This poem summarizes the downstream impact of City Councilors saying no to every possible policy solution to the upstream causes of homelessness.
Yes to housing solutions and yes to anti-displacement measures. Yes together, and no to waiting for either to go first. Yes and yes and yes.
When housing costs (rents and home prices) go up, homelessness goes up. That's the connection, more than any other "reason" people cite for rising homelessness.
Capitalism has, of course, turned housing into a commodity, and rising home values are now linked to generational wealth for white families that benefited from VA loans and FHA loans that were denied, almost exclusively, to non-White families. That explains the gap in wealth between Black and white families.
So now, all of the zoning that only allows 1 single-family house (the most costly housing type) + casita (the second most costly housing type) is effectively keeping housing out of the price range for all but those whose families can help with downpayments. Guess who those families are?
It's time to level the playing field and open up more of Albuquerque to housing types that need less land per unit, which means they will have lower costs. For the most part, the profit margins of a few units of development are not enticing to the vast majority of developers or investment firms, so any development that happens will be local people who are in it for the honest buck.
That doesn't sound bad to me. Sounds like it's about time.
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