Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Re: the microflat as a module in affordable inner urbandesign

[Anne Jackson (a.jackson]

I also lived in New York and survived via the benefits of rent control for
many years. Even in the beginning the housing commissioner said that NY had
more abandoned buildings than the population of Buffalo. It only got worse.
The new owner across the street had hoped to create affordable housing, but
he gave up and the abandoned building housed only street gangs who preyed
upon their neighbors, even the friendly ones, like me, who tried to treat
them like good neighbors. Elderly women could not afford to move out of
large apartments, and young families made do with tiny ones.

Having searched in several states, I think we have to realize that housing
costs will be driven by the desirability of some locations, and by the
degree to which the government tries to control everything. Case in point: a
number of excellent homes for the chemically sensitive were built under the
auspices of a man whose wife got well there. My friend got to choose her own
materials and has healed dramatically. It cost her dad about $50,000, on
donated land.  The builder was told to stop, because he was acting as a
"contractor" without a licence to do so.  He left, although he had hoped to
continue building for others, and no-one has taken his place.  I do think we
can build more and cheaper housing, and I hope it will happen as cohousing,
thought we all know how difficult this is. Has anyone looked at the dome
homes ? They are building them for much less, in Texas, and the builders say
that the regulations would make it much more expensive in California

A fascinating book was written by Willliam Tucker-- THE EXCLUDED
AMERICANS--who examines policy-making in several American cities.

Anne, in CA, marketing a few remaining homes at www.OakCreekCommons.org

> Renting in a situation where your rents do not threaten to throw you out
of
> your home is a tremendously freeing state. But when I lived in Manhattan,
> the rent increases are so great that I lived in fear that I would lose my
> home with the next lease, and then lose my neighborhood and then lose my
> town.
>
> But when I was renting in Florida, it was lovely. I had no worries about
> repairs inside or outside my apartment and all the outside maintenance was
> taken care of much better than  I would have been able to keep up with it.
> (In Florida anything green grows an inch every hour.)
>
> Now I own my unit and even though I have no ideas of ever paying off my
> mortgage, I have stable monthly payments that are still about $400 lower
> than if I were renting. And I have the privilege of changing appliances,
> etc., without getting permission or losing them when I can no longer
afford
> the rent.
>
> Perhaps the issue is the competitive market. If I could be assured that I
> would not lose my apartment and my rents would not go up, I would rent.
But
> in Manhattan with rent controls, this has not worked for anyone. Not the
> city owned buildings or the privately owned buildings. Or in some sense
for
> the renters who are trapped in the system. They can never leave their
> apartments.
>
> Sharon
> --
> In Washington DC where all roads lead to Casablanca
>
>
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