A front page article in the Feb. 8 Tribune was all excited about three nonprofits combining efforts to build more affordable housing units for low-income people in Bismarck. I read the article to see if prices were given, and they were. A studio apartment was "only" $615/month! It is in reality a big, fat lie. $615/month IS NOT affordable for low-income people. I have owned property for a long time. I have been a landlord for more than a decade. $615/month for a studio apartment is not "affordable." But then, this housing is supposedly for low-income people, who will almost assuredly get some kind of financial assistance from the majority culture system. What this really is, then, is graft and greed and gouging "the system" -- the welfare system -- under the thin veil of "affordable housing."
I looked up studio apartments in Fargo and Minot. They can be had for $350 and sometimes less. And it goes without saying that if a studio apartment is so egregiously over-priced, apartments with bedrooms cost considerably more.
It is time the Legislature put a stop to this kind of thing. I have headed a 501(c)(3) 170c2 for 27 years and counting. I know whereof I speak. Regardless, the people of North Dakota should refuse to be fooled by this kind of thing any longer and insist it be stopped, now.
Carel Two-Eagle, Wilton
