California: Abandoned Churches Mean More Low Income Housing


Leave it to California to come up with new ideas. California, its budget, population and land mass is larger than many countries. It has its share, or maybe more than its share, of churches that are closing. Like everywhere else, schools also are closing as family size declines. It has another huge problem well known across the U.S., homeless people. Homelessness and empty churches/schools are being combined to solve both problems.

A new law allows a "fast track" to build housing on any site where a church or school now stands. Only people who have been close to the process for approve of a building of any kind in a city, especially California, understands what this "short cut to approval" means.

All of this goes back centuries to the beginning of zoning and building codes. Zoning was put in place in many places in the world to regulate what can be built next to your home. Building codes are for safety from hazards and fires (the fire codes are separate from the building codes). Codes today include lots of space for parking. To put up a building requires months, sometimes years, of bureaucratic steps and public meetings.

An apartment building in California now costs over $400,000 per apartment. That is the big reason there are so many homeless people. The "fast track" eliminates many of the approve steps and should save at least $10,000 per apartment. If several other steps and requirements were backed down it seems like the savings would be several times that amount. 

There are so many parts to the puzzle of housing costs. Another one not discussed in the California fast track law is parking spaces and the width of streets near the house or housing building. All of this concrete and asphalt is for convenience and pleasure, not for safety. Cutting back on these will lower costs while raising complaints.

There will be angry neighbors when churches and schools are fast tracked to apartments. A growing population and rural to urban migration make it inevitable we will have to tolerate neighborhoods we wish were different than they are. I live in a downtown condo building with a low-income apartment building next door. Our windows face that building with its frequent police car sirens and noisy fights. I don't complain. We all need to live somewhere.

Kudos to California for the first step in cutting red tape and building more housing.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Maybe the "Original Sin" Should be Reassigned

Image
We can all agree most Catholic priests are fine people and not guilty of sexual abuse. What Catholics must face, however, it that their church harbors executives who are dishonest . There is an incredible story about the Argentine Bishop Zanchetta. The Pope worked with him in Argentina and they are considered friends. Around 2015 Zanchetta sent nude pictures of himself and they began circulating world wide. He also was too friendly with young seminarians and some left because of him.  Three different officials say they made formal complaints to the Vatican about Zanchetta between 2015 and 2017. Yet, in 2018, the Vatican claimed it was unaware of any complaints about Zanchetta. This might be a good time to repeat the Catholic hierarchy claims to have the sole authority handed down from Jesus to what the faith stands for. It condemns as sinners those who practice birth control, have abortions and gay sexual relationships. Handing the hierarchy this responsibility would make...
Read more

Who Suffers from a "Hardened Heart"

Image
Some years ago on this blog there was a discussion about what the Bible calls "The hardened heart." The "hardened heart" was the explanation given for why people like me cannot accept the tenets of Christianity. We are unable to believe there are floating spirits and gods or imaginary places people go when the die. Now, a prominent Christian preacher and author has given us a way to diagnose the "hardened heart." It contained some surprises.  Rev. John Piper, who spoke about the hardened heart, said we can see this in a person who lacks "ordinary tenderness and compassion." He went on to describe the characteristics of a person without the affliction of the hardened heart. A healthy person displays empathy and sympathy. Those with the hardened heart are like stone. Jesus wanted compassion for the poor. The hardened heart discussion referred to atheists only if they are sinners and then it was indirectly. Sin, Piper said, hardens one's heart a...
Read more

Young Women can see Bull$hit a Mile Away

Image
Republicans including their Forced Birth subgroup is bother by recent election results and polling. All show young women going to the left. A poll shows young women are 30% more likely to be very liberal than young men. The link advises the Forced Birth community to give young pregnant women an uplifting message. The message suggested is, "Buck up. You've got this. You can give birth and have a happy life." Another way of saying this is, "It will be OK if you miss work and/or are fired because of the birth. If you cannot make your rent payment, it's OK. Somewhere out there is another place to live. We don't know where but be optimistic."   This is an add on to the new version of the Forced Birth message, "We're for both the baby and the mother." They are not and never have been for the mother. Their message has always been to condemn women who have abortions. Now, the "thoughts and prayers" message, which costs no money, it the me...
Read more