Be kind.
Senator McGarvey says affordable housing is a basic human right. Have compassion. Stop criminalizing homelessness!
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Do you endorse wealth redistribution? Why? If you had the massive amounts of money that you pay in property tax and for other housing-related programs, you could pay the rent for the land that mobile homeowners must pay to keep their home. All over the country they are being forced out of their trailers. You would be their helping hand, rather than letting the government make your charity selections for you.
Your current help and business benefits offered to migrants and ‘people of color’ by Louisville Metro, are astounding. Many of your handouts are provided in our public schools— where 160 languages are spoken.
You, taxpayer, are incredibly generous. Now, your Landbank Authority is helping to pay off liens on abandoned properties. The Landbank Authority is a joint agency of Louisville Metro Government (LMG), Jefferson County Public School District (JCPS), and the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and “represents a cooperative effort by the major taxing authorities in Louisville Metro to deal with unoccupied, neglected, tax-delinquent properties throughout the community.”
And let’s use your money to convert our downtown towers into affordable or free housing! This is right out of the Los Angeles playbook. LA Mayor Karen Bass has moved close to 10K homeless Angelenos into permanent free housing in its downtown thus far in 2024. The city says it funds vouchers for permanent supportive housing for homeless individuals and families, with $2,407 vouchers for one-bedroom apartments. Her theme is "Improving City Services Ahead of World Events"— the 2028 Olympics and 2026 World Cup are at the doorstep. Get the migrants and homeless off the streets!
Page 5 of a presentation about economic development in Louisville Metro shows a population of 1,285,439 people for the MSA (Metro Statistical Area which includes 14 counties and is not the same as Louisville Metro, which refers only to Jefferson County.) But then, page 15 shows a graph spanning nine years from 2010 to 2019, during which time Louisville (not its MSA) gained 18,255 people aged 25 to 39, but lost 26,874 people aged 40 to 54. This shows a net loss of population of 1.7 percent.
Does it seem likely that from 2020 to 2024 Louisville has gained so many people that we need an additional 15,000 units of affordable housing which is Mayor Greenberg’s goal? If so, it may relate to the numbers of migrants moving to Jefferson County, however, citizens nor police are permitted to know who these people are and where they live. Why? See more here.
According to the Census, the average price of a home in Jefferson County is $237K. A ballpark estimate of mortgage payment, property taxes, insurance, utilities and other home-related maintenance expense, would mean that most Louisvillians do not live in affordable housing, even though they are footing the bill for many others to enjoy it. Affordable housing is defined as housing on which the occupant is paying no more than 30 percent of gross income for housing costs. Why gross? Is gross after-tax income?
Those who have no appreciation for America’s roots and the power of capitalism, are busily digging her grave to achieve Marxist visions and goals.
Unfortunately, what commonly passes for capitalism is the abuse of free enterprise. And, let’s also recognize that man is not basically good; with capitalism we will have selfish goals and devious mismanagement. Nevertheless, when businesses of all sizes are allowed to flourish without massive regulation, many good leaders will rise above their envious and greedy ways, and their enterprises will succeed in providing employment and lifting society to great heights, raising the standard of living for all.
That is not happening, generally. Instead, we hear a false narrative that there is little affordable housing and it is because of redlining, the “racially motivated denial of credit.” This ‘redlining’ wrong must be addressed through NUMEROUS affordable housing initiatives, we are told, and we wonder, once the ‘underserved’ have been given a leg up to become homeowners, how will the producers survive?
Bear in mind, the great recession of 2008 was caused by lending practices that favored those without adequate means to repay home loans. It further eroded our nation’s economy, resulting in many people not being able to pay liens on inherited homes, nor find a job that would ‘pay the rent.’
Some painters who helped me a number of years ago, explained that they were not prejudiced against foreign residents who would paint homes for less than they could. Their expenses required the hourly wage that they charged. These men started their business in better days and bought homes and provided for their families because there was plenty of work, and those who hired them could afford their prices.
Then came cheap labor, often Mexican, good men, but their willingness to undercut their American competition, and live in homes with lots of kinfolk and a lower standard of living, resulted in loss of business for the ‘old’ painters. This is only one example among many.
More background on this topic is on Fastzone’s Substack blog here and here. Fastzone’s reporter attended an area Zoning Change meeting and discovered that small cities no longer have zoning authority. Previously, homes zoned Single Family Residential were not permitted to rent space to non-family members, nor rent their home for more than a specified length of time. How has it happened that now, we homeowners (across the city) are subject to the zoning regulations of Louisville Metro? The simple answer is that our property rights have been diminished over a long period of time, and what is happening now has been planned for decades.