Reply to We need homes. A lot of homes. Not just affordable, but also middle-income homes.

Forum Index » Metropolitan DC Local Politics

Reply to "We need homes. A lot of homes. Not just affordable, but also middle-income homes."

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There are great homes across america. I am cool with grandfathering in existing residents and also essential workers (teachers, firefighters etc/ with rent to buy, loans, homestead act.. NOT with feeling compelled to build mini apartments to compete with Ballston rentals.[/quote]

Are you a developer? If not, then nobody is asking you to build apartments, let alone compelling you to build apartments.[/quote]

My point is DC is running a $$ surplus, yes, really. There are MANY policies that don't involve building more housing (unless we are talking homeless shelters, which are fine!) that would protect existing DC residents from being priced out (like the homestead act, or more loans to buy houses) and allow the kinds of middle class residents who provide essential services to find footholds in the city. All this can be done without building little 1-2 bedroom.units all over ward 3. Those are just to lure young professionals from Ballston.[/quote]

There are many policies that would increase the supply of housing without increasing the supply of housing?[/quote]
NP. These talking points are tiresome. Any supply of housing units of any type is not a net positive good for the immediate or long-term in and of itself. It’s a question of the values you want to promote through your economic and development policy. [/quote]

I'm trying to increase the supply of housing. The value I'm trying to promote is that people need housing.[/quote]

But people don't need housing in expensive cities and subsidized by the government.  And there is enough housing for people in the United States, you just don't like the price and the location.[/quote]

No, but expensive cities are where economic opportunities are. Cities like DC, New York, and Boston are expensive not just because of the cultural amenities they offer, but also because of their dynamic economies that create opportunities for people looking to climb the socioeconomic ladder. If you expect people to be able to transcend themselves, you need to give them opportunities to do so. Locking them out of cities with dynamic economies because they can't afford housing is not only short-sighted, but also mean-spirited.

Sure there's plenty of cheap housing in this country, but it's largely in far-flung exurban and rural cities with stagnant economies. Housing is cheap in Staunton because there's little economic opportunity, unless you consider rounding up shopping carts at the Dollar General to be economic opportunity. Telling someone who can't afford DC to bugger off to Staunton for the cheap housing is also cutting them off from opportunity.

And by the way, the purchase of your house was subsidized by the government, so spare us all the intellectually bankrupt rhetoric about subsidized housing.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics