The Poor You Will Have with You Always, Even with UBI

My father had a community development organization in a blighted part of a southern U.S. city. They bought and restored 14 houses that were falling down and unliveable, and made them available with a very creative financing structure to attempt to alleviate the typically gentrifying investment of renovation. They took on volunteers and lots of other cost-savings for the demolition, but when it came to buying things they had worked out with their bank to finance each house with a construction loan, at a great rate backed by good-credit sponsors co-signing, with a built- in clause to provide for an exit for families who rent to houses to be able to take over the mortgage when they were ready, and it would “wrap” to the renters-to-owners. Their rent would effectively have been paying down the mortgage they would take on.

They found it easy to find candidate houses, easy to find families to rent them, and the families were interested in financial literacy training on offer, but none have yet taken on the mortgage.

When the jobs are terrible, or far away, houses aren’t the silver bullet. Not new houses, not affordable houses, not apartments, not single-family, not any category of housing on its own. More supply would sure be nice, but it isn’t a single line solution.

https://public.websites.umich.edu/~mille/ORUS_Health.pdf