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The problem is one of location. A McMansion turned into a rooming house can be affordable to someone who works at McDonald's, but if the McDonald's is 20 miles from the McMansion, they need a car to commute, which adds an expense and makes housing that much more difficult. When city homes of the wealthy were being turned into multi-unit housing a century ago, they were located downtown near industrial jobs and people could walk to work. In a world where workplace and housing have been disjointed from each other by the transportation network. So part of the problem may be solved by repurposing buildings closer to workplaces--perhaps turning strip malls into mixed-use buildings, or modular housing on parking lots? We'll see.
There's really nothing affordable about affordable housing. It's just housing that someone else pays for, and if the majority is getting poorer, there will be less and less wealth to redistribute to pay for welfare housing.
Since when does affordable housing equate welfare housing?
Are strict zoning regulations going to make more people homeless in the future than need be?
As to the zoning regulations... like most civil law, these are based on doing what most people want to see happen. When enough people who can/will make money from a change then the the zoning regulations will be changed (or at least ignored) to allow those other uses to happen.
As for "planned" public housing schemes to accommodate the needs of the low income (and worse off)... I don't see that happening again for a long time. It will take at least a generation or two to find enough decision makers willing to forget or apologize the utter failure of past efforts with these major public works projects.
It seems a fair bet to me to assume the majority is going to get poorer over the next few decades, increase in numbers, and become more uban.
WOW... Really? This will only happen if people continue on a path of not wanting to work and wanting the government to provide everything for them... Those who go out and work for prosperity will do just fine.
Those who go out and work for prosperity will do just fine.
Right, because everyone who starts out at 0 will all pull themselves up by their bootstraps and there will be no more poor people or poverty. Keep dreaming.
Not everyone needs fancy housing to survive.. some of us are content to have a roof over our heads and will only pay for that. No affordable housing AND the housing market is flooded? Something doesn't add up here. If that were true, we'd have a situation where there's mass homelessness and a glut of empty houses. This situation won't be sustainable in the long run - eventually the landlords will reduce their prices or find ways to offer more affordable housing to the masses of homeless (i.e. by renting out rooms in their McMansions.)
Yup, neighborhoods like that might not allow a conversion but there's little they can do to prevent the owner from renting to roommates.
Quote:
Since when does affordable housing equate welfare housing?
Affordable housing can refer to a percentage of gross income 30-35% for the US or it can refer to any number of government mechanisms for reducing the cost of housing by subsidizing it either directly, eg section 8 and public housing, or more commonly via tax credits. The latter is and has always been welfare housing. When you talk about what can we do about affordable housing, I assume the latter. In other words, what can we do to manipulate the market to make housing that is "unaffordable" become "affordable" by subsidizing the cost.
Affordable housing can refer to a percentage of gross income 30-35% for the US or it can refer to any number of government mechanisms for reducing the cost of housing by subsidizing it either directly, eg section 8 and public housing, or more commonly via tax credits. The latter is and has always been welfare housing. When you talk about what can we do about affordable housing, I assume the latter.
Functionally, these are identical. Plenty of formerly affluent and pretentious areas became the poor part of town: the Stanford and Crocker mansions in Sacramento went from being the homes of the wealthy to being housing for the poor and destitute, as did the neighborhood around them.
Why should housing costs drop if welfare dollars drop? Isn't housing a relatively inelastic need--or are you assuming that more people will make the rational choice to become homeless if housing remains more expensive than they can afford to pay? There's no shortage of food in the world as a whole either, but a simple abundance of food doesn't feed people who can't pay.
Yes, it's an inelastic good. That doesn't mean consumption doesn't change. Inelastic is any good with an elasticity less than 1. Income Elasticity of Housing Demand | RAND
Old, but .45 for owners and .19 for renters. So if we see an average income drop by 10%, buyers will spend 4.5% less on homes and renters 1.9% less on rent. They'll do that by renting a less apartment or getting roommates.
Housing would drop if welfare subisidies for housing dropped because people would now have to pay for more of the housing cost. Instead of renting a $1,5000 4bd home with $600 of Section 8 vouchers, they'd only have only say $400 of vouchers. They might choose to spend more than $900 of their money but most likely not the whole $200 a month difference. They'd find a cheaper place or get a roommate. Less demand with the same supply = lower market clearing price.
Yes, someone who doesn't understand reasonable assumptions and is overly sensitive takes offense at a spade being called a spade.
More likely, the discussion becomes stifled because someone is not willing to look at all sides of the equation.
You're ASSuming that all affordable housing is subsidized by the government. It is not. Nor should it be. Where in your wise and all-knowing vision is the provision for affordable housing for working people who do not qualify for rental subsidies or other assistance?
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