Actions speak louder than words; blocking new housing will drive up rents Nominally, at least, the Portland City Council is all about housing affordability. They’ve declared a housing emergency. In the last general election, City voters approved a $258 million…
The high price of affordable housing It’s a problem that isn’t going away: the so-called “affordable” housing we’re building in many cities–by which we mean publicly subsidized housing that’s dedicated to low and moderate income households–is so expensive to build…
Block that metaphor! There’s nothing “natural” about “naturally occurring affordable housing.” There’s a new term that’s gaining currency in some housing policy circles: “naturally occurring affordable housing.” It even has a catchy acronym: “NOAH.” There’s a recent report from Co-Star…
Build expensive new “luxury” apartments, and wait a few decades One of the most common refrains the the affordable housing discussion is “developers are targeting the high end of the market” and new apartments are just unaffordable. Although we–and others–have…
Why is affordable housing so expensive? In many cities, affordable housing has a problem: it’s not affordable. California Governor Jerry Brown made that point again, emphatically, with his new state budget. He’s said that he’s not putting any new state…