By: Diane Benjamin

Read this WGLT story: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2023-09-12/group-looks-to-rally-support-for-a-community-land-trust-in-bloomington-normal-aimed-at-housing-affordability

Local housing is a problem that the free market will self-correct. Interference in the process is why housing is unaffordable. One thing is certain: Additional housing can’t be created next month. It takes time and creating a Community Land Trust isn’t going to fix anything quickly. They also don’t have the money to do it – they want yours.

See this site for a pretty good description of Community Land Trusts: https://www.investopedia.com/community-land-trust-5206374

Habitat for Humanity already exists to help low income people buy houses. They have a model, has this group worked with them to more quickly expand housing availablity?

The local socialist voters elected to the Unit 5 school Board, Mark Adams, will need money. He wants it from public and private sources. This is where he proves to be uniformed.

At Monday’s Council meeting Alderman Jenna Kearns pulled an item pertaining to Community Development Block Grant Funds. (CDBG). This is Federal money meant to fund repairs to housing that allow the poor to keep their homes. In the past Bloomington has used some of it for sidewalks. This group wants that money for their Land Trust, I’m thinking the Kearns pulling of that item was coordinated with this group.

One fallacy of their plan is that homeowners are limited on how much they can resell their home for. They will not gain wealth because of the limits and the fact they don’t own the land. If Equity and wealth creation is the stated goal, they fail.

They got far off the rails by thinking Normal and Bloomington could create a TIF District for a housing trust fund. I didn’t listen to the interview but WGLT didn’t correct them? Since they wrote the story I think the answer is NO.

Do they know what TIF stands for? Tax Increment Financing. Mark Adams should know TIF’s deprive schools of revenue for 23 years. TIF’s also aren’t a pile of money available for him to access.

TIF’s only have money when property values increase. Somebody has to build something that increases the taxable value of the property. See Uptown. They used TIF to build, took out millions in loans, and now will not have enough money from the TIF to pay off the loans.

TIF’s aren’t a pot of money for redistribution!

If helping the poor is really the goal, here’s a report for them to see from the NOT right-wing CATO institute: https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/catosletter_spring2019.pdf

Here’s a couple of quotes, but there is a lot more good stuff in the article:

The real problem isn’t the poor, and it isn’t society. It’s the government.

There is an entire section on affordable housing:

If we really want to make housing affordable in this country, it’s not a matter of having more subsidies to chase ever-higher costs. It’s a matter of getting rid of those regulations to reduce the cost of housing, so the poor can have mobility and move into the areas where the jobs are.

If this group wants to create a socialist utopia with private money they should. Redistribution of wealth using public money will only make the poor poorer. Limited government is the only solution, socialism always fails.