Many years ago, I lived in the Gold Rush Foothills of N Calif in a small burg-—with Roseville near enough to do big box shopping.
I got told to attend a meeting about a developer who wanted to build ‘affordable housing’ in this “ONE STOP SIGN AT THE T” burg.
There weren’t enough school facilities—and only grade school at that. NO ‘middle school’. High school got bussed to “town”. 3 STORY units-—taller than even most of nearby “town”—9 miles away. Not sure local VOLUNTEER fire dept could even fight a 3 story fire....or that water to do so as available.
There was NO bus service other than the school busses. We had our own cars/trucks, etc. Rural-—horses everywhere, etc.
The developer was making a speech about the young mothers (no mention of fathers) and their kids being able to move here for ‘fresh air & safer conditions’. Those certainly were BUZZ words.
Sacramento was close by & that town already had a severe gang /black/illegals problem-—THEN...and it WAS spilling over into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.
The rents were supposed to be about 2/3 of local values-—but there also were NO playgrounds for these kids-—or ANY facilities for the “moms’ either. Never got a straight answer about laundry facilities.
Grocery store? Less inventory than a city 7-11.
Post office? Part of another building.
Bank? LOCAL STATE bank—very friendly & knew their customers BY NAME.
Small engine/chain saw repair shop —
A thrift store run by local Hospice.
A small restaurant filled with locals.
2 Feed stores—family operations.
Quite rural.
NO local police-—dependent on County Sheriff’s for law enforcement....AND MOST people in the area were armed.
Bottom line??? NO JOBS of any kind for any of the Moms or teens. NO transportation to get to any job they might find. Most residents had jobs away from the burg-—so their properties would be UNATTENDED every work day.
This guy was trying to sell us a fancy cake with cold lemonade-—but all I saw was LEMONS.
I finally asked him: “Who is going to be renting these units? We already have open rental units in 10 mile radius.”
I then asked him: “ARE THESE UNITS SECTION 8 UNITS”??? I made SURE everyone HEARD MY VOICE.
NO ONE in the audience even knew what I was talking about...they had never heard of Section 8. I explained what Section 8 was. That got them riled up!!!
MR Developer tried to skirt the question-—I refused to let him dodge my question. I kept asking-—louder & LOUDER—over the din of the others in the room.
He finally said “YES”-—but they will be no problem because they will be so GRATEFUL to be out of their current bad conditions”. TOTAL LIE....
He got a chorus of BOOOS-—and the crowd was plenty unhappy about his ‘end run’ with the ‘affordable housing’ story.
I got thanked over & over for getting the “Section 8 “ question out into the open.
He packed up his fancy drawings & BOLTED-—and it all died very quickly at the County Supervisors level. I am pretty sure some financial incentives were in play there-—but NOW the spotlight was on them.
Sorry this is so long-—but it did happen.
IIRC-—it was to be a 36 unit building...3 stories
The big problem with Section 8 is that the moms might want to move away from the “trouble” — but then the trouble comes visiting. Nephews from “the hood”. Their kids get friends from “the hood” to “keep it real”.
So now “the hood” has a base of operations surrounded by soft suburban targets who are not used to guarding against crime...