Thursday, April 18, 2019

A Housing Story

In most metropolitan areas of Germany, local folks will tell you of a affordable housing crisis.  They want the government to do 'something', and that 'something' is always a question-mark.

It came up in regional news in my area that over in Hanau, after the US Army had packed up and left.....they'd left an entire housing suburb.  Yes, roughly 22 apartment buildings, which you can figure each had sixteen apartments (2 and 3 bedrooms) in it.  This was a fairly modern situation, built in the last thirty years.  A bit of minor renovation, and all of these could have easily become affordable housing units.

Well....the city stepped in and deemed the entire area around the housing area as an industrial-use park, and so the housing couldn't stay.  Yes, they are demolishing the twenty-two buildings. 

Locals just sit there in amazement.  Here's two-hundred-plus apartments....easily qualifying as affordable situations, and could be easily fitted into a working-class situation, but doomed because of the city planned use for the entire former US Army area.

This is part of the battle that working-class (lower class) people are facing....in that the city governments aren't really working in their favor. 

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