After selling his software business for millions, Marcel Lebrun decided to pour his time and money into an affordable housing project in Fredericton. CBC’s Harry Forestell takes a closer look at the 12 Neighbours community and its impact on the people who live there.
Housing is largely inadequate due to a reliance on the free market and voluntary philanthropy to supply it.
This wealthy individual used wealth derived from the free market for some voluntary philanthropy.
System working as intended: a problem reinforced through its own aenemic mitigation.
Honest title: Business owner sells business, uses proceeds to become a property developer and build a trailer park.
Nothing, but I find the framing of this project dishonest.
Edit: Well actually, there are a few things wrong with trailer parks. For one, the value of a house is the value of the land, and not the value of the house or trailer. Trailers are built on small plots, thus as the trailer gets older, the owner might not be building equity. Say if the land was worth 50k and the trailer 50k, after 20 years the value of the trailer might have gone to zero, but the value of the land might not rise over 100k meaning that the homeowner loses equity or doesn’t build as much equity as they might have, with a 150k home on a decent sized plot. Especially since the value of a house will not go to zero over 20 years, and if limited renovation will actually increase.
I’ve been to several and they tend to be decent low-income housing. Quality can vary a lot but I don’t think we should be for cheaper housing and against options that provide it.
I think this is great. You can argue he’s making money off it or benefiting in some way but as long as people get to live in these houses on an affordable budget, great. They get a place to call home, personal space, a community with similar struggles. Most people don’t need big spaces, they just need a space and shelter.
There’s a lot of negativity in this thread. I think people often forget that perfect is the enemy of good. Cheap housing is objectively a good thing.
Honestly, my biggest worry/criticism is that there is no way to prevent these 99 homes from becoming 99 Airbnb’s.
Don’t think there is any way for them to prevent that though.
How tiny are we talking? It’s not a very detailed article.
The New Brunswick government site says 18m², and there are some pictures on https://www.12neighbours.com/
You know, the first thing I thought of is that you could build like 6x that many homes if you just didn’t bother with the yards and added a second story. I mean, yes, what was done is nice, but it’s basically just a trailer park. I bet that the land alone was like 70% of the cost if not 90% as well, so building the houses more densely would’ve provided for several times as many people for almost no extra cost.
Alternatively, a single mid-rise apartment building would’ve done the same thing on only a fraction of the land, and probably a lot more comfortable to live in, not to mention cheaper on amenities like heating and sewage.
On the other hand, you can throw one of these things together in a week, ensuring that people have homes sooner. You also don’t have to worry as much about soil conditions, water pressure, and all the other complications of building large structures. If the choice is between space inefficient homes or no homes at all (because the cost is prohibitively expensive), then the one that makes homes wins.
he could build one a week, making housing people immediate, rather than the planning and bureacracy a full story apartmwnt with a real foundation would take. Some times gap measures are best, until there is better
