Advocates are wrong-headed to continue to pursue affordable housing at the expense of neighborhoods and should resist building the ghettos and slums of tomorrow.

That challenge was thrown out this week by national consultant Charles Buki to participants in the eighth annual Utah Housing Coalition Conference called "Utah Housing Matters."

The event at the Homestead Resort brought together state and city employees, lenders and developers as well as those on housing authorities.

Buki, who has held senior positions at the Neighborhood Reinvestment Commission and the American Institute of Architects, said people in the affordable housing business need to abandon the "status quo" and look to innovations that do not patronize the very clients they serve.

"Working families can't find a decent house in a nice neighborhood," he said, "and too many of us in this room perpetuate the problem of maldistribution."

By maldistribution, Buki said, those promoting affordable housing do so at the expense of a neighborhood's integrity and attractiveness, concentrating units in one area.

"You add low income supply to neighborhoods already crumbling under the weight of too many low-income households."

Related Link: Resist Building Ghettos of Future, Advocates Told

For more information contact:

Charles Buki
czb
308 Summers Drive
Alexandria
VA 22301
us

Phone: 7039800447
Fax: 7039800447
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.czb.org