Jim Cooper is asking the right question: is the TOTAL cost of housing, including transportation, affordable. Building a bunch of trailer parks halfway to Grand Mound will not solve housing issues, because people will need to drive, and driving is expensive.
The annual cost of owning a car is in the thousands of dollars when you consider monthly payments (technically, interest and depreciation), insurance, maintenance, and fuel.
It is simply not feasible to run transit to lightly populated areas. The RuralTransit program costs more than $10 per ride to operate -- nearly all grant-funded. That is no solution.
The solution is smaller apartments located along frequent bus routes. The studio apartment-style hotels I love to stay in when I travel (Home2Suites, Residence Inn, Homewood Suites) are the kind of housing that can be affordable to small and low-earning households.
Low-income households with children will remain dependent on subsidized housing; there is no market solution to that part of the housing crisis. Congress has been unable to adequately fund the Section 8 Housing Voucher program. It's not a problem that local government can address with its very limited financial capability.
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