Unfortunately small cities/towns in my state have become wary of being altruistic to those in need. When they give an inch the State ends up taking a yard by overriding their consent.
A classic example of this was a small city that with great fanfare opened this beautiful new development for the elderly and those with special needs with all the latest ease-of-access amenities. The politicians and people gave each other a pat on the back for helping the community.
Everything was fine for a few years until the State finally figured out what to do with all these gang members shooting themselves and ending up as cripples in wheelchairs. They forced that small city to take them and of course even being in a wheelchair didn't stop them from being criminals. The whole development of elderly and disabled people ended up living in fear. There was nothing the small city could do about it.
"This is why we can't have nice things"
Another example is with Boston being a sanctuary city and taking in too many people they had a housing and budget problem. Asking the Liberal Governor what to do they decided to fill up hotels
outside of Boston with them (wouldn't want to fill up those 3 to 5 star hotels inside Boston of course..that's just craziness) and asked the towns of course to pay for the education of those under 18.
You can of course imagine that no town will ever allow another new hotel to be built within their borders.
"This is why we can't have nice things"
Another example is the State of Massachusetts said every city/town needs to create a new zoning area where low income housing can be built or face State grants being pulled. Almost all complied but some paid a $400,000 yearly fine instead.
Seeing this was still not enough the State proclaimed any town that had a subway or bus system running through it had to build
even more low income multi-family homes or face losing state grants.
The small town of Holden (pop ~19,000) is balking and of course is being taken to court over it.
Morales and her child left their Worcester apartment in October because she could not afford the rent and had been unable to find affordable rental housing.
www.masslive.com
Now as for the housing situation the city of Boston has tons of empty lots and abandoned buildings. To say they don't have any room is laughable. They could in a snap authorize fifty 30 story buildings in some old neighborhood. The issue is that no developer is going to build anything at a loss. Nobody wants to pay. Cities cry for more housing but don't want to pay for it -> make some town pay instead.
