Quote:
Originally Posted by John Mercier
Did he start out on the streets wearing ten pairs of pants and arguing with a stop sign? Or did he evolve to that from the stress of being homeless?
That was my point.
Laconia now has lots of homeless... but the census population has remained the same for decades while the number of housing units has exploded.
The problem is not the lack of housing. And you can't make an open-ended sale of market priced housing - regardless of how cheaply I can design them - with the certainty that the local homeless or near homeless (having trouble affording their current housing) will be the ones to purchase them.
In fact, I can't even sell only to labor force housing... as we are allowed to only discriminate against younger buyers... not older.
So the solution we currently use is wait for them to be homeless, and see what other problems we can stack on to that.
|
To answer a previous question, homelessness does not cause the mental heath issues you described, although it certainly can cause PTSD and other issues.
As to the housing, it is true that constitutional rules prohibit who get to/has to be in housing. I think there needs to be local solutions. For instance, a project proposed for a location might be required to provide some amount of Workforce Housing development in proportion to a portion of their employment needs. Subsidies are unpopular, but perhaps local tax or State business tax relief can be proposed for those housing development that lease to a certain percentage of local workforce.
I just don't think we have expended the discussion about possibilities.
I read an article today about locations in Mass that had restrictive zoning (such as max 2 bedroom units) which limited family rentals. Local zoning has been target as "the bad guy" in this housing market in NH. From what I see, the opportunities to create housing are not restricted nearly as much as the article about Mass has suggested. There is a development problem, for sure.