Affordable housing in Douglas County

Occupants of "regular" apartment complexes tend to be young people starting their careers who will eventually buy but don't yet have the earning power, professionals whose jobs require the ability to relocate from time to time, and able-bodied retirees who want a simplified lifestyle without the concerns of home ownership.

"Affordable housing" almost always refers to low income housing that is built to federal specifications that qualify the owner for Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) that allows the owner to pay little or no property taxes. Typical low income tenants are workers who lack the skills or ambition to earn enough to buy a home, those living on public assistance, and disabled people whose families and friends have abandoned them and who must get by with little or no help. Hence, this type of housing creates demands on county infrastructer (Fire, Sheriffs et.) but does not pay for itself.

The benefits of the LIHTC are supposed to flow through to tenants in the form of lower rents, but studies suggest that investors, developers, and financial companies skim off most of the benefits. The program has complex administration, is prone to abuse, and produces costly low-income housing.

Affordable housing, more so than regular apartment complexes, tends to attract crime and graffiti because these projects don't form vigilant communities like those in owner-occupied neighborhoods. Vigilant communities develop when residents have made a financial investment in the neighborhood and feel a sense of permanency of place.

Studies cited in Douglas County's "Memorandum of Understanding" with the Nevada Rural Housing Authority that creates the Douglas County Affordable Housing Task Force (DCAHTF) claim to prove a need for low income housing, but are really guestimates slanted to come to a predetermined conclusion. One study that was omitted shows that more workers commute FROM Douglas County TO jobs in other communities. These workers obviously already live here. The DCAHTF has only six members, only four of whom live in Douglas, and their meetings are held in secret.

Rather than allow market forces in the private economy to address real or perceived worker shortages in low-paying sectors - particularly casinos - a gullible majority on the Douglas County Board of County Commissioners has allowed itself to be chumped into a social engineering project that values community diversity over safe streets, graffiti, and higher taxes due to sharply increased calls for service to inner city-style housing projects for fights, overdoses, car break-ins, and burglaries. Casinos enjoy special governmental treatment as it is. For example, gaming is exempt from the Nevada Commerce Tax which taxes most businesses over a certain threshold EVEN IF THEY DON'T MAKE A PROFIT because the tax is on gross revenue. If the casinos need more porters, custodians, and waitstaff, they should pay salaries at the market rate, NOT force Douglas County taxpayers to furnish them subsidized housing.