Affordable Housing

As the debate on the role the City of Fredericksburg should (or shouldn’t) play in facilitating the creation of affordable housing resurfaces, care should be taken not to accept the stereotypes typically associated with this important topic.

Having attended many meetings/forums, etc. on the topic (both here and in other markets) it is not uncommon to hear beneficiaries of these efforts referred to as “them”, “those people” or “that element”. We can debate the intended image those terms are meant to convey but, in the end, they are always unmasked as scare tactics employed by opponents who refuse to understand the critical nature of the debate and the importance to the community of the creation of housing stock for the full spectrum of the socio-economic ladder.

Similarly, opponents seize upon terms such as “subsidy”, “give-aways” and the like to blur the fact that public investment in private enterprise can (and demonstrably does) contribute financial payback of that investment with gains to the public that reap financial rewards for years to come.

This community has been wisely conservative its choices of activities to “subsidize”. We have chosen to invest in fireworks displays, Christmas decorations, horse racing, lawn clean-up, etc., etc. Each of these has a measurable payback to the community yet are not characterized as subsidies or give-aways.

Investing in housing that is “affordable” to a large percentage of our hard-working population will pay dividends over and above any cost to the public and well into the future. Let’s focus on the big picture and not on the convenient stereotypes. The folks who make this town work should be able to afford to live here.