Lindner real estate professor weighs in on affordable housing

Painter — who also is the new academic director of the real estate program at the University of Cincinnati and the inaugural holder of the BEARE Chair in Real Estate — was previously a professor of social innovation at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, providing him with firsthand knowledge of the area’s housing crisis.

Painter noted that for Los Angeles neighborhoods to become economically and racially blended, additional housing units of all kinds — not just affordable housing — are needed.

“The reason that’s fair is that if we have more units, they are a lot easier to be made affordable. We need housing everywhere,” Painter said.

Per the article, a 2019 Stanford University study indicated that housing constructed with low-income housing tax credits resulted in decreased crime in lower-income neighborhoods and did not increase crime in high-income areas.

The study did find that low-income housing built in higher-income areas decreased property values. Painter said this development could be due to increased housing supply or residents choosing not to live near multifamily buildings. He added that no studies have “disentangled” the two scenarios.

See more from the Los Angeles Times.

Featured image at top: An aerial view of houses in Los Angeles. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.