of poverty in Minneapolis currently running around outside of prison walls,
photo used under First Amendment Fair Comment and Criticism, blog post
by John Hoff
Click here for hugely important document that will raise your IQ by a point or two, if you read it all the way through.
Sometimes my sources feed me red hot nuggets of scandalous information, but other times my civic sources tell me, "Johnny, you should familiarize yourself with this boring-yet-important report on Issue X, Y, Z."
Today is the sort of day which falls into the second category. Dutiful good citizen blogger that I am, I know sometimes I must "eat my vegetables" and urge those same vegetables upon readers. MinnPost is already on this story, but something like this needs all the exposure it can get. While MinnPost calls the report "combustible," I must say it only contains what folks in North Minneapolis have known for decades...
Federal dollars have been misused to concentrate poverty and increase racial segregation while supposedly "helping" the people who are the intended beneficiaries of subsidized housing.
This is news...?
Oh, wait.
It's news because a smart professor at the University of Minnesota is saying it and backing up his points with data.
So it's news.
OK, everybody get excited, read the report, and learn this important news! My word, how will city hall ACT upon this newsy new information which is newsworthy?
Will they stop concentrating Level Three Sex Offenders and end the hostile siege upon our North Minneapolis zip codes? Will they buy up housing to keep it from the hands of slumlords who fill it with Section 8 rentals, to the right and left and double kitty corner and across the street from yet MORE Section 8 rentals? Will they put some effort into investigating the dubious property transactions uncovered on this blog by guest author Camden Canary?
Or...
I have an idea.
"Circular file" right next to the desperate cries for help this neighborhood has been emitting for decades, which have grown loud-as-hell in light of the murder of Good Samaritan Thomas Sonnenberg.
Sorry, reading Myron Orfield takes my IQ down by a few points. His heart may be in the right place, but his prescriptions are all off. We should end most subsidies of housing, especially those for buying a house. Most of the programs for first time buyers are limited to "targeted areas" like NoMi. Why should the government be taking people who don't have even a 3.5% down payment for a normal FHA loan and herding them into NoMi? Then we're surprised that those homeowners don't have the resources to keep up the properties? Subsidized mortgages and down payment assistance are arguably meant to "raise property values". What does that mean? It means raising purchase prices for would-be buyers. It means raising the selling price for sellers who are LEAVING the neighborhood. Subsidies don't help buyers. They help sellers. Econ 101. Supply and demand. Of course, Myron doesn't believe in free markets. Get rid of the subsidies and let buyers get a better deal. Also stop trying to incent people to buy in "the community". Let people buy (and rent) wherever they want. Orfield wants to end segregation with more (broadly applied) subsidies. How about just ending the subsidies and letting the market work?
ReplyDeleteAnon 9:21 Maybe you read it too many times-
ReplyDeleteWe live in a free enterprise system. Bringing Property values up means that more people WANT what you are selling and are willing to pay more for it.
What Orfield is specifically talking about is subsidies earmarked to produce an over saturation of low value homes in specific target areas for buyers who can't afford homes in other communities.
The overabundance of marginal homes earmarked for low income residents does nothing to benefit sellers (regardless of the quality of their homes) because home values are determined by local price comparisons .
In contrast, it is the suburbs who do not have the same level of subsidies targeted at low income housing. Thus, price disparities exist that force those families who "don't have the resources to keep up the properties" into target areas where they are also subjected to a lack of services and opportunity because of these policies.
If you don't understand what he is saying - just look at the pictures.
Anon Feb 10 at 5:46,
ReplyDeleteYou're saying they should take the subsidies that have worked so well in NoMi and use them in the suburbs. Great. Now I'm sold. Not. You government subsidy lovers are like a guy with a hammer. Everything looks like a nail to you. End all subsidies. Let people and their money go where they will.