Earlier today, President Trump wrote an Op-Ed where he stated that his intent to oppose efforts to allow for low-income housing in single-family neighborhoods and protect their "suburban character". The President did this shortly after he repealed a 1968 fair housing rule- amended under the Obama Administration- which required communities receiving federal housing subsidies to document and address patterns of segregation and bias in their neighborhoods. The president’s tweet took dog whistling to the extreme, as he signalled to wealthy suburban homeowners that they need not worry about “others” infiltrating their homogeneous neighborhoods. Ostensibly, the President’s repeal of the housing legislation was predicated on the assumption that low-income housing lowers property values. However, affordable housing very clearly does not reduce property values, and the diverse communities generated by new housing can serve to enliven neighborhoods and increase property values.
Bay Areans were swift to decry the president’s move to nix the fair housing law, the President’s ideas are no different from those of Bay Area progressives; just amplified on a national scale. Even in San Jose, affordable housing developments are concentrated into a select few neighborhoods, while most of the city has abdicated its responsibility to house our burgeoning population. Even at the height of the coronavirus crisis, San Joseans have shot down several affordable housing solutions under the pretext of concerns over property values, crime, and safety, despite the success of the City’s first “tiny home” program in Berryessa.
All over the Bay Area, wealthy suburbs rush to approve massive office developments which bring an influx of workers and traffic, yet cringe at even the possibility of building housing for the people we attract.
Oftentimes, the reasons we give for our reflexive disdain for housing are the same as those given by the President for his rollback of fair housing laws. We claim that affordable housing beneficiaries “don’t belong” in our neighborhoods, despite the fact that many of them work in our communities. We decry “traffic congestion” while ignoring the reality that our very own land-intensive suburbs are what create the traffic in the first place and that density alleviates traffic. We fear monger over “crime waves” caused by new housing, despite the fact that vibrant, mixed use communities are actually safer for us. Bottom line: If we’re going to criticize unfair housing policies at the national level, we need to clean up our act at home.
Thanks for reading! If you like my content, please follow me on Twitter at @personopolis. My next post will be about flags (sorry for postponing it), and from there I'll be talking about gentrification and planning for people, not jobs.
Signing off,
AG
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