After all the failed solutions and futile effort to solve the conundrum of the national housing shortage and the affordability crisis, maybe the best thing to do is just return the land to the indigenous Americans who were here before Europeans arrived and let them have their way.

Some version of that experiment is underway in Vancouver, the least affordable housing market in North America, where the Canadian government repatriated 10 acres in the middle of the city to the Squamish, the First Nation whose ancestors lived there a few centuries ago.

The tribe has called the development Senakw, after a village that once stood in roughly the same place, and it will be the densest residential neighborhood in the country and eventually include 6,000 homes in 11 towers. The first tenants arrived in May.

It did not have to undergo any environmental reviews, was not subject to any planning rules, was not subject to zoning codes and did not face any lawsuits from neighbors.

The Squamish were free to build whatever they wanted. 

What they wanted the tribe, wrote on their web site, was to harken back to their roots.  

The Squamish Nation say their vision was “guided by community, culture, and sustainability, this is both a restoration and a new beginning, built to serve generations today and those yet to come.”

Opponents of the project object to the density of the project, are concerned that the traffic will overwhelm the small neighborhood side streets, the environmental impact and that the infrastructure to support so many new residents — schools, shopping amenities and medical facilities — is insufficient.

So, pretty much all the objections that builders here almost every time they bring a project before a local board.  

A Reddit poster, who goes by Mission_Effect4584, summed up the local reaction earlier in June this way:

This development is on a patch of tribal land that is not subject to local laws. There is no zoning, because legally these towers aren't even fully Canadian soil.  This has deeply upset some of the locals, who thought tribal sovereignty meant they would pick berries in loin cloths instead of doing high density real estate development. 

As an essay in The New York Times pointed out: “Senakw, by itself, will make a modest dent in Vancouver’s housing crisis. The city estimates that it needs 83,000 new homes by 2033. Its importance, however, extends beyond the unit count. Senakw’s striking presence on the Vancouver skyline is a rebuke to the surrounding city, and a constant reminder that the thing preventing us from building is … us.” (Go ahead and click, it’s a gift article.)

As apartments go, the layouts at Senakw are not terribly spacious, including studios from 310–375 square feet, one bedrooms of 410-685 square feet, two bedrooms ranging from 625-850 square feet and larger family apartments of three and four-bedrooms

from 1,265–1,570 square feet. 

Of the 1,400 rental apartments now available, a few hundred are subsidized for lower-income families, including 63 reserved for members of the Squamish nation. 

Vancouver has taken some lessons from Senakw and applied them to other projects, reducing parking requirements to permit larger buildings in some areas.

“Restrictive zoning has been pushing people farther and farther away from the communities that they love,” Christine Boyle, a former Vancouver city councilor who is now housing minister for British Columbia, told The Times. “Senakw is visibly a sign of Vancouver doing things differently.”

There is no sign of other Senakws in other North American cities in the pipeline, but it’s an idea that places like New York, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco would do well to imagine.

One of the most contested pieces of real estate in American history is the scene of remembrance this week. The battle of the Little Bighorn, popularly known as Custer’s last stand, took place from June 25-26 in 1876, where Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led some 700 soldiers of 7th Cavalry into southeastern Montana to attack a Native American encampment of 7,000-10,000 along the Little Bighorn River. Custer split off with some 255 men, and they were wiped out by Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors led by Crazy Horse and Chief Gall, fulfilling a vision of a great victory that the Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull had had weeks before. Custer, his two brothers and 255 others were killed. The National Park Service is holding a commemoration of the battle June 25-27, and there are scads of history books about it, including Evan Connell’s “Son of the Morning Star.” For the descendants of Custer and Sitting Bull, the battle is long past but the memories of it are still personal, and they talk about it in this New York Times article. (Gift link.)

Realtor.com released a report card of states with the lowest grades for affordability and homebuilding and it included the usual suspects: coastal states with restrictive building environments, a strong NIMBY contingent and a shortage of developable land, New York topped the list, followed by Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Hawaii, California, and Connecticut. The next four scored a bit better, but still were expensive and hard on developers: Oregon, Montana, New Jersey, and New Hampshire. "One of the biggest challenges facing New York is the amount of time it takes to move a housing project from land acquisition to construction and occupancy," Michael Fazio, executive director of the New York State Builders Association, told Realtor.com. "The development approval, environmental review, permitting, and inspection processes can often take years before a project is completed and families can move into a home."

As if it’s not hard enough to find a New York City apartment, some searching were unlucky enough to run into an alleged fraudster. A reporter for WNYC, the local NPR station, followed up on a tip from a certain Clara Natkin, who said she had lost thousands of dollars in 2022 while trying to rent an apartment through a man named David Michael. Even after winning in small claims court, she was not able to get her $3,500 back from Michael, her deposit and first month’s rent after signing a lease. Natkin found other people online complaining about him, and the reporter found many others who said that Michael kept their money after deals fell through. The Department of State revoked his real estate license more than a decade ago, and court records showed that more than two dozen New Yorkers sued Michael for a few hundred dollars to $5,750, dating back to 2012. Michael denied knowing about the lawsuits and told the reporter that it was false he “stole” money from anyone. To listen to the entire 42 minutes and 46 seconds of the lurid tale, click here.

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