Pride in the plaza still on despite the rain
Starts at noon! https://silverspringdowntown.com/do/pride-in-the-plaza-1
u/MocoMikeE — 8 days ago
Adding more new homes really does help affordability at all income levels, including, and research indicates especially, at lower income levels
I know that it can be counterintuitive to think that adding new homes that not everyone can afford may not help affordability, but research consistently shows this is the case, and I was reminded of this piece of research from Pew recently, please take a look.
See also when used car prices went up when there was a pandemic/ materials related shortage of new cars.
The basic concept is the same.
No building more market rate homes is not a sufficient solution on its own, nothing is, we should also do other things, but it’s absolutely necessary and probably the biggest part of the solution.
Affordable set asides and reasonable rent caps and dedicated, subsidized affordable homes are all needed too, but the capacity for those is also limited, and for the last one, public funds are a severe limiter. We should push for more of it, but there is still an upper bound with budget realities
When there isn’t enough of something to meet the need for it, the price of it goes up as people spend more money on the scarce amount of it. And this includes upper income people that buy or rent older housing that would be cheaper if they had newer homes to buy or rent instead of bidding up the price of existing housing.
u/MocoMikeE — 8 days ago
Important Board of Ed Race Update
Switching from my “housing loudmouth” to “trans rights loudmouth” capacity, Brenda Diaz looks set to make the board of ed at large runoff against Omar Lazo and to avoid a nightmare situation for LGBTQ+ kids it’s very important that everyone vote for Omar Lazo in November.
More info here https://www.thebanner.com/education/k-12-schools/montgomery-county-school-board-race-politics-JBEKLBBLCRC2NBGPPYGU7A4TNA/
u/MocoMikeE — 11 days ago
Doubling the MPDU requirement to 30% is a terrible idea
Me disliking Marc Elrich and his housing policies isn’t new but wanted to take this opportunity (as someone who supports the MPDU program) to say that doubling the requirements from 15% of homes to be offered below market rate to 30% (as he has recently proposed) is a bad idea that would crater already weak housing production, which increases housing costs.
I’m all for reasonable affordability measures like the current law, and have taken quite a lot of shit the last couple of years for supporting our rent stabilization law, so I’m not afraid to say when things like this are defensible. This is not.
It stems from the idea that housing will be built no matter how hard we make it to build, and that is not true. There things add up, and while I support those other measures I mentioned they are not cost free, and making it so that almost a third of all homes built (in developments of more than 20) has to be subsidized by other homes in The same development (which is factually how the MPDU program, which has no public subsidy, works) means that it comes out of the bottom line of developers. Whether you think that is good, bad, or are indifferent, there is a point where it makes things not pencil, and that probably below 1/3. (It varies from project to project but you get it)
I get that people want a “one cool trick that works” and sticking it to “greedy developers” feels good but that makes people feel more self righteous than it helps
Everything has a trade off and this is pitched as cost free, and that is crap.
u/MocoMikeE — 23 days ago
A tired old line that shows how leaders get us into the mess we are in on housing
In light of CM (and CE candidate) Jawando once again deviating from his previously strong housing record and deriding “luxury housing” I ask that people read this. I also ask better of our leaders than to be Marc Elrich 2.0 when it comes to giving excuses to leave wealthy exclusionary areas alone and perpetuate the housing crisis.
https://ggwash.org/view/93183/what-i-talk-about-when-i-talk-about-luxury-housing
u/MocoMikeE — 2 months ago
Ever since MoCo’s rent stabilization law was passed and it later became clear there has been a drop in housing permits, there have been people pushing to repeal or weaken the law. More recently, others have argued it needs to be strengthened. I don’t expect to put an end to this debate, but I mean what I say here, there are real impacts on permitting happening due to MoCo’s rent stabilization law, but I think they are largely caused by uncertainty, there are other factors also at play, and we are best served leaving the law as is and making other adjustments.
Anyway please consider giving it a read https://ggwash.org/view/103176/people-need-to-take-a-deep-breath-over-rent-control-in-montgomery-county
u/MocoMikeE — 2 months ago