Letter from a Sacramento Resident who lives Next Door to Low Income housing.

Will your neighbor build an apartmentl like this next door to you?

Comment from This Article in the Novato Patch on Affordable Housing

I am a sacramento resident, I purchased a new home in 2004 and low and behold a low income apartment complex sprung up in the vacant land right next to me, with a direct access to the apartments from our street. 

Anyone who will say that these complexes do not increase crime, traffic, parking issues, racial tensions, etc, have never lived next to one. Because we had a direct access,our street became a parking lot for the apartments to the point that we could not park in front of our homes, and had to discuss with the city getting permits for our street. Anything that was not bolted down in front of my home was stolen. We got video cameras mounted on the house and it produced hours of video of people violating our properties, urinating on lawns, breaking bottles in the street, damaging cars, id even come home to find random people playing on my lawn. 

It was a violation beyond words. Since then I have become very active in affordable housig locally and all I see is the state mandating requirements that no community wants, with the exception of the people that take advantage of the programs. Put $500/mo apartments next to $500k homes and try to tell me that they done effect property value. 

It invites transient residents who have no long term interest in the community, thrash the apartments, and move on to the next. They have "off lease' guests who cannot pass a criminal background check and cannot be evicted because they should not be there in teh first place. 

Housing advocates limit the standards that can be put on tenants because they dont want to "discriminate" and the cities are terrified of lawsuits. Creating artificial housing markets should nto be the govts job. If people cannot afford to live there, they should move somewhere they can and the market will respond by either paying more for low wage jobs or building he homes on their own if there is a demand. 

I grew up in affordable housing and know its benefits, but also klnow the price a community pays to have it, including teh burden on schools, transit, jobs, and social programs. Sacramento "imports" housing need from surrounding communities because "if you build it, they will come"