Letters

This article puts forth the opinion “we can not solve our housing problems by relying on the tools that created them” [“Hochul Takes Housing Plan off Budget Negotiation Table,” 27east.com, April 26].

This recognizes only two causes: zoning and the building codes and attendant approval processes. It is undeniable that red lining occurred. I know in exquisite detail how expensive the building codes have made construction. It is simply not true that these are the only things that have to be dealt with or that changing zoning and building codes will actually make housing more affordable.

An acquaintance said that her daughter who lives on the West Coast in a place where all of this has already occurred bought a tiny house for a ridiculous price. It is now possible to turn the garage into an apartment and sell the property for considerably more than they paid for it. Market forces will not be corralled by zoning changes.

What other forces are at work in the last 20 or 30 years? The turn toward a credit-based economy rather than one where people earn money before they spend it? The volatile nature of a tech-driven economy? A banking and finance system that funnels money in obscene quantities toward an elite few leaving the vast majority without any security much less the money to buy a house or even rent one? Wages that stagnated because of that system? Plain old greed?

Our fractured very expensive health care system and the misguided thought that every person regardless of disability is able to live on their own leaving many on the streets because they cannot care for themselves.

I do not expect any of these thoughts will stop the coming flood. Once again builders, developers, and real estate professionals will make fortunes.

The environment both social and natural will suffer and people will continue to struggle to pay for housing.

Amy Paradise

Hampton Bays