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Affordable housing isn’t housing affordability [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-09-17  

Housing is important, we need roofs over our heads, but this necessity is getting more and more expensive, and not just in big cities like San Francisco, Chicago, or New York.

To combat escalating housing prices, and ensuring housing access for low-income groups, solutions such as affordable housing are often brought up. But is affordable housing really a solution?

At 52 Edmonds 23525 84th Ave, state of Washington, there is a 52-unit affordable housing project on way. The apartment complex includes 6 one-bedroom, 34 two-bedroom, and 12 three-bedroom apartments, with 50-parking places. Half of the units are for low-income families experiencing homelessness, and other half for those making less than 50 % of Area Median Income (AMI).

Sounds great? The total cost of the project is 30 million USD, or 576,000 USD per unit.

It’s not affordable because it’s affordable, it’s affordable because someone else’s footing the bill

The real housing affordability comes from allowing (zoning reforms) and encouraging land-rich, but cash poor landowners to develop their unproductive land for things like ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units), and by allowing the construction of duplexes, triplexes, and townhouses. That is incremental development.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/9/17/2270913/-Affordable-housing-isn-t-housing-affordability?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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