In our October 1 print edition, we published an op-ed co-authored by Durham City Council member Javiera Caballero and affordable housing finance specialist Ramsay Ritchie arguing for building more housing, both market rate and affordable, to address affordable housing needs in Durham. (The piece followed several other op-eds debating solutions to this issue.) Readers shared their takes.
From reader Chris by email:
In response to the abundance of Abundance™ astroturfing at INDY op-eds, Triangle-area municipal candidates, burgeoning 501(c)4s, and the neoliberal politics as vocation apparatus lost in the wilderness:
Corporations will maximize profits without regulation, not production. To help working people of the Triangle that live in the Triangle here are some alternatives:
1) Ban hedge fund, private equity, or other corporations from buying single-family residential properties in city limits.
2) Excise tax on Air BNBs within a certain district.
3) Excise tax on out-of-state 2nd single-family residencies (and associated LLCs).
4) Excise tax on in-state 4th and 5th and so on single-family residencies (and associated LLCs).
5) Expand eligibility to minor and substantial rehabilitation repair program to under 62 years old.
6) Divest city pensions from Real Estate Investment Trusts.
Shelter is wildly speculated on but is far from the only victim. It’s almost every sector determining health to include hospitals and groceries. Predatory equity needs us on our phones, lonely, sick, and isolated above all else. And when there is no sector left to pillage, go get your Gravestones by Blackstone.
From reader Katie Ross by email:
Housing in Durham is expensive but it is no longer a supply issue. “Affordable housing” is the “Abracadabra” of the development community. Whenever developers want anything approved, from their self-serving [Simplifying Codes for Affordable Development] amendments to the upcoming universal upzoning [Unified Development Ordinance] revision, they just utter the magic word, affordable. More new units have been approved than [the Office of Budget and Management] and Durham Planning Department have projected are needed up to the year 2050. Multi-family rental units have had vacancy rates near and above 12 percent for at least a couple of years (that’s a glut, btw). Turning Durham over to the developers has not worked to produce the affordable housing which is supposed to be the justification for all the environmental devastation that rabid development has and is inflicting on Durham.