Re: affordable housing
From: Katie Henry (katie-henryatt.net)
Date: Sun, 5 Jan 2020 14:44:06 -0800 (PST)
Ron Ingram wrote: 

Not debating that cash is not king just like cotton was king. But who put
cash on a pedestal ? Who crowned cash? Did cash do it itself? People did.
Those same people could also dethrone it lol but if they benefit from it at
the expense of others then who would expect members of the majority to
change their favorable position?

-----------------

Not just people, but middle-class white people who used zoning and building 
codes to exclude poor people and minorities from their neighborhoods and 
segregate them in undesirable areas with substandard housing, no jobs, no 
transit, and no access to capital. 

I feel terrible about the financial world we have created. I've benefited from 
it after profiting on every property I've bought and sold since my first house 
in the 1980's. I worry about my college-age nephews who live in the NYC area. 
There is no way they could buy anything in the town they grew up in. I feel 
fortunate that I'll be able to help them out if they ever want to buy. This is 
the kind of generational wealth that we have denied poor people and minorities.

I know we like to bash the 1% for hoarding all the wealth, but we middle-class 
white folks are just as responsible for our current economic inequality by 
driving up the price of housing for our own benefit/profit. I'm excited about 
the YIMBY movement, which is finally starting to get some traction. 

Ron, I'm glad you posted. I don't see that there's much the cohousing community 
can do to address the situation. But all of us can be active in our own 
communities to encourage upzoning of single-family neighborhoods to allow ADUs, 
multi-family housing, and clustered housing. 

One point to address in your original post: Professionals don't make a lot of 
money from cohousing projects. It's more of a labor of love. They can't do it 
for free because they have an office to run and staff to pay, but they could 
make a lot more money building standard tract houses in a cornfield on the edge 
of town. The several that I know personally are deeply concerned that the price 
of new construction makes cohousing unaffordable for so many.

Katie Henry

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