Reply to Marc Elrich doesn’t think there “is demand for market housing.” He’s never going to fix our housing.

Forum Index » Metropolitan DC Local Politics

Reply to "Marc Elrich doesn’t think there “is demand for market housing.” He’s never going to fix our housing."

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]The issue is that that price of land in the county has eclipsed the average wage/affordability. We have a lot of rich people in MoCo (as does surrounding counties of the DMV), but also lots of middle and lower income people too. Developers make better profits catering to the wealthier residents, but that market is tapped out. The demand for housing is enormous among lower and middle class residents, yet the speculative prices for land are just too high to cater to that demographic. How do we bridge the gap?

Summary: [b]There is no more cheap land[/b]. But we still have insatiable demand among lower and middle-income residents. How do we fix it?[/quote]

AND... the government and activists want to put low income housing on the MOST expensive land, rather than just achieving the most units by concentrating them on the cheapest land available in the county.  [/quote]

How did we get from rezoning to allow duplexes to "putting low income housing on the MOST expensive land"?

Not to mention that it would be housing policy (I guess) for the county to (somehow) finance and build 50 high-rise towers for poor people on cheap land next to the Dickerson incinerator, but it wouldn't be [i]good[/i] housing policy.[/quote]

There are plenty of people calling for affordable housing in Potomac, Bethesda, etc. in a bid to stop "segregation."  MDPUs and HOC units in high cost new developments are exactly this -putting a small number of more affordable units on land that is by definition too expensive to produce them.  And expecting the rest of us to bear both the higher cost of our own housing plus subsidize it directly for the increasing number of low income folk who continue to move to MoCo.  [/quote]

So, do we really want to encourage more low income folks to move to MC?  We obviously should try to take care of our own, but MC will decline even faster if it adopts an aggressive anti-poverty mentality.  It will drive up costs, and drive taxpayers out of MC.
[/quote]
That’s some bizarre and twisted logic. I hesitate to ask, but please walk through your thinking here and provide examples in other jurisdictions of this “backfiring”.

Last time I checked, the “problem” with places like Atherton, CA that effectively ban low income housing is just that, they are immoral for banning low income housing. The idea that they are somehow economically suffering is preposterous. [/quote]

Pretty simple, actually.

Many immigrants, legal and illegal, move to the USA for better economic opportunities.
Many illegal immigrants walk hundreds of miles to enter the US for economic opportunities.
Technology professionals move to Silicon Valley and Boston for better jobs.
Rich move to Florida for lower taxes.
Many move to MC for its good public school system.
All smart decisions.

But more low income residents would not move to MC for its high quality social services programs.

Do you think low income residents are stupid?

[/quote]

Nevermind low income, many people strategically move disabled, elderly, and SN adults to Arlington because of high social welfare benefits. 
Affluent first generation children impoverish their parents so that they can live in affordable housing for the elderly.

There are  cheap apartments  in a top Arlington school district with many Russian, Bangladeshi, Nigerian, and Indian families who get housing benefits but claw their way into those apartments rather than the stuff on Columbia Pike.

People can play the system to their benefit. [/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