The forgotten benefits of public housing

Boing Boing -You know what works better than giving tax-credits to property developers, or mandating a few poor-door accessible affordable housing units in a new luxury high rise? Just building affordable housing on public land that's publicly managed.

Cities already own huge swathes of non-park real estate, and can borrow on terms that are much better than anything a property developer can get; the rents in public housing can be set by accountable governments, there's no impetus to evict tenants from public housing to move in deep-pocketed yuppies; public housing can be run on a cost basis, or a subsidy, or even a money-making basis, with the surplus going to build and maintain more public housing.

That also has the side-effect of reducing the number of powerful, rich people who have an interest in distorting the housing market to keep prices and rents as high as possible.