Walt Cygan made a good point about the role that Habitat for Humanity can make in addressing the affordable housing quandary. They have the potential to make great strides in providing quality owner-occupied homes for low-income families. To my knowledge, Habitat for Humanity (the developer), does not request government assistance (taxpayers' money).
However, those who comprise the third part of the equation (the city and the neighbors) aren't always very accomodating. Case in point being Habitat's attempt to build two single family homes on a large lot (exact size not known to me, but certainly equivalent to two typical Minneapolis lots) in Apple Valley last year. From my recollection, I believe the city was close to rezoning the parcel to allow two homes rather than just one, until neighborhood dissent quashed that action. Therefore, the end result was that Habitat was only able to build one home rather than two. Thus, there is one less affordable unit in our area today because of the concerns of neighbors. Hooray for good government planning and control. If only this were an isolated incident. -Paul Lambie Paul Lohman wrote: > How much control should the city have and how much > control should landowners and developers have. That's > a discussion that's been going on for a very long time > and obviously will continue to.... for a very long time. The third leg of this stool is the taxpayer. If subsidies are provided, someone must be paying for it. Sometimes the burden placed on taxpayers is given very little consideration. Perhaps something like the Habitat for Humanity model can be useful. Money from taxpayers can be used to bankroll projects. "Sweat equity" from potential homeowners or apartment acquirers can be used to make the construction or rehab process less costly and lower mortgages/rents. Part of rent and mortgage payments are returned to the fund for further investment, minimizing ongoing taxpayer burden. Does anyone have experience with a process like this? Can donated labor for these projects and reinvested capital and limited subsidies help create a revolving fund to push projects forward? Can this be managed by a non-governmental entity in an efficient way? Or is something like this already happening and I am just blissfully unaware as a homeowner living in the same place for the last 14 years? Or is this just a fantasy? Walt Cygan Keewaydin __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
