$971,000 per ‘affordable housing’ unit: Should taxpayers laugh or cry?

Re “Casa Familiar breaks ground on $100 million affordable housing project in San Ysidro” (Oct 20): This article on a planned 103-unit complex of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments explains that the project has taken seven years so far, has 13 sources of public funding and will cost $100 million. Do the math: That’s $971,000 per apartment unit. With that money, Casa Familiar or anyone else could build or buy 103 nice single-family homes and rent them to the same limited-income families. But the houses probably wouldn’t have “a three-year public transit circulator, EV infrastructure, and beyond-LEED and Title 24 building standards to ensure strong indoor air quality.”

— Hal Valderhaug, La Mesa