But who ever made it the government's job to find cheap housing? Certainly some areas are going to cost more to live in than other areas, and I don't think it should be up to the avowed socialists in both the county and city governments to regulate costs for housing. I don't disagree with you. Not at all.
But it is a fact of life that all communities do have zoning laws and other regulations. It isn't a free-for-all, do-anything-you-want type of situation. You have to abide by the rules.
For the most part, I think those rules are generally well intended. But I also think that the rules have been taken too far.
Santa Cruz is a case in point. Last time I heard, it costs something like $30,000 just to be able to be able to break ground there on a new single family dwelling. That could well be $50,000 now.
Then the city council turns around on itself and complains about a lack of affordable housing.
If the city council is finally coming around to notion that they can't have things both ways -- a fact not yet in evidence -- I'll take it.
Yes, of course there are zoning laws, but it really frosts my ass when cities either use taxpayer money to pay off developers to sell their houses for cheaper, or just screw the developers and make them sell a certain percentage at highly discounted prices (which undoubtably scares away developers and damages growth, especially considering that they would likely have to charge more for the other, full price homes.
Of course, if it's just a matter of changing zoning laws to give people more freedom with their land, I'm all for that. Under current zoning law, renting out a "granny unit" in my neighborhood is illegal.