Market failures
One of the arguments we frequently hear about the lack of affordable housing is that it's evidence of a market failure. This argument has been voiced at our own board table. Typically it's made by those who are already skeptical of markets and their role in providing the necessities of life.
The prescriptions for this supposed market failure usually involve governments stepping in to build or subsidize housing, either directly, or indirectly by giving money to citizens. Witness Kamala Harris' proposed $25k down payment assistance. Rent controls (inclusionary zoning is a form of rent control) and the construction of social housing are also big favorites.
I am not, in principal, against the government providing assistance and housing to those who are in need. But the scale and scope of money available here is a pittance compared to the private market. 99% of the housing in Oak Park was built using private funds by 'greedy developers'. Public funding of housing won't appreciably move the bubble on housing supply in Oak Park.
That doesn't mean we shouldn't spend public funds on housing, but we can't expect this to to solve our issues with affordability.
It might be fun to revile greedy developers, but over the last decade those developers invested hundreds of millions of dollars in construction in Oak Park. This brought jobs, provided customers for new businesses, and provides a continuing stream of new tax revenue. All of this for free, no tax dollars spent.
These market forces acted because we let them. We let developers build. The fact that we are no longer letting developers build isn't a market failure, its a governmental, and leadership failure.
While it's true that we have few of those large central parcels left, there's plenty of space for adding smaller, neighborhood scale density in Oak Park, but the pace is slow, because almost any financially viable building requires zoning variances. There's no 'free market' for housing in Oak Park, it's heavily regulated and centrally controlled by various powerful commissions, and the Village Board.
Before we declare that the market has failed, perhaps we should give the market another shot - it worked the last time. See our platform of zoning reforms for the details of how we could allow the market to provide housing abundance in Oak Park.
