After reading Samuel Stein’s De Blasio’s Doomed Housing Plan, I felt disappointed with how de Blasio is trying to handle creating more affordable housing. He believes inclusionary zoning is the key, but this solution might do more harm than good. While inclusionary zoning allows there to be more affordable housing that targets households with lower incomes, the private developers and real estate companies are the ones getting benefits by making more money. This plan is not even targeting households with the lowest incomes which is even more upsetting. The government decides on how the inclusionary zoning will be handled based on their calculation of the Area Median Income, which was calculated to be $77,310. This is almost $30,000 higher than what the average household makes. This inclusionary zoning plan does not sound promising at all.

I agree with the article’s alternative plan to helping those that need more affordable housing. This plan is to build more public housing and to properly manage it. The price of rent should also be managed better. I do not understand how the price of housing can increase at such high rates when people’s wages are not increasing at those rates too. It is not fair that people have to spend over half of their income just to pay for the rent. The first paragraph of the article stated that the idea to use inclusionary zoning came from its popularity in other cities including San Francisco. San Francisco is one of the most expensive places to live in the U.S. so I do not see how this method is working. The number one focus for creating more public housing should not be how to make the most money but how to help the people who are struggling to pay their rent or who are currently without a home.

Question: What do you think Mayor De Blasio should do to overcome the housing crisis?