The United States has a double whammy housing crisis. Poor and low-income people can’t find a place to live. Many are homeless. On the other hand, many oversized homes with spare bedrooms were built at high cost and sold to families who couldn’t afford them. These homes face foreclosure and could end up empty. New homes may not sell. (Millions of square feet of space may become vacant, despite an increase in squatters.)
What if the U.S. government bought all these homes outright, at reduced, true market value, and converted them to low income housing? Voila! Every U.S. citizen gets a bed! The original mortgage holder would be allowed to stay in “his” home, but he’d have to accept roommates as part of the deal.
Because many of these homes are in the far flung suburbs, how on earth would poor people get to work? (If they’ve got a job.) Let Uncle Sam toss in a Prius, a carbon frame bicycle and a free bus pass. An added plus: Congress wouldn’t have to wrangle over legislation to spend, spend, spend more money on new housing projects that guys like Mitch McConnell might call “pork.”
John Lindstrom
Everett
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