Cohousing-L Mailing List: affordable housing

[Sara Wye (sarap66]

as someone looking for housing under 100,000 i don't find this very helpful:

> I will say again:  We do NOT have an ?affordable housing? problem.  What we 
> have is a serious income inequality problem.  Trying to create affordable 
> housing by cheapening the product ? and cheapening it within the paradigm of 
> the stand-alone single family dwelling ? simply leads us further into the 
> dead ends of the unsatisfactory (?mobile? homes) and the absurd (tiny 
> houses).  If we combined more multi-family zoning with the progressive tax 
> structure that served America so well in the ?50?s and ?60?s, the affordable 
> housing problem would pretty much solve itself."
the income inequality problem is a lot longer term issue than the immediate 
need for community that is affordable.  i don't find tiny houses or mobile 
homes absurd at all.  i would not consider these 'cheapening the product'.  i 
have seen beautiful mobile homes and would consider living in one if they would 
allow me to continue working in my home.  i am a 75 year old mental health 
counselor. and as someone who has been looking for affordably community for 
many years, these remarks feel like snobbery to me.   i saw not too long ago a 
group of small if not tiny homes built by a group of friends, a cluster of 8-10 
homes, so they could form their own community.  i admit i am not educated about 
the cost of buying land and building but if they can do it, it can be done.