The Washington Post ,Thursday, January 4, 1990
William Raspberry
Sid Altman of Bethesda agrees the that "no permanent solution is possible until large-scale construction of rental housing is begun."
He would stimulate that construction by changing the tax code. "To a considerable' degree, the deductibility of mortgage interest and property taxes has distorted the housing construction industry, causing builders to concentrate of single-family hones at the expense of rental housing," he writes on "Fair Deal for Renters' letterhead. "Since it is politically impossible to end deductibility, the remedy is to extend it to renters:
He also-proposes a refundable tax credit (similar the earned income credit) for that portion of the rent that goes to mortgage interest and property taxes, as a way of extending the benefits fits to those who, like most of the homeless, have no tax liability.
Many of the ideas are, well, a little far out. One reader would require anyone receiving government housing benefits too sign a contract agreeing not to have any more children. The penalty for violating the agreement would be eviction and loss of benefits. A Greenville, S.C., man— S. H. Stranger—would use federal land in Alaska to build prisons to house inmates from all 50 states. The existing prison; would be used to house the home less.
Several readers would put the homeless to work: some by hiring them to build the housing in which they would
live, simultaneously providing housing and job- training skills; others by combining homeless shelters with rehabilitation and training centers from which the jobless would-be transported to casual labor centers; still others
by having individuals offer a day's work in exchange for minimum-wage payments.
Some would use governmental powers to encourage the production of housing while others see government as the source of the problem. Peter Farina of Washington believes two-tier property tax system (a high tax on land and a lower rate for buildings) would encourage the building and restoration of housing while driving down housing -costs. But L. Edwin Hoppes, a Springfield, Ohio, builder, would move government out of the way.
And if you think that's cheap, listen to the suggestion of Ellen Thomas, a sometime homeless advocate for the homeless in Washington:
"We believe that a lot of homeless people are frustrated in their efforts to get off the street by the inability to take baths and stash their gear. Often it's only the indignity of smelling bad that keeps the shelterless jobless.
'We believe the very basic service of providing showers, laundry, lockers, mail and phone messages to street dwellers would help many of them get work and, ultimately, a home."