Public Housing for SWPLs in Austin

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/first-low-income-housing-project-in-decades-planned-2142265.html

An Austin nonprofit plans to build the first downtown development in decades to house low-income residents, a population often priced out of apartment and condo towers downtown.

Foundation Communities is proposing a $15 million, four-story project called Capitol Terrace at 11th and Trinity streets that will include 135 efficiency apartments. The units will be rented for $400 to $650 a month, utilities included, to single adults who earn less than $27,000 — roughly half of Austin's median income .

"There are a lot of folks who work downtown, at hotels and restaurants or even the Capitol, that make less than $13 an hour and would like the option of living close by and not needing a car," said Walter Moreau , executive director of Foundation Communities.

The nonprofit has in the past two decades built or renovated 13 Austin properties into low-rent apartments for low-income families and single adults.

Ten of the Capitol Terrace apartments will be reserved for musicians and artists, Moreau said. About two dozen will be set aside for people with especially low incomes who have been receiving housing and social service help from groups like Caritas of Austin and Austin Resource Center for the Homeless , the city's shelter.

Classic.  Austin is full of bright-eyed young white people scraping a living working in the service industry serving other white people at places like Whole Foods.  Many of them aspire to be writers, artists, and musicians.  And of course, the "art" that they produce will be consumed by other white people.  I've met more than a few young men who have moved to Austin without a job and with only their dreams and paltry savings to carry them.  Is Austin the new California?  The white economy is a strange thing indeed.

Walter Moreau is a racist pig.  In victim studies courses I learned about the concept of "coded language" which can be applied to the comment about "folks who work downtown, at hotels and restaurants, or even the Capitol".  I'm pretty sure he is talking about the white people who work at these places and not the Mexican maids and black janitors especially with the Capitol being involved.  Young white idealist politician wannabes, no doubt.

Efforts to place affordable housing in expensive white areas have usually failed in other cities because white liberals will not tolerate the myriad of social problems associated with a large concentration of poor people, especially poor NAMs next to them.  I think this project might actually succeed since it looks like the developers are looking for a majority SWPL demographic with token problem minorities included just to stave off negative publicity.  Other white people would be cool with this.