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I’m just baffled that more states Dont look into the Vienna social housing system. Lots of videos on how the manage affordable housing so well.

Then it’s a scam

We need an 'X Prize' for affordable housing with criteria such as: affordable at a specific income range, energy efficiency, uses recycled products, low water usage, rapid construction, uses Green tech, low carbon and small land footprint. It worked for aviation, why not use it for housing?

Subsidies for Developers to build apartments, not subsidies to citizens to build homes, the corporate American way.

More housing of any kind is better than no housing.

Exactly! It is out of control!

It should be for renters paying robbery type rent. Why are we socializing the risk and privatizing profit for rich white developers? Cap rent and raise the wage.

The US need more low-income to moderate-income housing. Up to 15 billion ? How much Trump has wasted for Trump’s unlawful war against Iran behalf of Israel ? Israel provides the subsidized housing for own citizens using US taxpayers 💰 . 🤬

Let’s be clear. The housing programs are pouring billions into the pockets of developers in the hope that this policy results in more affordable housing. Since it doesn’t seem to be working maybe policymakers should be looking at alternatives.

I used to work for HUD and did some LIHTC work. It’s not perfect, but there are good examples of it in use. Let’s not eliminate what little tools we have; let’s fix them while working towards better solutions.

Austerity rules.

I’m not quite sure that should be the solution. This is always a handout for builders instead of being some type of access to this. Maybe they should allow building in lands that are government land. I will never be sold, but the house is on top of it can be sold.

I was unhoused in every city mentioned in the article. Trump’s 1st term ruined my career. I was unhoused a year after graduating w/2 BA’s. No one listened to me bc of my poverty. As an unhoused activist with an education in SF, I excoriated them for their ineptitude. I was targeted shortly after.

Everything in housing is designed to enforce poverty and maintain the wealth of landlords. It's time to start rolling out socialized housing developments designed explicitly to drive rents down and make landlords scream

Build the houses and then we will buy $15billion worth of housing from you . . . !!!

This is insane.

This is happening all around me *Real* affordable housing is being bulldozed and replaced by expensive and over-blown (and sterile) shoeboxes The city and developers can't wait to force us out of our little conclave of affordable but livable old trailers Where will we go?

The only winners are the developers. The same model works in the UK.

Builders are building homes they'll never live in to maximize profits instead of making houses people can live in. Well I am shocked.

Aren't they the worst thing ever? I learned this week that 75% of specialized and emergency vet clinics are now owned by private equity firms. And 35% of regular clinics are too, up from like 8% a couple years back. Many of them don't change their names so people don't get why prices are way up.

LIHTC comes with a requirement that the income & rent limits are maintained for 30 years. This is because 30 year or older units tend to rent below market anyway (unless you’re in an extremely supply constrained market, which most metros are right now).

Yes but…its more complicated. By federal law LIHTC projects must accept vouchers, so a key supply of housing for <30% AMI w/ HCV. Can also be used w/ state & local funds to lower rents. LIHTC inefficient compared to grants, but as Wyden says, its only federal housing production tool w/ GOP support.

That’s a very over-simplified model of the housing market you have. I’m happy to have higher wages, but it won’t substitute for supply-side incentives. Especially in housing.

Voters.

They know- these are exceedingly sick fucks who want to see dead elders on a curb where they must be stepped over- they love pre-new deal- era societies

According to economists, those landlords should lower the price until they find the price the market will bear. So... Why does that not seem to apply to real estate?

Following 800 years of occupation. Revolution 1916. Civil War 1921 to 1922. Dublin City Corporation. Started a Suburban Housing plan. Built Thousands of houses on both sides of the river, Liffy. Proportional rents were the norm based on wage. The United States celebrates 250 years of freedom. 🇮🇪🇪🇺

Because these programs are just covers for wealth transfer to the developers. NOTHING done in the USA is ever REALLY about helping anyone but the Epstein class. If worship of money is the root of all evil, then the USA is the most evil place currently on earth.

the silver bullet that they want is actually ubi and housing assistance hope that helps

😡

Sure. Federal. Trump.

Shocked. Shocked I am.

In Portland Oregon the apartments are for low income only for the first 5-10 years. Then they are open market rentals. The poor are evicted & the builder makes Billions off Taxpayers $$$. Cruel unfair system, if it is built with Taxpayers $$$ it should be Taxpayers property forevermore.

More market-rate housing does drive down prices in the market via simply having more units. Housing construction is extremely expensive -- there is no actual way to build cheap, affordable housing. One can only subsidize rent/ownership for X number of years. Not defending these developers here.

Wouldn't that be considered fraud?

Check out "Artspace Arts Campus" apartments & unfinished studios built with public money in Silver Spring, Maryland, by Minnesota non-profit Artspace - then abandoned once the public land & historic publicly owned anchor building were listed on their website as success. Sold, wrecked, mostly vacant

Oh no.

❗️

What an awful article. The fact that LIHTC helps keep market rates down is a positive, not a negative. The assertion that it’s creating a surplus of housing is laughable. Also laughable that an economist is arguing vouchers will yield more housing, and he seems to be your primary source.

I’m reminded the LIHTC was created by the Reagan admin in the 80s as a way to monetize housing finance for friends, not to produce a sufficient supply of affordable housing nationwide. It, like so many other programs from the 1986 Tax Act, is a neoliberal scam.

They're all good houses, Bront.

Because if it’s being done by the Trump administration you can bet that the purpose is grift, not helping people.

There's a reason this is one of the few programs Republicans don't want to gut. It benefits developers, not working Americans.

Truth

This is exactly one of the main points made in Brian Goldstone's book THERE IS NO PLACE FOR US (one of NY Times 10 best books of 2025). Excellent read.

Affordable housing is a scam.

Affordable housing has always been higher than housing kept by a succession of family owners. Ad a zero to rental cost of local rentals to get "Affordable housing" rent. I used to work in a part of Charlotte, NC, slated for "urban renewal," which worked out to be poor removal until defeated.

Many city governments allow those neighborhoods to be destroyed to get a higher real estate return. There is a particularly odious bunch who are sure if people are unhoused by poverty removal schemes, they'll work harder and smarter for better housing.

Which is also why I have seen successful LIHTC projects that take 30 year old units & make them accessible while targeting 40% AMI or lower, sometimes while adding new units.

Cheaper to build doesn’t mean cheaper to live in. However, it does make it easier to profit.

Exactly. It's hilarious these subsidy only guarantee profits for builders.