I wish our local affordable housing expert was posting on affordable housing issues, because he always has a good take on that stuff. I would really like to hear his thoughts on this. Since he has scaled back, I will take a half-arse attempt to post something coherent on the topic.
The reason there is a need for affordable housing is because of zoning laws. By limiting density, zoning laws are exclusionary in the sense that market rate housing for those earning wages below the median level is not possible. Zoning laws also add a substantial layer of costs to development projects, as do legal maneuverings of neighbors who often want to further restrict density. Look at the legal crap that WCI is dealing with by trying to put a bunch of rich people in a tall building downtown. I can only imagine the backlash if the Tower was priced for teachers or firefighters.
When discussing affordable housing, it is important to remember who you are talking about. “Affordable housing” is a relative term. In
All that said, I agree with many Oakland Mills residents who do not want anymore subsidized housing in their neighborhoods. Oakland Mills has good diversity of housing options as it is, many of which are subsidized. Furthermore, I am skeptical of plans to put affordable housing in commercial zones. Affordable housing should be indistinguishable from regular housing. Isn’t the whole point of having commercial zoning that most people don’t like to live near businesses? Why stick the low income people near it?
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The flip side of the zoning argument is that it would be nice to have more housing within walking distance of the places people who need affordable housing might work. We could build mid-rise apartment buildings on top of all the big box stores and garden communities around the big park-and-rides.
I am a little out of the loop. Can you help me understand how the Council bills that Oakland Mills opposes increase subsidized housing in Oakland Mills?
The residents of OM were in opposition to CB 66, 67, and 68. Neither of these three bills make provisions to increase the supply of existing subsidized housing, and I don’t think anyone ever said that they did. I didn’t intend to target this post towards those three bills- it was much more general than that, which may have been confusing. I think OM has a already has a good diversity of housing (including subsidized housing) and it looks like a neighborhood should look like with respect to affordable housing in an expensive County.
For the record, I believe there is a Stevens Forest rehab project in the works that will be subsidized with tax credits.
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