Why it's so hard to build affordable housing: It's not affordable

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/why-its-so-hard-to-build-affordable-housing-its-not-affordable/ar-BBuSQBH?li=BBnbfcN

This is a problem here in Collier County as well, we don't have affordable housing and its too expensive to build it. It does not make sense for businesses to focus on affordable housing without the government subsidies.

Almost one in four U.S. renters spends more on housing than they can afford, according to a report in June from Harvard University‘s Joint Center for Housing Studies

“If we want to prioritize closing the gap for low-income households, we’re going to need more funding from public subsidy,” said Erika Poethig, director of urban policy initiatives at the Urban Institute

To really reduce costs or raise revenue, though, there are just these options: Spend less on land, materials, and labor, or bring in more money by raising rents or finding new public financing. But land, materials, and labor can only be cut so much (construction costs are effectively fixed by labor and commodities markets), and raising rents removes the "affordable" from affordable housing.