New Apartment Complexes

Here’s an affordable housing idea. What if every new apartment complex was required by the city to have 10% of the units be income based? I’m not saying these units would have to be the same luxury level that some of these newer projects are, but this would be a way to get new affordable units made while also letting developers build the high end projects they want to make money off of.

I read somewhere once that when you have a mixture of people with different income levels living together a few unexpected things happen. The people with the higher income levels will sympathize more with those who are lower income because they get to know them in ways they might not normally have. Also, because the people with higher income levels aren’t going to let property managers slide on getting repairs and maintenance done the people who are lower income get to have a better place to live. Suddenly people who might have had to live in less than desirable living conditions has a well maintained home, which leads to them being happier and having more self confidence. "Holy wellness Batman!", did we just improve mental health by helping people have a nicer place to live?

I know when I was looking at apartments a couple of years ago one of the brand new complexes said they had some units that were income restricted. This was in Reno, so it already exists. These projects have to go through the city council and planning commission to be approved, so it wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility to make this happen. If we can work with developers to have affordable housing in every new apartment complex being built we can help a lot of people in need and provide opportunity for those in the edge of being unhoused to continue having a home.