Editor,
Supervisor Gauthier and Aubrey Merriman wrote a glowing perspective of Vienna’s social housing model. Not everybody agrees with their viewpoint. In an editorial from a conservative think tank entitled “Vienna’s social housing model is a costly illusion” they point out why it won’t translate to our country.
Vienna’s costs often exceed revenue by 60% causing significant delays in maintenance. They are also a country where if you make over $70,000 your tax rate is 48% and it goes up to 55%. The author cynically states that “Vienna’s greatest accomplishment may be its ability to market its social housing model.”
So back to reality. Developers use the term cost per door in describing the cost to build one apartment. The current number is over $1 million. So over 30 years that’s $2,700/mo, interest, maintenance, utilities, management and vacancy factor so you can see the problem in building an affordable apartment.
The authors often use the word subsidy which requires money from some place. Our country’s debt is such that if we paid it off at $1billion/day it would take 1,000 years to pay it off. Our state is stealing as much money as it can from cities and counties in order to stay afloat. So Lisa and Aubrey, from which Peter are you going to steal to pay Paul?
Steven Howard
Redwood City
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(1) comment
Steven - if you thought for a moment that they went to Vienna to examine their housing situation, I have a bridge for sale. Vienna is one of the most beautiful cities in the world with ancient buildings including museums. They could have gone to a rebuilt town in Germany or Poland to get useful information. Their interest was just a free vacation at your and my expense in a fabulous destination. Besides, their report appears to be AI based anyway, and completely irrelevant for San Mateo County. Who authorizes this kind of abuse anyway?
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