This letter deals with government involvement in the housing sector. The federal government oversees the Community Development Block Grant or CDBG program, a part of which is used by local governments to rehabilitate or replace decrepit housing. Thats a noble goal, although its not a Constitutional function of the federal government.<\/p>\n
Back in October 2011, I wrote about a CDBG project to replace a mobile home with a site-built home that had an initial projected cost of about $64,000 (and how my efforts to privately fund repairing the home were rejected). By the time all was said and done, the cost for that home was around $73,000, a 14% increase. Converting these amounts to 2020 dollars equates to $72,400 and $82,600 respectively.<\/p>\n
Now in July 2020, the county is being asked to approve three change orders- in each case the original estimate to rehabilitate or replace a home has been insufficient for various reasons. The State Housing Initiative Program (SHIP) is the state layer of this bureaucracy and caps each project at $75,000. Gone are the days of $72K or even $83K projects. The first has a total cost (with the $3,000 change order) of $109,981. The second is $137,524 (with $22,524 change order), and the third is $114,982 (with $13,900 change order).<\/p>\n
If you take the time to read through the change orders, you see where some of this originates. For one home, there is a cost of $4,800 for 2 towel bars, a toilet paper holder, a shower bar, two 5 x 5 concrete pads, 9-1-1 addressing, and exterior paint.<\/p>\n
Ron Paul said it in 2012 about government involvement in health care and I still agree with him- We dump it on the government, they create a bureaucracy, and the cost goes up.<\/p>\n
Since so much time has passed, its worthwhile to note that according to the US Treasury as of October 2011 (in 2020 dollars) our national debt was only $17 trillion. The government overspends so much they have to publish this data in thousands of millions. As of June 2020, its now over $26 trillion, a 52% increase. For the partisan crowd, this is neither a democrat nor a republican issue as huge increases have happened under both Mr. Obama and Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n
In my opinion, these United States as originally configured are in an unrecoverable downward financial (among other things) spiral. With so much reliance upon government, socialism is a path seen by too many as a solution, which opens up an entirely new box of problems.<\/p>\n
Paul Henry<\/p>\n
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More: <\/p>\n
CDBG- The "Gift" that continues to take - ECB Publishing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This letter deals with government involvement in the housing sector. Continue reading