I know a thing or two about affordable housing. I lived in an aaffordable as a boy growing up in Beckley, WV. When Daddy got transferred to Beckley, we lived in rental houses for about three years before buying a new home on Jennings Street. It was a modest ranch style home with an arched roof. It had 2 bedrooms, a bath, a living room, a dining area and a small eat in kitchen on the first floor. It had a front porch and an unfinished basement. It cost $13,500, if memory serves, but it was plenty big for our young family – me and my younger brother, Pat, and our parents. But when Johanna was coming along, Daddy finished the attic space into a sprawling bedroom for me along with a bath – and a real shower, not a tub.
I had great memories of that house. I remember sitting in my bedroom upstairs and playing my sparce collection of .45 records over and over again. I remember shooting basketball at a rim and net Daddy put up for me on the ground level in the back. I remember recruiting enough kids for a baseball game in a nearby vacant field. I remember many trips to the lower back yard pen to feed our bird dogs when Daddy was out of town. I especially remember digging worms along the banks of in the little creek behind the dog pen and our fishing expeditions with Daddy at the local reservoir.
I visited the old neighborhood not long ago and noted that the current owners had added a room to the rear of the main floor and had finished the basement. What started as a meager 2 bedroom home now has 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths and a sunroom.
What we need today are more of those homes, lots more. Instead of a 2-bedroom apartment, young families or families with a single parent would be able to buy a modest home and begin to build equity.
The problem is government and its inevitable partner – bureaucracy. With countless restrictions and hoops to jump through, plus proffers (extortion) required of the developers, the only homes a builder can make a profit on these days is a $500,000 stand-alone home or a $400,000 townhouse. With lots restricted, even those prices are increasing.
Open up some of that sacred “green space’ land, eliminate the red tape and encourage builders to create truly affordable houses and there will be many wonderful memories for future families and owners to enjoy.
