Sunday, May 07, 2006

But where will us journalists live?

As new residents are moving into the new (pick one) efficiency studios/single-room-occupancy/subsidized housing project at San Antonio Place, the Mountain View City Council is prepared to eliminate the city's affordable housing tax.

The timing probably could have been better for Vice Mayor Greg Perry's proposal, which would eliminate a fee charged to developers (3% of the total sales price of the project) and direct most of it (2 of those 3 percentage points) to an existing fund for park development. Tuesday night, the council will also discuss what to do with millions of dollars currently in the affordable housing fund.

Perry's argument is that the the city's so-called Below Market Rate program gives a huge subsidy to relatively few people without increasing the overall supply of housing. He appears to have the four votes he needs for his proposal, but will face strong opposition from other council members and housing advocates, who say BMR or "inclusionary zoning" is an important way to guarantee that at least a few low-wage workers will always have a place in the community. One, after hearing about Perry's proposal, said only, "That's awful."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Argh! I am so against this.

Anonymous said...

Journalist? Are you sure that's what you are Weiner?

Kathy Schrenk said...

I think anonymous just likes saying "weiner"