Affordable Housing: a goal for future, not current, City residents

Everyone is talking about the area's lack of affordable housing. The current City Council, and the Democratic candidates for the fall election, have in general voiced strong concern about the lack of housing for people who are the backbone of any healthy community. The issue is straightforward, but solutions are not.

Before we address future housing stock, however, I want to talk about the housing of current residents. Why is there not as much concern for the affordability of current residents' housing? I am thinking specifically of the real estate tax burden. Most people spend their every dime, every month. They have finite income and they can not have expanding expenses. Why has City Council increased spending so relentlessly in the last decade? The current notion of giving low income home owners a 'tax break' [aka, a less high increase in their taxes] is the preferred modus operandi of the current Council. My position is different. I support more fiscal restraint on the City's part. Rather than Council taking in ever increasing real estate taxes and then deliberating how to spend the 'excess revenue', I think there should be a limit on City spending, or at least, a limit on real estate tax increases. For example, the people who bought homes in Belmont have been absolutely hammered by the huge increases in their assessments. While they may have paper wealth, this is different from having adequate monthly cash flow to pay tax bills.

I encourage City residents to contemplate a cap on real estate assessments. For example, we could enact a maximum set amount that assessments could go up each year, possibly two percent. When a home is sold, the assessment for the new owner could freely rise to market value. The run away train of escalating assessments could be managed. This is a problem nationwide, and all over the country, property owners are looking at solutions. Of course, the City budget will not be elastic, and so we City residents have to be prepared to take a hard look at our spending. I plan to do that in another posting.