TEK Tower (30 Francis) | 45 fl | U/C

[jwilliamson]

Considering how low a priority housing affordability is, that really says something.

If you look at what the city staff negotiate in exchange for (significant) zoning variances, affordable units (or funding for same) are typically part of that discussion.

I think that's the problem. The fact that most developments need to negotiate with city bureaucrats to get appropriate zoning hurts housing affordability. The fact that we expect home buyers to pay for below-market housing by increasing the cost of market rate housing hurts affordability. The fact that we need large developers to provide housing leads to increased market power for developers and hurts affordability.

The entire housing development system in the region is built around an assumption that we need to limit housing availability, and that is never going to lead to housing that everyone can afford.