Thoughts on housing preferences

I came across this on WHEDA's website.  This is the statistics "For WHEDA Financed, Tax Credit and HUD Contract Projects."

The left-hand numbers below are the number of projects of that type.  The right-hand numbers are the number of units.  Keep in mind this is not just tax-credit housing, but also housing financed through other WHEDA programs, and subsidized housing contracted with WHEDA for monitoring.  This is not all-inclusive, but should give us a good idea of the numbers.

27 ALL ELDERLY Projects - 1,926 Units

3 MAJORITY ELDERLY Projects - 368 Units

8 ALL FAMILY Projects - 520 Units 
 
As you can see, in Waukesha County, the vast majority of the units are targeted toward the elderly.  This is because communities tend to fight tooth & nail against any other types of units, often based on ignorance and misplaced fears.
 
To be sure, Waukesha County is hardly the only county to show a marked preference.  For instance, Ozaukee County has 8 projects with 402 units that are ALL elderly. 
 
So when people say, "this should not be built here, build it somewhere else" (as New Berlin opponents did with MSP development), often the "somewhere else" say the same thing.  This is called Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY). 
 
Predictably, when developers have the option of either building elderly housing that are more acceptable, or the option of building something that almost certainly will be opposed, the developer will take the easier choice.
 
The cruel irony here, of course, is that LIHTC buildings often are not affordable to people with truly low household income.  Instead, they're rented to households that are near the top of the income restriction limit.  In fact, in many cases, the rent actually is too high for people with rental assistance vouchers.
 
Which is a shame because many people with disabilities (who often have low income) would benefit from the increased accessibility that often results from WHEDA's competitive application process which rewards housing that incorporates Universal Design.