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Making Existing Housing Permanently Affordable - Without New Buildings (c) Copyright 2002-2005 David Dilworth |
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Seven Simple & Low Cost Ways To Create Permanently Affordable Housing - Without New Buildings. We have two crises here on our Monterey peninsula – an environmental crisis and an affordable housing crisis. Both are vitally important to our community. Neither is currently being effectively addressed by our local governments, and neither needs to be worsened by effective solutions. |
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Developers are kicking each other out of the way to "help cure" the affordable housing problem with their plan to (fasten your seat belt) build more houses! They often do not even try to disguise their unalloyed selfish greed to build our way out of the problem - rather than genuinely solve it. Their answer of course will even further damage our water crisis and unsolvable traffic problems. Worse, most developers refuse to --
They will only reluctantly agree to build maybe 15 percent of the new houses affordable and even then - only for a maximum of 30 years. After 30 years -- all bets are off - even those few 15 percent will go for maximum market rent - or maximum sales price called "market rates." Instead, Here are seven real solutions -- 1. A City (or County) can buy houses or apartments and, as the landlord, rent them out at affordable prices.1 Existing houses and apartments generally have water and parking established, so should not increase those existing environmental impacts. 2. A city can buy houses or apartments, put a permanent deed restriction on them limiting the amount of rent that can be charged or the amount of time the house can be vacant, then the city can sell them with at most a small loss in resale price. 1 3. A city can convert hotels or motels into affordable housing by purchase. Think of the Caribbean Motel at Lover's Point in Pacific Grove. It already has water and parking (and you can improve the um ... loud - color with a little paint). 4. A city can convert hotels or motels into affordable housing by changing zoning. (Think Caribbean Motel again) A social benefit of converting hotels or motels is that, while the total population of people using the land remains the same, it increases the number of people who are part of the community. 5. A city, or more likely the voters, can pass a strong and retroactive rent stabilization ordinances. Many cities in California have already done so.2 6. A city can enact a genuine living wage law. Many cities nationwide have done this. 7. A city can help people buy homes with first time buyer assistance. A city can provide low interest rate loans to people buying their first home (as the city of Monterey does). A special reason to seriously consider these alternatives is most can be done immediately without waiting for the delay of a contractor's schedule, and most without an Environmental Impact Report. Some may need to be phased in an some will take earnest negotiation. Affordable Housing Defined Next, how do we define the cost of an "Affordable" house? One of the more breathtaking claims you hear these days is how some call a $400,000 dwelling an "affordable house." Everybody including governments have a different method to "calculate" what affordable is. Most make a colossal error in the way they and developers calculate house "affordability." 1. Do Millionaires Need Affordable Housing? Few people realize that millionaires (who essentially all own houses) are included in the calculation to arrive at that disgraceful $400,000 number. Why on earth should millionaires raise the cost of Affordable Housing? When calculating average income, is there any possible reason millionaires should be included? No, because there is no shortage of housing for millionaires. How many millionaires had to move away from their hometown because they can't afford to pay rent AND buy food? How many millionaires are homeless and living in their cars or under bridges? When millionaires are excluded from the calculation, the price of an "affordable house" drops dramatically. 2. Affordable for Who? Homeowners or Renters? I also suggest the income average used to calculate the maximum cost of an affordable house should only include people who live and work in the area and do not currently own a house. It is not reasonable to include people who already own a house. By definition their house was already affordable. This correction brings the cost of an "affordable" home down to an authentic reasonable level so people who live and work in an area can genuinely afford one. _______ Finally -- for those who still insist on building, if you really admit we have a problem, and you really want the problem fixed, is there any public interest reason not to require all (100%) new housing to be affordable until the problem is solved? This gives everyone an incentive to actually solve it.
Allowing even one more Mansion to be built while we face this affordable housing crisis is just incompetent negotiating. _________________________________
1 Subsidy Mitigation - A city or county can at least partially fund any subsidies with fees on businesses which use low-income employees.2 London, England and Paris, France have had rent stabilization since World War One. The California cities wit h Rent Stabilization ordinances include Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, Santa Monica, Calistoga, Berkeley, West Hollywood, Cotati, Palm Springs, Los Gatos, Beverly Hills, Malibu, and East Palo Alto. |
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This Page Last Updated April 15, 2005 |
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