[WEEKLYSTANDARD] Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Juliàn Castro defended his department’s new "Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing" program on Capitol Hill last week. Designed to integrate low-income families into higher-income neighborhoods, the proposed rules would funnel federal grant money to developers who build medium- and low-cost residences in wealthier neighborhoods.
The basic idea – if you build it, they will come – has been tried before, in the nation’s capital.
The idea, y'see, is to move the po' folks in among the rich folks.Through a process of osmosis the po' folks will learn to maintain their residences, get up and go to work every morning, not to party until five a.m. with shirtless tough guys standing out front and hollering and waving guns. Why, no. Of course there's no possibility the po' folks will simply regard their neighbors as prey, despoiling them of their worldly goods and trashing their real property.What gave you that silly idea?
Since 2009, Washington, D.C. has incentivized builders to integrate financially homogenous neighborhoods through the Inclusionary Zoning Affordable Housing Program. It operates on a similar principle as the federal program, though with the subsidy coming in the form of “bonus density” (maximum number of lots allowed in a certain zone) rather than a federal grant. In the federal program, construction companies receive a check from the government for building cheaper, denser housing; in D.C., they’re allowed a special dispensation from zoning laws that helps them sell more lots. Both systems encourage low-cost, high-density building in government-designated zones. |