Affordable housing at $158,828 a pop! This is a crime. Over the past 4 years, I have personally purchased > 200 apartments for less than $50K each. Actually, much less than $50K. I have done this with ZERO government dollars and ZERO non-profit help. It cost you, the taxpayers, nothing. I welcome all of you to compare the rents I am charging my tenants to the rents being charged by these entities that we heavily subsidized. The information on my apartments is here: www.cullenhomes.com. One thing you should notice -- 93% of my units are "affordable" at 50% MMI (as stated in this article).
It is true that the price of apartment buildings have increased dramatically over the past few years. But, no where near $158,828 per unit. Eight months ago I was aggressively shopping for apartments. At that time, I found hundreds of units available in the mid-$50,000 range. Lee of MCDA said "the city is still short on affordable units." Really? He assumes the only way to fill the affordability gap is by HEAVILY subsidizing the builder and owner. Why not subsidize the tenant? That makes ALL apartments "affordable." There are many good programs available today. Section 8 and Wilder Roof come to mind. Ask both programs how many tenants they could put in housing with $158,828. Finally, Dorfman of Portland Village argued that saving $4,500 per year is well worth the $114,545 the government spent to subsidize each apartment. Really? At that rate, it will take 25.45 years to break even (assuming 0% interest). If we assume (a generous) 5% interest rate on the value of the subsidy we obtain an additional annual cost of $5727.25. In other words, once a generous interest rate is applied, the project is now spending $1,225 per tenant MORE than before the project was built. These numbers do not support their claims of success. It is time we all paid attention to what the Mpls Federal Reserve argued months ago. It is cheaper to subsidize tenants than builders/owners. I hope this is useful. Regards, Bill Cullen Hopkins (I have a business in Uptown) TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
