
Internet Archive addresses housing crisis with “Foundation Housing” project - edward
http://richmondsfblog.com/2015/03/19/internet-archive-addresses-housing-crisis-with-foundation-housing-project/
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azakai
I don't understand this, I guess. Is it more cost-effective for the IA to buy
a house and rent it to its employees at low rates, than it would be for the IA
to increase its workers' salaries who would then pay market rates for housing?

If it is more cost-effective this way, why don't all companies do it?

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cauterized
As an employee, I'd be wary of this -- does leaving/losing your job mean
losing your home at the same time? 100-150 years ago, corporations used to do
this a lot, and along with the "company store" there's a reason they got a bad
reputation.

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toomuchtodo
As long as it has COBRA-esq provisions, where you can pay the same rate for
3-6 months after your employment is terminated or you quit, and as an employee
you know of this lease provision, I don't believe it poses a problem.

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Kalium
I can't shake the feeling that this is a micro-optimization at the expense of
making the larger problems worse by taking even more housing off the market.

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afarrell
It only takes housing off the market if those employees would have otherwise
commuted or not accepted the job offers.

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Kalium
It's "permanently affordable" housing. These units won't be on the general
market again any time soon.

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afarrell
Neither would the residents

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allochthon
I'm not sure what will happen with this particular attempt at bringing
affordable housing in SF to within reach of people. But I am grateful to
organizations out there such as the Internet Archive that are trying different
experiments.

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trhway
with less than 20m depth ocean going for like 10 miles into the ocean,
somebody should just build a Millenium Gate few miles off the Ocean beach and
end the crisis (or may it will fuel it even more?)

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delackner
There is no LAND crisis. There is a crisis of failure to build adequate number
of multi-family multi-story structures. Replace all the decrepit almost dead 2
story apartments in SF with 10 story apartments and there would be no crisis
whatsoever.

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trhway
>Replace all the decrepit almost dead 2 story apartments in SF with ...

that's was doable back in the USSR and doable today in China. In US it may be
easier to build right in the ocean :) For building huge structures 10-20m
depth is almost like land and you get added benefit of being able to plan and
build all the infrastructure from scratch instead of trying to upgrade and be
constricted by the limits of the old. You can build another San Francisco
sized city near by just at the cost of the steel and concrete it takes.
Smaller number of square miles with 100+ stories high interconnected
structure(s) - of any shape/form one can come up with as without historic
parcelization you wouldn't be limited to the narrow tall buildings of the
standard cities.

>10 story apartments and there would be no crisis whatsoever.

how about infrastructure? water/sewer/electricity/roads?

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wmf
NIMBYs won't allow building in the bay anyway since it would block their view.

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trhway
i meant out in the ocean, not in the Bay. Of course many people would oppose
it while i'm sure that many would like a view of a Millenium Gate style tower
or some other tall structure(s) rising majestically from ocean several miles
off the coast. Anyway, it would require state and federal political will to
deal with the opposition. Of course it isn't realistic, i was just talking
about it as a benchmark to compare other efforts against.

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kqr2
I wish there were more details on the project. Do employees sign a lease? Do
they have normal SF tenant rights?

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_pius
_Do they have normal SF tenant rights?_

This part's a definite yes ... even a squatter can get tenant rights by
staying somewhere long enough.

