Apartments: Does Anyone Want Them Nearby?

[Guest danax]

Bizjournals article.

At $700 to $1300 a month rent in Richmond, this is obviously a complex for gainfully employed tenants. Still, the stigma that apartments carry these days is evident in this case; lowered property values and fear of crime are what is imagined, increased traffic and density are facts.

The inner-loopers and suburbanites seem likely to be protest any apartment construction in their neighborhoods that would attract lower-income, or even middle-class tenants. We're seeing some of the mixed-income schemes going up on the fringes of the inner-loop but where will the purely lower-income complexes be built? With a large predicted increase in lower-income population in Houston in the coming decades, much cheap housing will be needed. With much less likelihood of a protest, it would appear that our 2nd ring will be the chosen spot.

Will the NIMBYs be lead designers of the imagined 2nd ring Houston ghetto of the 21st century?

[TheNiche]

Will the NIMBYs be lead designers of the imagined 2nd ring Houston ghetto of the 21st century?

Yes and no. You'll find that construction of housing for low-income tenants rarely happens except when there is a subsidy (i.e. LIHTC or Section 8). To the extent that such complexes are built, they will be built throughout the region. Otherwise, what is more likely is that existing homes and apartment buildings will transform into slummy neighborhoods with age. Thus, the designers of Houston's 21st century ghetto were in fact 20th century architects and developers.

NIMBYs don't typically matter in Houston. And if you think you know of an exception, it was probably the project's economics that killed it, not public outcry. The one that was proposed on Shakespeare Street comes to mind as an example.