
Business managers, bureaucrats, civil servants and politicians seem quite capable of supervising the development of massive housing projects, and are able to factor in all kinds of long-term expenses, such as management, repair and replacement costs. But inevitably they seem to behave like cats. One moment, whiskers atwitch, hyper-alert and ready to take care of business. The next moment, sound asleep, draped over the back of a couch.
From Soviet Block Russia and Eastern Europe, through Democratic Western Europe to North America, social housing projects to provide enormous numbers of affordable homes have been conceived, designed and constructed. But whether deemed a tremendous success (e.g. housing a huge post-war displaced Soviet population), or a dreadful failure (crime-ridden social housing high-rise tenements in American cities) one thing has united all these kinds of social housing. Somewhere between construction and the present day, essential funding for property management as well as repair and replacement costs have gradually been ignored and have withered away. By now, everywhere, government cats have stretched and yawned and awoken to discover they are facing millions and billions in repair and replacement costs resulting from years and years of sleepy neglect.
And now, here’s Denver. With in an American conservative abundance of faith in the possibilities of public/private affordable housing partnerships, and with rules and regulations determining who is eligible to buy, and what constraints must be placed upon selling, where has the Denver local government been lately? Asleep, it seems, draped over the back of the couch.
Oh yes, to begin with, whiskers atwitch, Denver was right on top of the need to oversee and regulate the buying and selling its newly constructed affordable housing. But as time passed, guess what?
No need to guess, you can read more in the Denver Post: Denver scaled back its once-active oversight of affordable homes program — then discovered widespread violations.
What IS it about essential long-term carrying costs for projects? And what is it about the people everywhere who seem inevitably to make decisions that fly in the face of all reason, pronouncing these ongoing costs as unnecessary, at least until they wake up and find out otherwise?