Comment 61345

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted March 22, 2011 at 12:09:12

The lack of affordable housing being built in this country has been scandalous as long as I can remember. In too many ways both the government and private sector just walked away from building it.

The thing is, affordable housing will appear one way or the other. A very large number of people simply can't afford high rents, condo fees and mortgages. Somewhere, somebody will have to lower prices to a point where people can afford it, or there will simply be nobody left to rent to, or sell to someone who will. This is how slums pop up, and past a certain breaking point, it ghettoises the whole neighbourhood, carving up old homes into rooms for rent, and scaring off anyone with the ability to leave.

What we need, IMHO, is an option for collective ownership of small-to-medium rental buildings. Something a little like a condominium, but run primarily as a co-operative of residents. The economics of rent are insane - in far too many cases it actually costs more to rent, and you get much less for your money. Pay off the building, put it in trust, and drop the rents to something that actually approximates the cost of upkeep. Share risk and equity with other similar buildings, and form a coalition to help establish more. Oh, and let some tradespeople pay in work.

"Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century." — Lewis Mumford

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