Over at Greater Greater Washington, Ms. Cheryl Cort attempts to temper expectations of what she calls the “libertarian view (a more right-leaning view in our region)” on affordable housing. It is certainly reassuring to see the cosmopolitan left and the pro-market right begin to warm to the … [Read more...]
How Affordable Housing Policies Backfire
Affordable housing policies have a long history of hurting the very people they are said to help. Past decades' practices of building Corbusian public housing that concentrates low-income people in environments that support crime or pursuing "slum clearance" to eliminate housing deemed to be … [Read more...]
The Renewed Debate on Inclusionary Zoning
Stephen Smith and I co-wrote this post. In case you haven't been following Stephen elsewhere, he's also been writing at The Atlantic Cities and Bloomberg View. This year, some of the first apartments and condos subject to inclusionary zoning laws in DC are hitting the market, stoking … [Read more...]
“This is the dirty secret of California’s Density Bonus law…”
Inclusionary zoning – everyone wants to talk about it! Dave Alpert at GGW started the discussion with his pro-IZ piece, and hot on the heels of Emily's post earlier today, I got an email from a California developer who wishes to remain anonymous: This is the dirty secret of California’s Density … [Read more...]
Market Urbanism vs. Market Suburbanism smackdown at Cato: “The Death and Life of Affordable Housing”
The debate you've been waiting for! Randal O'Toole, Matt Yglesias, Ryan Avent, and Adam Gordon participated yesterday in a discussion at the Cato Institute moderated by Diana Lind from Next American City/Forefront. (How had this never happened before??) Randal O'Toole did not disappoint, arriving … [Read more...]
Affordable Housing for the Rich and the Failure of Zoning Bonuses
In the past I have not been kind to affordable housing programs. I have a lot of deeper problems with them that I'll get to in a minute, but I think the extraordinarily high upper income limits on some of the projects are indicative of the broader problem of the essentially arbitrary and random … [Read more...]
When “affordable housing” is just a random middle class housing subsidy
Affordable housing and inclusionary zoning are complicated subjects and it's hard to sum up all my thoughts and objections to the schemes in one post, so I'm going to take the death-by-a-thousand-cuts approach. Today's installment: income eligibility levels. Now, the stated intent of affordable … [Read more...]
A question for the blogosphere: How much affordable housing is enough?
Reading about a new ultra-luxury Far West Side rental project going up where over 40% of the apartments are going to have controlled rents ("affordable housing"), I'd like to pose a question to supporters of affordable housing mandates in the planning blogosphere (which includes pretty much the … [Read more...]