THIS TIME, FOR THE DEVELOPERS Two proposals out of Mayor White’s office earlier this year — one to pay down the consumer debt of homebuyers, the other to give $5,000 bonuses to Realtors representing buyers in 8 revitalization areas — didn’t get very far. But City Council approved the latest version yesterday: $620,000 in construction subsidies from the TIRZ Affordable Housing Fund for 10 homes — 4 in Trinity Gardens and 6 in the Fourth Ward. The participating builders and CDCs are to be chosen by the city’s Housing and Community Development Director. “The developers may sell the homes after they are used for at least a year as models, but the net proceeds must be reinvested in the same community.” [Houston Chronicle, via Swamplot inbox; details on page 200 here (PDF)]
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There goes Mayor White again wasting our money!!!
How many cops could be added with this money? Or at least some overtime pay for current officers?
We used to have lots of affordable housing close in but the city refused to allow any neighborhood protection ordinances that would have prevented their wholesale razing and thus the parade of McMansions in West U and Bellaire, then north to the Heights and Rice Military. Now we need afforable housing and the free market won’t bite, so lame duck Bill White decides to throw some $$$ to his buddies as he heads out the door.
In context, it all makes sense.
Houston – It’s Worth It… For Some.
There is still plenty of affordable housing close in. It’s called apartments.
a. renting is a different topic.
b. The afforable apartments are being bulldozed, too.
Housing stays affordable in certain areas only by using government force to ignore market conditions, which cheats owners of their rights to do what they wish with their property.
Housing stays affordable in certain areas only by using government force to ignore market conditions, which cheats owners of their rights to do what they wish with their property.
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Under the original Houston Renaissance “revitalization” Fourth Ward was supposed to be a “mixed income” neighborhood but the executive director and the board got a little greedy so it didn’t work. Under the master plan originally proposed by a TSU professor, so no one can scream “racist segregationist,” there were greenbelts separating the “mixed income” areas. Instead, we have a “mish-mash of mixed income” and a disaster. I forget the total number of units that were to be provided for both rental and sales but what we ended up with were far fewer and instead of providing true “affordable housing” you have a lot of “yuppies” who had good credit and fell within the new, higher, income guidelines and took advantage of the program which provided “affordable housing” to people who didn’t need it. But it kept the “riff-raff” out. Had enough already who owned their homes. They were supposed to be tossed out under “eminent domain” and probably would have been had the AG’s Office not stepped in. As for “market conditions” and your supposed concern about property rights those are fully protected. As most of the slum landlords will tell you.
You’re obviously the type that would prefer the poor go live under a bridge. Preferably in another county. Or another state. OUt of sight, out of mind. You’re obviously the type who are the reason why we have increasing number of homeless people including entire families because you don’t believe government should supply any kind of housing in “YOUR” neighborhood. I guess you prefer them to live on the streets in “YOUR” neighborhood and just come out and raid your garbage cans at night.
This latest “plan” by Bill White is more of the same Houston Renaissance con game – use public funds to allow developers to enrich themselves off of “affordable housing” in areas where no one cares whether it works or not.
What a lot of people don’t know is that not only poor African-Americans but some rich Italians were ripped off in Fourth Ward. They cannot stand the name of Bob Lanier or anyone connected to him. They found out about 12 years ago how corrupt this city is.
Bob Lanier was a choirboy compared to Bill White.
Oh and by the way this type of con game has the full endorsement of Annise Parker who supported it 100% in Fourth Ward. And you can ask those rich Italians who got ripped off what they think of her “neighborhood friendly” advocacy for homeowners. First they were offered $6 a square foot for their land under threat of condemnation, then “settled” for $16 and then watched Houston Renaissance offer the land for $29 a square foot. Which sort of raised eyebrows at the AG’s Office. And a lot of additional questions.
Gene Locke is not any better. He was the city attorney who “rubber-stamped” it all for Bob Lanier.
And as for TIRZ they are con games as well and before he went to Washington and got drunk on the money and power John Cornyn ruled the city had abused the legislative intent. They created the Galleria TIRZ for the sole purpose of making the price attractive to a buyer. Gerald Hines of course loves Bob Lanier. I would ask you to go get a copy of an audit but good luck since Annise Parker doesn’t discuss the audits apparently. She just tells you everything is on the up and up.
As for all these “NIMBY”s on Swamplot, if you don’t want to live around certain people, go to Manhattan and buy in a co-op although I suspect most of you would be rejected by the boards.
I don’t think I said anything about poor people or undesirables. I merely said that affordable housing exists in certain areas only because the government interferes with the efficient working of the market. That sometimes means that the poor get the short end of the deal.
I am not happy at all with what happened in the 4th Ward – lots of taxpayer money was wasted, and government action overrode the free market. Anyone with half a brain figured out in the 80’s that the 4th ward was going to change drastically at some point – the location made it impossible to continue as it was. That change should have been driven by market conditions, not the misplaced desire of government to achieve some nebulous social goal using other people’s money.
I don’t care who lives in my neighborhood as long as they maintain their housing and don’t create a nuisance by leaving trash everywhere, parking derelict cars in the yard, etc.
As for public housing, I don’t mind providing a temporary lifeline to those who need a little help. I object to someone living most of their life in subsidized housing unless there’s some kind of disability that makes earning a living difficult. Laziness is not a disability. Nor is the desire to stay high or drunk all the time.
I’ll have to check as to whether audits of taxpayer funded projects are public record and available via a freedom of information request. They should be, as there’s very little that government does that needs to remain secret.
“You’re obviously the type that would prefer the poor go live under a bridge. Preferably in another county. Or another state. OUt of sight, out of mind. You’re obviously the type who are the reason why we have increasing number of homeless people including entire families because you don’t believe government should supply any kind of housing in “YOUR†neighborhood.”
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The subject of conversation is affordable housing, not homelessness. Houston has a tremendous amount of affordable housing, and is exceedingly efficient at creating new affordable housing by way of suburban entropy. Poor have plenty of options, just not in neighborhoods like River Oaks. And what’s wrong with that?