In many areas, access to Affordable Housing is a problem for the working poor. There seems to be a lot of dated solutions to this. A good solution in many instances would be to create opportunities for practical affordable housing through the private sector through land donations to private developers.

The current opportunities for people with low incomes include trailer parks, shared housing (which is getting expensive and not a comfortable alternative for many), expensive apartments, shelters, and housing programs.

Shelters are at the best a short term aid for working people who are in between places. These places are usually not geared toward workers who may be working odd hours. They typically are unsanitary, and have a lot of rules because of the variety of cases they deal with. And, access is typically limited.

Shared housing is becoming more difficult to access. As a result renters can be picky, and the people looking to rent out the space are typically looking for a specific type of renter, a college student for example. Shared living arrangements can be good for a while for students or short term situations, but they aren't always a good long term option. Lack of privacy is one major reason. For what a lot of rooms rent for, someone should be able to get into a small apartment.

With a lot of the housing programs, someone needs to go through some agency. The designs are often expensive and include unnecessary features such as environmental design, balconies, covered parking, etc. Private sector options could be more affordable and practical.

There is a lot of land set up as city, county and state property. Much of this was set aside in the past when the population was much smaller. A practical option would be to get some land to private developers/managers which would have an incentive (given the property was donated) to turn the property into affordable apartments. There could be stipulations on the land usage so improper transfers are prohibited, and the property is developed appropriately. 0 property taxes for such developments would act as an incentive.

In a scenario like this, someone could introduce efficiency apartments for say 350.00 a month where rooms start at 300.00 and one bedrooms 500.00. A developer would have an incentive to do this because they would receive the same income as they would if they had had to purchase the land for the same type of property.

A good way to look at it is like this. If you have one park where 30 homeless people congregate, in a town with 10 parks, wouldn't it be better to house 100 people on the same property when these people might be homeless, staying at a shelter or living under other unfavorable circumstances. It seems this would create a healthier and more pleasant environment for everyone.