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Committee hears about need for more rental assistance money - Austin Monitor
(www.austinmonitor.com)
this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2024
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Your numbers aren't adding up. According to the article - "Jackmon said her group operates an application portal for people applying for rental assistance. However, she said, “We had to close the application portal because we currently have over 7,500 applications (and) we only have $9.6 million.” Each week, she said, 50 eligible applicants are randomly selected based upon geographic and income criteria. The highest priority is helping those with the lowest incomes, she noted. The maximum amount a family can receive in one year is $6,000, with the average assistance at about $4,200, Jackmon said."
I can't find the exact numbers of renters in Austin, but one website says there are 440,000 homes in 2020, and another says that about 48% are renters. Wikipedia says there are 2.28 million people in the Austin area. Regardless, giving 50 families extra money every week would in no way cause market rates to rise. That's preposterous. This is such a miniscule amount it would in no way affect the value of that many other rentals. Besides, in your supposition, you are saying that the landlord findsout about their tenant getting an extra $300. Well, again, how would they know that? The tenant could make $300 in any way that would be unknown to the landlord. Sorry, but your argument just isn't holding water with me.
That's because I made them up. It's called a hypothetical. The actual numbers don't matter because the concept is the same regardless.
They find out because they pay attention to market conditions and see them going up all over town from all the people getting rental assistance, as I just said in the comment you just replied to.
So you are against giving people help who probably need it the most based on some scenario you have completely made up. Nice. Thanks for clarifying.
No, that's not correct. I am against driving up housing prices that hurt people who need it the most.
I am using a hypothetical scenario in a vein attempt to help you understand the problem.
You specifically said that in your first post on an article about housing assistance, and then tried to back up your assumption with a made up scenario. The help people are getting is such a small percentage of what is spent on housing in this area that there is no way assistance is causing prices to go up.
Yes, thank you for quoting my statements back to me.
Are you just completely unfamiliar with how a hypothetical scenario works? Once again, as I just said, it's an educational device to help you understand why things work this way.
I've already explained this also. I have no intention of going round and round on the same points over and over. If you want to cover your eyes and remain ignorant to reality, that is your prerogative, but I'm done.
@helenslunch
All the less than 7500 people getting rent assistance in a market with how many apartments? That's a miniscule part of the market.
Rents increase because more people are moving here (it's gone from about 100k to nearly a million in the 30 years I've been here without much new building until the last few years) and Austin already had a tight apartment market in the 90s.
@FigMcLargeHuge
It doesn't matter how small it is.
These people are all in the same market and all competing for the same properties (entry level).
Rents increase for a myriad of reasons. One of them is because housing is subsidized by the government.
@helenslunch
Show me proof it doesn't matter and I'll believe it. There has been housing subsidizing for a long time. I had a subsidized apartment back in the 90s for a while. And yet prices didn't really spike until the last couple of years. I'll grant you it's possible subsidies cause landlords to raise rents a few dollars. But not to the degree we've seen lately.
What's happening lately is tenants are expected to bid for apartments. That's what's allowing the rents to skyrocket.
You're continuing to ignore and misrepresent my previous statements so I'm going to block you now.