Lemons to lemonade: turning foreclosed homes into workforce housing

Fairfax County, VIrginia, is one of the nation's wealthiest.  It has a lot of things in abundance, but affordable housing isn't one of them.  Fortunately, the cause now has a boost from the chair of the county's board of supervisors, who just proposed that the county buy up foreclosed properties and then re-sell them to working families at below-market rates.  Great idea.  An article in Saturday's Washington Post explains: 

"Doing so would not only create affordable housing in one of the nation's most expensive communities, but it would also help protect neighborhoods in danger of decline from the exploding number of homes going into foreclosure across Fairfax, [Board of Supervisors Chair] Connolly said in his annual State of the County speech at the government center . . ."  

Of course the article goes on to point out that an opposing member of the County Board of Supervisors wants to eliminate entirely the affordable housing program that Connolly hopes to use to buy foreclosed properties.  The Post quotes supervisor Herrity as saying, "We're already the largest landlord in Fairfax County . . . We're already trying to serve families earning 120 percent of median income. Why would we want to do more?" 

Great.  Another bozo politician from the Commonwealth, why should I be surprised?  Fortunately, the effort to derail the program is unlikely to succeed.  Read the full article here.