By: Diane Benjamin
Many running for local offices are claiming they will solve the housing crisis. If elected they could be throwing your money at projects that won’t work, trap people in substandard housing, or buy them votes with your money.
WJBC reported Home Sweet Home Ministries is considering buying a hotel and turning it into a shelter: https://www.wjbc.com/2024/08/01/long-term-solution-for-tent-city-could-include-purchasing-a-local-hotel/
That article states it will be expensive. They claim this might be a solution to tent city. Remember the conglomerate of governments and non-profits working on the problem?
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Most will be using tax dollars to purchase a hotel and staffed it too. Remember Public Comments revealing how many times the police had been called to tent city? Notice how the tent city people trash their surroundings? The hotel idea might work for people who need short term housing due to circumstances out of their control. It won’t work for long term needs because personal responsibility isn’t required.
I’ve said numerous times the private sector will solve housing. It isn’t fast because using their own money takes deliberation, governments know where to get more from you so they don’t use as much due diligence.
I know little about this company and I don’t know any of the players. TENTAC is using rate buydowns to assist people who want to build. In 3 years interest rates could be lower allowing refinancing.
They are also using lease to own options. See their website: https://pathwaytoown.com/
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Let me know if other private sector businesses are doing their part.
Absolutely asinine that all of these agencies are “working” on an issue that was 100% foreseeable when Rivian announced it would be coming to the area and has remained an issue ever since the workforce has expanded exponentionally. Local governments could have advertised or marketed a need for developers to come to the area or (this is my opinion and will differ from most commentators here) could have incentivized increased development in the area at that time, if there was a need to do so. IF there were zoning restrictions in the way, that could have been addressed much sooner. Any number of things that stood in the way of private development could have been addressed sooner. Instead, we now have things like the Bloomington city council announcing strategies to solve it (too little, too late) and this issue has persisted long enough to conveniently serve as a political tool during an election season.
If interest rates hadn’t skyrocketed under Biden the problem would be easier to solve.
Seems like there needs to be a lot more root cause analysis done on this before a money dump is decided on. For instance one might consider, what’s going to happen when a hotel for homeless is built? Will that reduce or increase this population?
Then I would ask, what does Rivian have to do with the problem. I believe we didn’t have a housing problem when MMNA was here.
Also is there data on the source of the current homeless population? Seems that might be important to know.
Too many holes in the whole thing to jump to this kind of conclusion.
Prediction – this particular solution isn’t a solution.
They want to BUY a hotel. Mitsubishi didn’t have near as many employees but a large percentage commute to work now. I wouldn’t move for an uncertain future that only exists because government thinks it should.
TENTEC used to be Snyder Development.