It is sad to watch officials from Orange county’s cities and towns continually fret about the lack of affordable housing in the county. Yes, there is a problem. But officials have yet to acknowledge that their own policies of intervention are distorting the market and hurting the very people they want to help. By instituting a web of regulations on land use and property rights, the supply of land shrinks and the cost of land grows. The result is higher housing prices.
As JLF’s Michael Sanera put it earlier this year in his Spotlight report on affordable housing policies:
Many North Carolina cities use affordable-housing policies to provide housing to low-income citizens. No doubt started with the best intentions, those policies ignore fundamental economic realities and produce the opposite effect than was intended.
Bingo. That is exactly what’s taking place in Orange county, where a task force is trying to determine why these ill-conceived policies aren’t working. Their conclusion? The programs need more regulations and more money from taxpayers. From the Herald-Sun:
Towns and the county could consider an Affordable Housing Bond Referendum like those approved by voters in 1997 and 2001. Tara Fikes, housing and community development director for Orange County, said each jurisdiction would have to consider that recommendation individually.
Other solutions could include the institution of an affordable housing transfer fee on future developments and greater flexibility in allowing developers to offer payment-in-lieu of local policies that require a certain percentage of affordable units within a new development.
