A recent article, highlighted by the California Department of Housing and Community Development, brings to our attention the growing number of older, scattered-site affordable housing resources which are being sold to new owners. In the last six months, the Santa Rosa Housing Authority (I’m a newly-appointed member) has authorized the sale of six key low income housing properties built and previously operated by Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County and Community Housing Sonoma County. The reasons for the sales were stated as the lack of available operating revenue from rents for maintenance and tenant support.
The article provides the background for what it expects to be a greatly expanded pattern of such sales, describes its broader impact, and poses some solutions. I would encourage comments to this post, and to the County and City housing authorities.
Homeless Emergency Assistance Program Association 
If we look at the actors involved here, we have socialist impulses to care for the most vulnerable (with some backing from universal religious Golden Rule morality), we have me-first liberal humanists (NIMBYs), and we have evolutionary humanists (financial sharks/ realpolitik Machiavellianists.) In the US we’re seeing legacy New Deal/ world socialist ideals crumble, the 1% make off with all the dough, the erstwhile middle class clinging to the resources they have hoarded, widespread budget shortages, and non-profit developers selling out for lack of money, and housing left to be managed by the sharks bc they are the only game in town left with money to spend. Just like folks can’t really believe that Flock license plate readers won’t be abused for more general surveillance, it’s hard to believe that big money entities will somehow be benign in the preservation and management of affordable housing. I have a hard time trusting that investors won’t quickly revert to their preferred rip-off, rent-seeking behavior. As the money squeeze comes down, the forecast is for the most vulnerable to be increasingly thrown under the bus. Middle class actors will become less sympathetic to public remedies as their own household finances come under pressure. Without a resurgence of public-funding, or a new thrust into public banking, my prediction is that local gov’t will have to be increasingly Machiavellian and private investor sharks will sound good when they make their deals, but will soon revert to vampire squid behavior that abuses all alike, including the local gov that let them in the door. If the equity investors buying AH projects had an ESG mission on their front page, I’d feel better, but so far, not seeing that.
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