Wenatchee’s Upside Down Approach to “Fair” Housing
I have to ask, is life fair? I tell my children all the time it isn’t and they should be very happy it isn’t. Why do I feel that way? I think fairness is over rated. I don’t want to have to be sick when you are. I don’t have to wear what you are. I don’t want to have anybody else’s schedule, or live with their choices. But that is not fair, according to current thinking. It is only fair if we all have the same thing and do the same thing. A life that is fair is not free. “Fair” seems to be the direction things are going where the government has no qualms about taking the efforts or some for handing out political favors to the many.
So, in a typical government way, the City of Wenatchee did a study on fair and affordable housing in 2006. What did they find? Well, in part due to the federal government’s efforts to get people into housing that they couldn’t afford, the housing market got overheated! That demand made housing more expensive! Local governments piled onto the bandwagon with impact fees and SEPA fees that drove up the price of building housing. The result, nobody built moderately priced housing because it could not be done profitably. Besides, a day laborer could get a loan for a pricey home anyway.
According to the Wenatchee World:
The list of fair and affordable housing problems identified at a town hall meeting Tuesday was long, while ideas for solutions were scarce.
About 50 people turned out for the fair housing forum hosted by the Wenatchee Diversity Advisory Council, breaking up into six groups to discuss shortcomings to fair and affordable housing identified in a 2006 study paid for by the city. – Wenatchee World
That had all peaked in 2006 when Wenatchee did their study. Now, the city is trying to figure out to implement programs. They’re finding developers aren’t interested in building housing priced for the indigent (which means it can’t be done profitably, even with City incentives).
Today, much of the wacky financing available with no verification of any type is pretty much gone. The result? Housing is getting more affordable by the day. But, with the prices of development running $25,000 or more typically per lot for permits, impact fees and SEPA mitigation, before the price of buying the land and constructing the roads and utilities, it doesn’t make sense to build homes for much less than $300,000.
Of course, that doesn’t even take into account that most people that are in the low income classifications don’t stay there very long! Many are young and just getting started in the work force or are immigrants, legal or not, who are also getting a new start. Historically most of these folks increase their income over time and often leave the classification of low income.
One way to solve the “affordable housing” problem is to try to take your taxes and have you pay for homes for the lower income. That is the typical approach of the affordable housing industry that includes things like the Housing Authority. Of course, that approach has its issues as well in that if you get a person who gets free or nearly free housing if their income is low and they get free health care if their income is low and they get food stamps if their income is low and other benefits, guess what? Their income STAYS low!
Instead of creating incentives for people to stay on the backs of taxpayers, why don’t we focus on helping people improve their skills and income? It should cost less and the folks don’t remain a burden on the taxpayer forever. But, that would be a practical solution in our upside down world right now! That would be recognizing that the emperor has no clothes.
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