> Even the cheapest subsidized “affordable housing” struggles to compete with the cost at which market-rate SROs [single-room occupancies] once rented.
> Rather than focusing on “affordable housing” exclusively, politicians, planners, and community organizers should strive to promote housing affordability—a housing market with many options that empowers people with a range of incomes to have stable shelter in a location of their choosing. Any successful long term housing affordability strategy needs to consider how to create lower-cost market-rate housing along with the rent-controlled, income-restricted, subsidized units planners have labeled “affordable.”
> The best strategy to create a lot of older, lower-quality housing that’s cheap is to build a lot of new housing 50 years ago. The next best strategy is to build a lot of new housing today and wait. (As described above, legalizing cheaper housing types, like single-room occupancy buildings or boarding houses, can also make a big difference.)
> New housing can impact overall affordability much faster than many realize due to the economic phenomenon of “filtering.” Filtering describes the process by which wealthier people move when new, more expensive housing comes online, freeing up their old homes for a resident who makes less. The “chain of moves” continues as each resident upgrades into somewhat nicer housing, until at the end a lower-cost unit becomes available to someone new.
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> Even the cheapest subsidized “affordable housing” struggles to compete with the cost at which market-rate SROs [single-room occupancies] once rented.
> Rather than focusing on “affordable housing” exclusively, politicians, planners, and community organizers should strive to promote housing affordability—a housing market with many options that empowers people with a range of incomes to have stable shelter in a location of their choosing. Any successful long term housing affordability strategy needs to consider how to create lower-cost market-rate housing along with the rent-controlled, income-restricted, subsidized units planners have labeled “affordable.”
> The best strategy to create a lot of older, lower-quality housing that’s cheap is to build a lot of new housing 50 years ago. The next best strategy is to build a lot of new housing today and wait. (As described above, legalizing cheaper housing types, like single-room occupancy buildings or boarding houses, can also make a big difference.)
> New housing can impact overall affordability much faster than many realize due to the economic phenomenon of “filtering.” Filtering describes the process by which wealthier people move when new, more expensive housing comes online, freeing up their old homes for a resident who makes less. The “chain of moves” continues as each resident upgrades into somewhat nicer housing, until at the end a lower-cost unit becomes available to someone new.
!ping YIMBY