Viewpoints for Wednesday — January 19, 2005

• Affordable housing: cause and effect

Affordable housing: cause and effect

By R.S. Weir

Once again the never-ending spectacle of affordable housing is in the news.

The state, via Gary Hooser, wants to butt into local affairs and “fix” the problem — a persistent shortage of buildable lots and housing units. JoAnn Yukimura correctly points out that local affairs are best handled at the local level — even though they are not handled very well there, either.

But never mind that. Once a vote-pandering politician decides to “do something,” the dies are cast and all but the charade of “public input” is over.

This is all about failed policy, as usual. While Ms. Yukimura sees the common sense of home rule, she does not see the futility of trying to fix the failed policy with more policy itself doomed to failure.

Zoning laws and many other land-use regulatory schemes were not the result of trying to fix market failures, which are few. They were instead initiated to control the spontaneously generated patterns of land use that evolved in America and force patterns that fit some “expert’s” idea of how and where other people should live.

Since no single individual or group of individuals possesses sufficient knowledge to make the most efficient or valid decisions for thousands of people, much less millions, all the hoopla about general plans and planning in general is nonsense. The 30-plus-year, sad state of affairs here on Kaua‘i, as well as in many other localities, gives ample evidence of the hopelessness of government interference in markets. Perversely, those least able to afford housing are the obvious victims of the continuing folly of persistent and obnoxious laws and regulations. These regulations and laws are legislated and then administered by people who have no consciousness of the unintended consequences of their actions, mainly owing to their general ignorance of economics (or, perhaps, the problem is one of agenda over conscience).

The only way a shortage of affordable housing and rentals can be alleviated is for government at all levels to simply get out of the way. This is most directly accomplished by abandoning, instead of enacting, more laws and regulations and ignoring environmentalist and “not-in- my-backyard” instigated obstructionism that prevents agricultural land from being divided into small, affordable lots. This action will ensure that the supply of housing and lots grows, and will eventually drive down prices as excess demand is satisfied.

There is not a shred of evidence that supports the thesis that zoning and land-use regulations promote affordable housing; to the contrary, there are many studies and statistical analyses that prove that they actually are the reason for the shortages with which we are faced.

R.S. Weir is a resident of Kapa‘a.