Barack’s latest demand.

[mmckee1952]

Just today the Housing for Urban Development (HUD) director was told to go forward with a proposed plan that was developed by Obama to require various neighborhoods throughout America that aren’t diverse enough where it comes to having low income families in their areas.

What Barack is proposing is to have HUD to require that cities that don’t fit this narrative to implement a plan to require that low income housing be required to be built in these upper income neighborhoods and allow section eight type housing to be built there.

Now I don’t know about everyone else, but if I am a home owner that lives in an area where I bought with my hard earned money a home that is considered a upper middle class neighborhood and then Barack comes along and want’s to require something like this, then what’s going to happen to my homes value.

You can see what’s happened to other neighborhoods where they have low income housing and section eight communities, and what’s going to happen to the entire neighborhood if Barack has his way, you’ll see what’s happened in the past, the entire neighborhood as a whole has gone down and it eventually will look like a slum.

History says that I’m correct in my assumption and I can say from my younger days of growing up in a low rent neighborhood in the west side of Columbus, Ohio that once the area starts to go downhill, it’s almost unattainable to repair the damage that has been done.

[ShotgunBlast]

While I agree that the administration shouldn't be forcing localities to meet some type of housing quota, I'll push back that an area turns slummy just because of low-cost housing. It's the mentality of the people inhabiting the housing that's the problem, but it is a different problem that requires a different solution. We should all be advocates for (market-driven) low-cost housing. I won't begrudge anyone that has a big expensive house, but here in Chesterfield County and many other areas, affordable housing is turning into a big problem. The size of the houses keep getting bigger and more expensive, but the size of the families inhabiting them keep getting smaller. This trend continues the divide between those that have the means to live in a nice subdivision and the rest that are thrown into apartments (and even need roommates to afford that). Home ownership rates are back to the same levels that they were 20 years ago. We need a different paradigm because this one ain't workin.

[FiremanBob]

The problem isn't the lack "affordable" housing, it's that libtard politicians and bureaucrats want to force "the rich" to have neighbors who otherwise could not afford to live in their neighborhoods. They also force a definition of eligibility to participate in the "affordable" programs that ensures only government-dependent hood rats move into such housing. That's how they spread their political base like dandelion seeds.

Now a complicating factor is the use, and abuse, of zoning laws to prevent less-expensive homes from being built in certain neighborhoods. A second complicating factor is that the politicians and bureaucrats force a definition of "affordable" that makes it impossible to build such housing at a profit, so none gets built. This is the case with rent control in New York City. Thomas Sowell, one of the greatest economists in history, has written extensively about these issues.

A free market in housing would solve all the problems. Houston, Texas is a good example. If the rich neighbors want to prevent someone from putting up an apartment building on a lot in their neighborhood, they could band together in a partnership to buy the land at a market price to forestall the development.