Agree with Jeff on this one. This program is interesting because it is 100% affordable, so you don’t have market-rate renters/buyers cross-subsidizing affordable renters/buyers—instead the developer’s bottom line takes a hit. This hit is compensated with increased density. While this is a great start, it still requires a lottery system for applicants, which is inherently inequitable to those who are not selected but have a need, and it points to the fact that density restrictions are arbitrary! i.e. the city decides that for this case density isn’t harmful to the neighbors, which means it is likely an artificial cap. I hope that we can ween ourselves off anti-housing regulations and get towards a truly affordable market while still using regulations to avoid real nuisances like noise, odor, pollution.
I’m hopeful that we can build enough that we don’t even need a lottery, because the market price for affordable housing will fall below the maximum the city allows them to charge.
Massively decreasing the value (and hence the price) is the point!
You can rent or sell, at a specified maximum rate, to anyone whose income is under a limit.
Agree with Jeff on this one. This program is interesting because it is 100% affordable, so you don’t have market-rate renters/buyers cross-subsidizing affordable renters/buyers—instead the developer’s bottom line takes a hit. This hit is compensated with increased density. While this is a great start, it still requires a lottery system for applicants, which is inherently inequitable to those who are not selected but have a need, and it points to the fact that density restrictions are arbitrary! i.e. the city decides that for this case density isn’t harmful to the neighbors, which means it is likely an artificial cap. I hope that we can ween ourselves off anti-housing regulations and get towards a truly affordable market while still using regulations to avoid real nuisances like noise, odor, pollution.
I’m hopeful that we can build enough that we don’t even need a lottery, because the market price for affordable housing will fall below the maximum the city allows them to charge.
thats a good point
Care to express some kind of numerical confidence and a timeline?
Right, but that impacts whether it’s actually profitable to build them.