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Remember these are new units and those median prices are for all units regardless of age and condition. It is really impractical to build new units in the 1st
by slg 5y ago
Remember these are new units and those median prices are for all units regardless of age and condition. It is really impractical to build new units in the 1st percentile. Those are almost always going to be old units that are poorly maintained.
You also can't just give this money to homeless people and let them buy or rent their own places because the fundamental problem is a lack of supply. Simply giving them money would increase the cost of homes for everyone else and in turn feed into a cycle of creating more homeless people. The city needs to build new homes to increase the supply.
- legitster 5y agoThis is that classic "you can't grow old forests" problem. If someone needed a car to get to work, you would never think of providing them with a brand new one. But we are kind of in that situation with housing. I think the city could have saved a bunch of money here sourcing existing housing, then putting the savings into funding general new construction. But a $100 million kickback to a developer to add 1500 units is somehow less politically popular than $1 billion dollars for 1200 units.
- cool_dude85 5y ago>But a $100 million kickback to a developer to add 1500 units is somehow less politically popular than $1 billion dollars for 1200 units. Even assuming this is true, there are plenty of reasons this might be a good deal. One is greater control over construction, alignment of incentives (i.e., the developer incentive is to put up the worst pieces of junk they can get away with), long-term ownership if this is to be a long-term program, etc.