Affordable housing in C’Ville

Bah. C-Ville reports (archived: 2006):

Councilor Kevin Lynch foresees that with more precise tax-relief in its toolbox, the City will be able to target “low- and moderate-income homeowners who have seen the most rapid appreciation in their properties,” rather than enacting blanket tax-rate relief as Council did in 2005 when the property tax rate was cut by 4 cents to $1.05.

This kills me. I wrote about this bill last month before the eminent domain language was removed.

I don’t even get this –

Harumph, says Lynch: “The Free Enterprise Forum and the realtor group are always in favor of affordable housing and preventing any legislation that would block it until someone asks them to provide it. Then they’re nowhere to be seen.”

Realtors are in favor of preventing affordable housing legislation? Makes sense to me. Governments have proven themselves time and again to be incapable of running an efficient organization. There is seemingly little direct accountability in politics, and plenty of incentive to create endless layers of bureaucracy and thus, job security for said politicians and staff.

How does one explain the CAAR Workforce Housing Fund (archived: 2006) if Realtors are against affordable housing?