Why "affordable" housing is so expensive to build

[Althea]

So I waded through that long winded article and found very little to explain the cost problem. The examples where it was private and cheap were in cheaper locations than the expensive public projects in California. All I learned was that in California the cost was high due to the projects offering ancillary amenities and not being big to enjoy economies of scale. In other words, nothing.

Odd...I read the same article, and saw a $700,000/month income from the commercial units, which would easily fund the low income housing. I didn't see a problem at all, and neither did the investors.

[Bill]

Is it really practical to "assume" SF really wants the low housing?? Or just wants to get rid of the poor from there so more cowackos & pelosi's can find comfort in their mansions by the bay??

[TTQ64]

This is why real estate is so high. A bunch of rich white men with decades of corruption in the real estate market and everyone turned a blind eye. Americans were too busy looking for the criminal Black man.

This dude is in our white house.

Kushner’s Company Filed False Tenant Paperwork To Boost Property Profits
Documents claimed no tenants had rent protections, when hundreds did, according to AP.


The family real estate company co-owned by White House adviser Jared Kushner repeatedly filed false reports with New York City concerning rent-regulated tenants in an effort to push them out of the buildings and boost profits, an investigation by The Associated Press found.

Hundreds of Kushner Cos. tenants were protected by city law from being hit with major rent hikes or forced out by a new owner. However, the company “routinely” filed false paperwork saying buildings had no-rent regulated tenants, AP reported. According to city documents — obtained by the tenant watchdog group Housing Right Initiative — at least 80 fraudulent applications were filed for construction permits in 34 buildings from 2013 to 2016. They all stated the buildings had no rent-regulated tenants, when in fact they included 300 rent-regulated units, according to tax documents, AP reported. Kushner was CEO of the company during that time.
In one case, Kushner Cos. filed false statements about tenants in three buildings with 94 rent-regulated units that it purchased in Queens in 2015, reports AP. After the company displaced most of the residents, it sold the buildings two years later for $60 million, nearly 50 percent more than their purchase price, according to AP.

A statement from the company to AP said that a contracted third party, not Kushner Cos., was responsible for filing the paperwork. Any errors discovered were addressed “immediately,” it added. “Kushner Cos. would never deny any tenant their due-process rights,” the statement said. Housing Rights Initiative said several amended documents were filed after the initial paperwork but often as long as one or two years later, by which time many tenants were gone.

Accurate paperwork would have afforded building tenants more city help and supervision of construction and landlord treatment. Instead, some tenants reported they were urged to get out or forced to live amid the disruption of ongoing construction work as the Kushners prepared to boost rents or sell a building.

Zoning laws my ass. These corrupt practices are SOP!

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...b05b2218000cd8

[cawacko]

Nice grave dig. You once again show you have zero understanding of economics, of how markets work and how city government works. Absolutely none. Nor do you have any desire to understand it.

[Bobb]

Why is government housing so expensive? One reason: Because California pays six-figures to Hispanic construction workers who each do half the work of one man.

We should return to high-density housing projects for the poor, ala Pruitt–Igoe. But, start hanging the criminals from trees to prevent the projects from being dangerous or trashed. Or, at least, keep a strong police presence and lots of video security.