What's your solution for "The Affordable Housing Crisis"?

[JanMichael]

This study lays it all out about as clearly as possible. There is, there has been, an affordable housing crisis in this country. For many it's just one health bill, one accident, one layoff, before they end up in a Homeless Shelter. I linked the html version because the pdf kept locking up on me, but if you want the graphs you'll have to click on the pdf link.

Basically we've got about 35% of our population living on the edge in relation to housing. What are Housing Problems? Substandard conditions, overcrowding, and housing cost in excess of 30% of household income are the main issues facing many of our neighbors.

I suppose that the repukes would simply have Trickle On solve it. But what would you have us do as a nation? Nothing? Or maybe something like this? A National Housing Trust?

I know Falluja is a sexier topic but there are other issues at hand.

[ijk]

1. It takes a great many solutions

There are a lot of sides to the problem. A lot of solutions are needed. All the economic and regulatory fixes that restore to people at the lower end of the economic spectrum a fair share of the wealth. Active government support for affordable housing through things like the tax code. Changes in local zoning rules that enable people to live where they need to again and prevent mcmansioning in inner suburbs. More protection for people from the kinds of economic crises you mentioned - universal health care, unemployment benefits, all that good stuff. Infrastructure money for cities. It's a long list.

[Crowdance]

2. Bad links?

I get 404 errors from them.

[Misinformed01]

3. I hit both of them

and they worked for me-

Try this:

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:CcI-rcOlRawJ:www.nlihc.org/research/lalihd/neighbors.pdf+america%27s+affordable+housing+crisis&hl=en

[bruce21040]

4. Take the money being blown on the war

Then go into the cities with it and rehab the run down empty buildings and turn them into condos.
Sell them for twice the amount it takes to rebuild the units.
If the unit cost 30,000 to build, the sale price would be 60,000.
Give government backed loans to purchase the properties, take the income from the property and use it to pay off the debt.

For every dollar spent on housing, the debt gets paid down an equal amount.

where I live the new affordable homes are selling for (as the sign says) starting "only in the low 800s"

[AP]

5. Get Fannie-Mae back to its roots, and stop inflating the real estate...

...bubble. Right now banks are going crazy making loans to people they know can't afford the loans because they know that the government is going to bail them out. This is driving up prices all across the spectrum. The bubbles going to pop and the (income earning) taxpayer (and not the cap gains/dividend income recipient) will be left holding the bag.

[Cleita]

6. I don't know about your state but in California they could

raise the property taxes for second homes, you know the ones the billionaires own, like Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch. These celebrities only pay 2% property tax on these homes. Many coast to coast celebrities like David Letterman own homes in Malibu and other luxury enclaves and they also only pay minimum property tax. There is so much luxury real estate in California that even Warren Buffett suggested this as a solution to the State's bankruptcy problem.

In my area, mostly a beach and vacation area, vacation homes go empty most of the year or sometimes are rented out to other vacationers. The locals who service these resort business are often crowded into trailer parks along the railroad track. We do have the homeless and they live in wooded areas in the rural areas. Many of these homeless are working homeless too, but they can't afford to buy property and affordable rentals are scarce.

If second homes or visitors who own property from out of state were made to pay 10% or more in property taxes, I think it would make owning second homes less desirable and open up a lot of real estate putting it on the market. It would probably also force down prices because it would be a buyers market then making these homes more affordable for working families.

I kind of traced our homeless problem back to Proposition 13, the Jarvis Ammendment, which lowered property taxes, made property in California more desirable to foreign and out of state investors inflating the price of family homes to a point that ordinary working families couldn't afford them. It also threw a lot of marginal people out into the street who had been institutionalized and now they had nowhere to go.

[JanMichael]

7. Tax wealth instead of just income?! Are you insane?

:-)

[SoCalDem]

8. Entry-level housing is sorely lacking..

There used to be lots of duplexes and four-plexes.. These are great for starter families..

In the midwest (Kansas), these were common in the 60's. Parents would buy a duplex, and their grown kid would live in one side and they, the other. This is also a solution to the elderly crisis too. If an older parent lived literally right next door, it would be a lot easier for them to stay out of nursing homes..

But a duplex does not fit into the current "American Dream" scenario...the Southfork-mini-mansion.

Here in CA, the houses cost so much, and people "qualify" with so little, that it's downright scary.. Our son & his wife bought a $445,000 house, and even though they make a LOT of money, if either one loist their job, they would be in TROUBLE.. Their house was built in the 50's, and is only a 2 bedroom,but it's near San Francisco, so they either had the option of paying $1,800.00 rent, or buying..

"Ordinary" people who live in Concord, cannot buy houses.. They are just too expensive..

Property values have been grossly inflated over the years, and I really worry about the time when they tumble.. Housing is what's keeping those plates spinning.:(

[camero]

9. A couple of things

I would look at the Nehemiah program to increase home ownership. All that's needed really is a job and $1000 in escrow in the bank. Hard for alot of people I know it's just how I got my house so I thought it might be worth a look.

Cleita's post is also something that will have to be done.

And banning interstate banking will help reduce the costs of lending and keep the banks from being monopolized.


On edit: We also need alot more money going into section 8 housing.

[KamaAina]

11. Money is not the only problem with Section 8. It's the landlords

who are unwilling to accept Section 8 vouchers. A few have been burned by bad tenants. Many more have heard second- or third-hand horror stories. And of course, there's always the elephant in the room named Racism...

[camero]

12. You're correct

But it is part of the solution and I think the answer is in more homeownership. That gets rid of the landlords.

Alot of it has to do with hatred of the poor in general.

[Burma Jones]

10. Well, here in Montgomery County MD

We make developers put some houses aside (or money) for Low-Moderate income housing. While not perfect, it has worked better than any other program I've seen. In the more newly developed sections of the county, there's a pretty good income mix. Also, there were a great many Garden Apartments which have become the low income housing option around here.

When I was a kid, the Garden apartments were starter housing for the yuppies of the late 60's early 70's. As townhouse developments cropped up. they replaced the Garden Apartments as the first home fopr a lot of young families. This occured at about the same time as a lot of Vietnamese and then Central American immigration. So, the immigrants snapped up the Garden Apartments. We do not have big crime problems here, I mean for a county with about a million residents.

The county does provide financial assistance. This isn't real cheap, BUT, we moved here from Westchester County NY and our property taxes are about one fifth what they were up there. The income tax is about the same.

To sum up, THOSE THAT MAKE THE MONEY OFF OF NEW HOUSING HAVE TO PONY UP BABY.