Housing in San Antonio may soon become harder for low income and seniors. The Bipartisan Policy Center held their first forum here in San Antonio. Their message to local housing experts is that there will not be enough affordable housing for low income families.
Policy makers say that seniors will also face housing shortages as baby boomers move into assisted living facilities. With very little new building going on, prices for senior housing will increase.
The group said that a correction is taking place with owners and renters. They said more owners are becoming renters and the demand isn’t keeping up.
Any new rental construction most likely will be on the higher end.
“We need to provide incentives for producing affordable rentals," says Henry Cisneros, co-chair of the Bipartisan Policy Center. "More Americans are going to be living more portions of their lives in rentals, particularly young people.”
Speakers at the forum said the real estate community does not serve the poor as it does middle income families. They said tighter loan policies are pricing low-income families out of the market.
Many of the houses that they do hold onto have encumbered titles from being passed from one family member to another, making it difficult to buy or sell.
One speaker said we should stop treating poor people like they’re going to be poor forever.
