The Biden Administration has announced plans to build or restore 2 million homes to address the housing shortage. This is a very grand plan, and it is receiving praise from many advocates for low-income housing. However, it is more than likely that the number of homes built or restored will fall far short of the goal. Austin’s Strategic Housing Blueprint (SHB) provides an example.
Like Biden’s plan, SHB was announced with great fanfare. The goal was to build 13,500 homes per year for low- to moderate-income families. The city recently released its annual scorecard, and the results are less than stellar. After three years, less than 26,000 units have been built, which is about 64 percent of the blueprint’s goal. To meet the goal, the city will have to build almost 16,000 units each year. Given that an annual average of 8,655 units have been built, it is unlikely that the city can double the number of units built.
The failure of Austin’s blueprint is not evidence that Biden’s plan will fail. But it does illustrate the fact that promises are cheap. It is easy to make grand promises.; it is something else to fulfill those promises. America’s housing policies have been nothing but a series of promises, most of which have never materialized.
As an example, in the mid-twentieth century the federal government, in conjunction with city government, launched a policy of urban renewal. In cities across the nation, thousands of low-income homes were demolished and the residents displaced. To house the displaced residents, the government built high-rise public housing. Within a few decades, those projects were in disrepair and crime ridden. Most were eventually demolished and urban centers remained impoverished.
It is easy for politicians to make grand promises, particularly when they claim to be helping the poor, people of color, or those in need. Those promises will buy them votes and praise today. Whether those promises are fulfilled or not is of little concern. They have shown their concern and compassion by throwing boatloads of money at a problem. For politicians, it is more important to make promises than to fulfill them.