Part 1
Carroll Fife is a progressive politician who has promised to create “permanently affordable housing” in Oakland.
Nikki Bas built a successful political career on her own promises of “affordable housing.”
Sheng Thao too was a fierce advocate of affordable housing. Right before she was indicted, in June, 2024, Thao came out in support of a $20 billion housing bond to build affordable housing in the Bay Area, including in Oakland.
Housing advocates went a step further, with EBHO (East Bay Housing Organizations) demanding not only affordable housing but “deeply affordable housing…with supportive services available to all.”
Even a supposed moderate, Kevin Jenkins, has pushed the affordable housing dream. When he was acting mayor, he presented a budget that included $180 million in bond sales for housing as well as a new parcel tax.
Clearly, the dream of affordable housing is one the left is not about to let go of. Providing affordable housing to people who cannot otherwise afford housing, however, is very expensive. So, as a matter of simple math, the cost must be borne by taxpayers who actually earn their money through work, and then transferred to those who don’t. In other words, in the immortal slogan of Karl Marx, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”
This dream isn’t new. For many years progressives have demanded that government provide housing, at the taxpayers’ expense, to those who cannot afford it. When Bill Clinton became President, in 1993, housing unaffordability already had become an issue. Reaction to Reagan’s conservatism had set in, resulting in big Democratic gains, not only in the White House but in the Congress. With that takeover, the affordable housing lobby got to work.
Tomorrow, in Part 2, I’ll explain how the biggest “affordable housing” program in U.S. history almost brought the world economy to its knees, and led to the worst financial crisis in America since the Great Depression.
Steve Heimoff