News

36618 readers

2562 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.

Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, blogs, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.

7. No duplicate posts.

If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.

All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

JonsJava@lemmy.world

gedaliyah@lemmy.world

little_cow@lemmy.world

207

White House opens $45 billion in federal funds to developers to convert offices to homes (www.marketwatch.com)

submitted 2 years ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

38 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The White House kicked off a multiagency push on Friday to help finance real-estate developers convert more office buildings in big cities emptied by the pandemic into affordable housing, taking aim at the nation’s housing crisis.

The initiative looks to harness an existing $35 billion in low-cost loans already available through the Transportation Department to fund housing developments near transit hubs, folding it into the Biden administration’s clean energy push.

It also opens up additional funding sources and tax incentives, offering a new guidebook to 20 different federal programs that can be tapped by developers and offers technical assistance in what can end up being tricky and expensive conversions.

A third peg of the program will see the federal government draw up a public list of buildings it owns that could be made available for sale to help bolster development.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] broface@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

It's awful news.

It would be great news if the housing was owned by the public.

This is just funneling public money to private businesses so the private businesses can continue to profit off the public.

$45 billion so landlords can charge people rent. Great. So they get the handout for free, and the rent for free. Just free money all around, lol.

But taxpayers and tenants will be paying.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

I can't see how it would be owned by the public. ~80% of this is loan money offered so it does have to be paid back with interest. The properties in question would all be owned by private companies who were using them as office space. So your suggestion means the government would have to purchase all of the property. Costing them 100%. This way they likely spend 15% (assuming a 5% interest made on those loans) and get the incentive going. Add in the fact that you then need to maintain run and rebuild all the housing directly from the public funds after that and you will never get everything situated/passed in our current government. The government gets what it wants. The private companies get what they wanted. The people get more work from home jobs, less traffic, and lowered emissions with the possibility of housing prices not rising as fast do to supply is being increased. (Doubt)

Overall it isn't the worst use of our taxes