10/31/2026
Affordable housing advocates are praising this purchase but I'm not so sure it's a good deal.
It will eventually help about 100 people/families who experience homelessness which is good.
But according to the author of the article:
- 308 of the units that are below market rents but those rents will increase to market rents over five years. So instead of expanding the access to affordable housing, the city will reduce it.
- These buildings/units were built in the 1970s and 1080s and will need repairs and renovations. The city already has a repair backlog of $100m.
- Minto is the seller and pays property taxes. Those tax revenues will be lost when the city takes possession of them.
- The city said it would cost $750,000 to build the units new but paid only $300,000/per unit. I'm not a developer so I don't know how much it would cost to build new but $750,000 sounds very steep. Maybe the $750,000 includes the cost to buy the land?
Anyways, once you tally everything up this doesn't sound like a good deal.
