In November, the city of Poway, California rejected a veterans' housing project. The story is informative for the way communities rally to obstruct the addition of low-income housing.
Maya Srikrishnan recounts a recent decision by the Poway City Council to deny a proposal by Habitat for Humanity San Diego to build "22 for-sale, affordable homes for veterans on a roughly 2.5-acre piece of land that the city is legally bound to use for subsidized housing."
The fact that the project was intended for veterans reveals the reasoning behind community opposition to low-income housing projects—and a much more common narrative. "The opposition in Poway listed concerns over crime, density, funding, parking and traffic – issues that quell low-income housing developments throughout the region," writes Srikrishnan.
Srikrishnan argues that Poway's decision, in the context of the needs of the nation's veterans, stands above other examples of NIMBYism in articulating the fear of low-income housing. The article includes the political back in forth between the members of the community opposed the project, the case made to address some of the fears about the project, and testimony from some of the veterans hoping to see the project get built.
FULL STORY: ‘We Do Not Owe Them a House in Poway’
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City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research