Low Cost Housing

LOW-COST HOUSING

The majority of Americans don’t want to live in apartments: they demand single-family housing in leafy suburbs. This is an inefficient energy-consuming choice, especially at a time when family size is changing. For example, in 1960 44% of households consisted of married couples and their children. In 2020 this figure was 19%, with 28% of households consisting of single individuals.

Then there is the demand for low-cost housing. In cities there may be a lack of available land, or jobs may be growing more in the suburbs than in the central cities. But the suburbs for the most part do not want low-income people or multiple-family dwellings which are what low-income housing usually involves.

Suburban residents allege as reasons traffic congestion, a decrease in property values, increase in crime, a strain on infrastructure, a lack of sidewalks, decline in school quality. These reasons imply fear of an influx of people of color or people of different cultures, but this is never stated outright. For example,

powerful suburban voices, especially in Westchester and Nassau counties, killed the 2023 proposal of Gov. Hochul to build 800,000 units of affordable housing in New York State.

So here we remain, with a huge demand for low-cost housing and a totally inadequate supply.

Source: The New York Times, 3/3//24, 5/12/23, 4/1/23, The Washington Post, 4/25/23,
ProPublica, 5/22/19, and Pew Research Center, 5/2/18