The thing is... everyone wants people to have affordable housing... but just not IN THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD. The data shows that -- usually after numerous, prolonged, and bitter legal strife -- the outcomes are non-negative for existing residents and very positive for the new residents. So spread the word! Affordable housing does NOT lower your property values! And it really helps poor kids!

Seems like affluent communities with affordable housing benefit greatly:

Similarly, Princeton professor Douglas Massey studied an affordable housing development in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, that local residents had complained would lower home values, increase crime rates, and cause local taxes to rise.

He found that the development did none of those things. Many surrounding neighbors didn’t even know there was a housing project nearby.

What’s more, the lives of residents in the housing development improved markedly after they moved to the affluent suburb. An increasing amount of data seems to show that location matters just as much as income in determining a child’s likelihood of escaping poverty. As I’ve written about before, children from low-income families who move to more affluent suburbs are more likely to graduate from high school, attend four-year colleges, and have jobs than their peers who stayed in the city. And cities that have made an effort to keep schools desegregated have enjoyed less race-based strife than peer cities.