The Rio Nuevo board of directors needs redemption.
It can earn some by expanding its strategy beyond the redundancy of more bars and restaurants downtown to include helping alleviate the city’s housing crisis. It should subsidize affordable housing developments; the beneficiaries will be people with low to moderate incomes.
Such a shift can fulfill Mellow Dawn Lund’s May 11 op-ed admonition to Rio Nuevo to “recognize that revitalization means supporting people as much as projects.”
Wealthy developers of luxury apartments charging rents of up to $4,000 a month can find financing without taxpayer subsidies. What about affordable housing? A $4,000 rent is 54% higher than what the U.S. Census Bureau says is Tucson’s average individual income.
Rio Nuevo has helped finance housing projects, but few with rents affordable to the average-income person. If it has Tucsonans’ best interests at heart, Rio Nuevo should take on one of our biggest issues – affordable housing.
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Shraddha Hilda Oropeza
West side
Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star.
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