For years, Affordable Housing . . . .
. . . .was the subject the City of Paris, Texas, the Paris Economic Development Corporation (PEDC), and What Used to be the Lamar County Chamber of Commerce, bragged about the low costs of living in Paris. But what they refused to acknowledge was that “the low costs’ came in housing – substandard and historically-obsolete housing, which the Paris Texas Chamber repeatedly warned was not an asset.
Now, it’s a hot topic by people who don’t have a worthwhile idea of what to do about it any more than a week-long drunk Bessiebug.
Less than half the homes in Paris are owner occupied. 3,000 Properties are on tax-delinquent lists. The city is holding title to over 600 properties, and can’t maintain them. It could have three times as many, but doesn’t know what to do with the ones they already own. Adding to the problem, too many landlords have been and are excused from any attempts to maintain their properties. Or in some instances, prevented from making improvements (the FNB Building comes to mind).
Now, insanity is raging through the local taxing units: The local leadership has approved a “5 by 5 Program” (offering incentives to build five or seven $200,000 affordable homes of 1250 to 1350 square feet, which does not include lot cost, as the taxing units are giving title to the citizen’s public property for one dollar).
How can we know the right thing to do, if we can’t honestly face the fact that “affordable housing” is feel good politically-correct crap to make low-income housing sound better.
But it is what it is ––
Who, in their right mind, would think that subsidizing a $200,000 home is affordable housing for those with low incomes?
IF there is accountability for the failure that surely is coming, who is responsible?
Some are advocating for affordable apartments – “places that average workers can afford and be safe and comfortable in . . .” Trouble is, apartments may help a developer’s cash flow, but it doesn’t do much to help low income workers improve their lives economically.
We hate the term, the condescending attitude conveyed in the insult, of average worker. The average worker holds society together, keeps it running, delivering goods and services. If they never get to Heaven, it’s not because they ain’t tried . . .
Its government that keeps messing things up, trying to prove it’s worth: In 1975, the maximum FHA would finance a single-family home was around $71,000. This year, 2022, the loan limit is $970,800.
The U. S. national debt was $5.6 trillion in September 2000. Beginning this fiscal year (September 2023), debt had increased to $32-trillion. It’s government doing what government does best. Now, the debt is over $30 trillion, thanks to our elected leaders in Nutland, D. C.
And no matter how much it lies, mentally-deficient voters think we need more of it?
Does Paris need bare-bone quarters built for “average workers” or a way to convert the bulk of substandard properties inside the city limits to improved single-family homes?
Do we want to subsidize an apartment builder or help low income families improve their lives? Sure. The Paris Chamber recognizes the need for a wide range of available rental properties, as some of us – for a variety of reason – don’t want the responsibility of home ownership. But we also know that building equity in home ownership is a way of creating assets.
You cannot improve your life without ownership of private property, the rights to which are guaranteed in our nation’s Constitution.
Ownership of private property is how you climb out of poverty.
Subsidizing some builder only gets you another day older and deeper in debt ––
return to Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce