{"id":64182,"date":"2026-06-05T14:15:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T18:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=64182"},"modified":"2026-06-05T14:15:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T18:15:18","slug":"the-government-never-does-it-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=64182","title":{"rendered":"The Government NEVER Does It Better"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, The Washington Examiner<\/a> posted an article about a program in Rhode Island to provide affordable housing.<\/p>\n

The article reports:<\/p>\n

Rhode Island<\/strong><\/a> has spent an eye-popping $52.2 million to produce 200 rental units<\/a> since voters approved a $120 million housing bond in November 2024, a local nonprofit research organization has revealed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council\u2019s 35-page report<\/a> reveals the imprudence commonly found in government-financed housing initiatives. The Ocean State subsidized half of each rental unit\u2019s development costs, which RIPEC found were almost 50% higher than in the private sector.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If they were subsidizing half of the development costs, that means that each rental unit cost about $520,000. I just looked up the current value of a house that I once owned in Rhode Island. The house is a three-bedroom ranch with one bathroom. It’s current value is approximately $400,000. These rental units cost more than a house!<\/p>\n

The article notes:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think about your normal private market, real estate transaction, there are two sources of capital,\u201d says RIPEC Senior Analyst Dr. Jeff Hamill. \u201cWhen you buy a house, you make a down payment and take out a mortgage \u2014 that\u2019s all there is.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBut when it comes to financing affordable housing, I have seen projects with up to twenty sources of financing,\u201d Hamill continued. \u201cThe average probably has six or seven. Each of these sources might have different rules and requirements.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley,\u00a0found\u00a0that each additional funding source extended a project\u2019s timeline by four months and increased costs by $20,500 per unit.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Worse, government-financed housing projects often require developers to integrate hilltop planners\u2019 irrelevant policy priorities. Labor requirements, climate policy, and community benefits agreements bloat building costs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The article concludes:<\/p>\n

\u201cChicago\u2019s Affordable Requirements Ordinance, community engagement meetings, and aldermanic prerogative are commonly used to kill or downsize new developments at a time when residents desperately need more housing stock,\u201d he told The Washington Examiner.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rhode Island does not need another expensive housing bond that enriches bureaucrats, consultants, and favored developers while producing too few homes. It needs a simpler, faster, cheaper housing policy that removes barriers to construction. If lawmakers want more affordable housing, the answer is obvious: Let builders build.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Removing unnecessary regulations would save money for all Americans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, The Washington Examiner posted an article about a program in Rhode Island to provide affordable housing. The article reports: Rhode Island has spent an eye-popping $52.2 million to produce 200 rental units since voters approved a $120 million … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6701,19593,143,19592,19591,2720],"class_list":["post-64182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-affordable-housing","tag-chicagos-affordable-requirements-ordinance","tag-rhode-island","tag-terner-center-for-housing-innovation-at-the-university-of-california-berkeley","tag-the-rhode-island-public-expenditure-council","tag-the-washington-examiner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64186,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64182\/revisions\/64186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}