SAN FRANCISCO: The affordable homes shortage could be fixed by allowing housing associations to seek funding from local people.
Housing associations/not-for-profits could buy land to build low-cost homes with money that would previously have been saved in banks, premium bonds and interest-bearing deposit accounts.
The proposal would overcome a significant hurdle blocking co-op housing groups from accessing private funds.
The plan would need new legislation allowing mutuals to raise capital from bonds along similar lines to a French scheme considered the financial backbone of socialist premier François Hollande’s promise to dramatically increase housebuilding…