market rate” houses generate 800x the revenue? That’s an enormous chasm in profitability that should be addressed. I couldn’t imagine being forced to build a house wherein for every dollar I I recoup, my neighbor recoups eight hundred of them.
- flaque 5y agoIt’s more that many people who don’t want to build more housing use “affordable housing” as a way to do so. If they build a few “affordable” units, it’s a way to still seem like you’re pro-housing. To be clear, I think most pro-affordable housing folks genuinely would like to build lots of affordable housing.
- newbie789 5y agoThis position is precisely why I’m baffled. The general consensus here is genuinely that anybody who says they want affordable housing is telling on themselves that they actually, in fact, do not want affordable housing? There is genuinely no scenario in which a person can actually want the construction of affordable units? This honestly sounds like some wild mental gymnastics in order to justify… keeping property values higher. Just like many are accusing the other side of doing.
- flaque 5y ago> There is genuinely no scenario in which a person can actually want the construction of affordable units? Not at all, I'm saying Preston in particular has historically ran on the construction of affordable units, and then worked to block them throughout his time in office.