First of all, the Affordable Housing program does not produce more low-cost housing for poor people. The government requires prices to be set at the median level for the area where they are to be built. But, as usual, the government doesn’t understand real estate values at all. So, the greater Los Angeles Metropolitan Area, which goes from the beach where housing is in the seven or eight digit range to the San Bernardino Valley and perhaps beyond, where real estate values for the best places are lower than the worst neighborhood in Los Angeles.

Which means the Affordable Housing median for SB Valley turns out to be higher than the average price of a house or apartment.

Also, this higher-priced housing is not to code because of the federal government’s idiotic notion that poor people don’t deserve a place that is built properly. You should see some of the buildings built under this program. In my city, there is a Mixed-Use “town-house” that is tipsy. If you hung a plumb-bob from the eaves on the third floor next to the building, the bob would hang free on its way down to the ground. Also, the framework is constructed of spliced scrap wood bound together with metal straps and secured with metal pegs. You think I’m going to set foot in a place like that?

The best way to get housing for poor people is to let the builders build housing for middle and upper middle class folks. What happens is that those who want to move up sell out and buy a better place. The folks that buy their place are also moving up, and this goes on down the chain like a Domino effect. At the very bottom will be left vacant apartments and houses at the low-end of the market. That sets the pace for the right amount of low-cost housing.

Otherwise you end up with huge tracts of ugly crummy housing and all the trouble that goes with it.

If government would stop trying to micro-manage the market, we the people would be able to sort the whole thing out at no cost to taxpayers.

I agree that CEQA is a problematical government regulation. And though I am a registered Republican, I do not believe that what California needs right now is more development. I think we need a moratorium until we see if the drought is over. If it turns out to be over, we should not plan to cover every square inch of our state with buildings and parking lots.

There should be some recognition by everyone that the kind of climate-zone you are in should drive land-use policy. Just because we can build huge projects to bring water to Southern California from somewhere else far away does not mean we should.

“Without Wisdom, a People Perish.” — Proverbs 11:14

P.S.: I do not belong to any environmental organization, I do not believe climate change is being driven by human activity, I do not believe humans can continue to pollute the planet with impunity, I do not believe we need to give up fossil fuels to have clean energy, I do not believe raising animals humanely for food is a bad thing, I do not believe GMOs are a good thing, I do not believe that science or government are the salvation of mankind, I do not believe that the end justifies the means, I do not believe in the use of force or coercion to shift the gears of the marketplace. I believe that the Universe is an orderly place, governed by its Creator according to the laws of cause and effect which apply equally everywhere at all times, and that no one is exempt.

Your comments reflect the reasons why young people (and many older folks) can no longer afford to live in California. Breaking the stranglehold that Unions (especially public employee unions) and Environmentalists have on this state is the only way for California to become again the great and affordable state that I was born into in 1964, and was still pretty affordable up through about early ninties.

The California Democratic party is completely owned by the above two special interests (Unions and environmentalist) at the expense of rest of the Californians who believe that the Public Good is not defined by what extremist environmentalist want or what Unions want.

I fervently hope that the majority of Californians wake up and repeal the CEQA and all of its extremists elements, and limit the power of unions to impact new construction projects.

This will only realistically happen when Californians hold the Democrats responsible for why California has become such a ridiculously overtaxed and unaffordable place to live and work.

And no, I am not a Republican, and I think Global Warming is a scientific fact, but I will not end Global Warming on the backs of working Californians, who need affordable housing and a tax structure that does not levy non-progressive taxes like the Gasoline Tax per Gallon or ridiculous taxes to register your vehicle annually. A car’s registration is not to raise taxes but give police and accident victims an accurate location of the car’s registered owner.