Mixed-Income Housing Leads to Vibrant Neighborhoods
 
Mixed-income housing, either in one building or in a district or neighborhood, offers many social advantages and almost no disadvantages. That’s because mixed-income neighborhoods strengthen our social networks and therefore expand what might be called the social capital that your town has to work with.
Many suburbs are homogenous in socioeconomic level simply because the housing stock was developed in the same era and similarly priced at the time. Then as new households buy or rent homes, the subtle social cues keep people within their own income group.
But consider these benefits of a municipal or county policy to promote mixed-income housing:

1. For Low-Income Households

Lower income people tend to escape from poverty and improve their productivity to society faster when they land in a higher income neighborhood.
This is true because of better role models and better social networks, which help most of us get jobs. Of course living among some higher income people also might allow some low-income people who are best suited to becoming entrepreneurs to pursue opportunities of that type.
 
Here’s an odd fact: Many low-income people in their early 20’s tend to become middle income and high income folks later in life!
Who are the people who bring vitality to our streets by adopting new trends sooner than the rest of us, worrying about style and styling, generally acting slightly or mostly outside over-prescribed social roles, and bringing idealism and enthusiasm to many different projects and ventures? Oh, young people.
If you price them out of your market, you’ve lost a significant source of innovation. The mix of ages will enhance the possibility that you can attract some of the creative class to your little corner of the world.

2. For Middle-Income Households

Middle income families and households are able to diversify their acquaintance base and thereby gain some of the benefits of getting acquainted with higher-income people to learn how they did it, as well as to observe the cautionary tales of how lower-income people came to be in their less versatile low-income situations.
If the mixed-income strategy becomes intentional and also a part of civic dialogue and consciousness, there’s some hope that some of the detrimental aspects of “keeping up with the Joneses” might be mitigated.
When you live among people of lower income, there’s a tendency to appreciate how fortunate you are much more. And an appreciation of the fact that it’s the public spaces that make you really rich or really poor might develop.
A variety of shared facilities, access to nature, and a sense of community are the true wealth that’s worth worrying about, rather than tennis shoes or logos on handbags.

3. For High-Income Households

Higher income people also benefit from living in a mixed-income housing situation. And I hope that many of them will recognize the benefits to the soul of doing so.
It’s tempting, I know, to barricade oneself off from the rest of society in an attempt to find safety and avoid some of the more disturbing images of the underclass.
But don’t do it, if you’re a high net worth individual. By only associating with others who have figured out the money piece, you lose touch with the common lot of humanity, at least in your own nation.
In becoming a wealthy person cowering in a gated community, you lose the opportunity to be of service in a democratic society, to model how restrained and noble wealth really can be, and to gain a really appreciative audience.
Yes, we’re saying that life will be more rewarding if you choose a mixed-income housing community than if you seclude yourselves with others who also are in the highest tax bracket.
 
-Useful Community Development