I think it’s not a bad thought at all. I think the perception that affordable housing is needed in downtown is because of two main things.
- It’s currently the most (or one of) unaffordable places in the city.
- It’s currently where a lot of development is taking place.
Five Points may be unaffordable too but no new development is taking place there.
The edges of town may be more affordable but no new development is taking place there. (at a large enough scale anyway)
I see people calling for affordable housing simply because people are building stuff in an expensive area so therefore, we need to get them to also build stuff that’s affordable. Never mind that there’s nothing affordable along Glenwood between the beltline and Oberlin. Why aren’t people screaming for affordable options there? (as shown by @ADUsSomeday here)
I think downtown can do it’s part by contributing to mixed housing types as well as cost types but there are definitely other parts of the city that can be contributing.