[silisili]

I've lived in two areas that this has happened, and will try to word it gently but honestly.

The neighborhood was nice, low traffic, never lock your doors(so to speak). In comes 'low income housing', ie jamming as many terrible apartment complexes as they could wherever they could.

Traffic shot way up, too much for the roads. Why would the developer care. Noise also shot up, constant noises of bass from cars at all hours. Lastly, crime shot up. I went from living almost in the middle of nowhere to having my car broken into twice in my own driveway.

Sorry all, I agree that housing is a crisis, but I no longer want dense housing anywhere near me.

[threemux]

You've explained the issue very well. I've tried to make similar points before. People look at a nice neighborhood and say "we should give more people this experience". But you can't - the low density is what makes it good.

[notaustinpowers]

I've also lived in an area that seemed to have reduced this problem by a huge factor. I lived in a community of 150 townhomes where 50% of them were Section 8 and the other 50% were privately-owned. Due to how the community was built, you could never tell which units were which.

I was able to have a 3bd/2.5ba 1,200sqft townhome for only $1,200/month. I think there was only 1 shooting in the 3 years I lived there. Yeah there was noise, but it was also a college town so that's unavoidable in the area.

It's an idea that I felt worked very well, and I really wish more cities would try it out for semi-dense housing solutions.

[NonEUCitizen]

Where is this egalitarian place with 50% section 8 and 50% not, but built so "you could never tell which units were which?"

[notaustinpowers]

A community in North Charleston, SC named Horizon Village.

North Charleston (in general) is considered an unsafe area, but this community was built to battle the stigma against Section 8 housing that is very prevalent in the Charleston area. After I moved out they've continued to build out more privately-owned homes in the community. Back in 2018 rents were around $1,200 for a 3bd, but the privately-owned homes are now renting for over $3k for 3bd, and starting around $400k for sale. While the Section 8 housing is still operating as it normally does for the area with reduced costs.

It's helped to revitalize the area (take a look at Park Circle just north of the community), while ensuring that further gentrification and displacement doesn't occur like it did in the downtown Charleston Westside neighborhood.

[LoganDark]

I wish normal housing were more affordable instead.

Also, low-income housing sort of sucks. For example, in my area, some low-income apartments were recently constructed, but they do not have washer and dryer receptacles. It's not that they aren't included. You cannot even bring your own, because you won't have anything to hook them up to. Apparently, you are supposed to use the laundromat only.

But now that people with low income can live there, suddenly my complex no longer has to worry about those people, because the availability of the low-income apartments reduces the amount of people who would even consider living here. Suddenly, you're not losing potential customers by raising the price, because all the customers that you would have been losing are now all living in the low-income apartments instead.

That hurts people like me who have a higher standard of living (such as owning a washer and dryer) but still don't exactly make enough money to justify spending $2,000 a month for a two-bedroom apartment (ours is currently around $1,800). I suppose I'm the customer they'd be losing by raising the price, but the risk to them is probably still far lower now.

[silisili]

Great points. I've often thought the most underserved group wrt housing are the working lower middle class. Which is weird, because that's how I grew up. We had tiny houses(5 of us in a house < 900sqft), but in decent blue collar neighborhoods where everyone was respectful and getting by.

That just doesn't exist much today. You either spend more than you can afford to live with upper middle class in a house two sizes too big, or you live in shared low income apartments. They just don't build small SFH neighborhoods anymore, apparently.

[mlrtime]

They 100% do, just not where most people want to live.

I know many midwest cities with newly built small houses. Maybe not <900 sq feet. But 3-4 family bedroom houses at around 1500 sq feet. These houses are basic and inexpensive. You won't get much land either but may get a neighborhood park.

[LoganDark]

that sounds great, if they're inexpensive to buy, the only land i'd really need is the land the house is on. my hope is one day we'll have enough money to consider such a thing, probably once we make 150k+ a year, but that doesn't seem so far out of reach at the moment, could happen some time in the next 6 months

there are other constraints of course (such as isp), but right now the biggest one is that we don't have millions to spend on a single bedroom.