C Street Group question

By Fester:

Dumb question on theC Street dorm and den of excitement (of which my Congresscritter, Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) is a member) --- the rent payments seem ridiculously low. The cost of the house was reported to be $1.1 million dollars in 2003. The six occupants are reported to pay $600 per month in rent. Assuming their landlords are not sleezy bastards who can magically create extra months in the year, that works out to be about $43,000 per year in total rent payments for the house. In an arms length transaction rent payments are expected to cover the capital cost (the mortgage) as well as the operating costs (utilities, maitenance, taxes etc). That is not always the case, but it is a rough guesstimate of what the rent should be.

I am just taking the cost of the house and the annual reported rental payments (6 roommates @ $600/month/roommate @ 12 months). I then divide the cost of the house by annual revenue streams which produces a current back of the envelope cap rate of more than 25 years. 25 years would be how long the current revenue stream for the house would pay off the capital of the mortgage if there was absolutely no interest AND no operating costs for the house. A typical commercial property cap rate is between 8 to 12 years as the owners need to pay interest on the mortgage and cover operating costs as well.

The C Street Group is effectively donating a fairly large sum of money in form of the difference between a market rate room rent and the very low rent that they charge the six housemates. I just took a look at Rep. Doyle's 2008 financial disclosure form. He has a very boring financial life. However there is no disclosure of an implied income benefit from the C Street Group. I also have looked at the 2006 financial disclosure for Sen. Coburn of Oklahoma, who also lives in the house.  I am not seeing any disclosure of the implicit subsidy that the C Street Foundation is giving to the roommates in the form of massively below market rents.

 That is something that makes me go Ummmmm......

Comments

[John Ballard]

Hot catch.
The clock is ticking, I hope, until this nest of modern heresy gets outed. For an up close and personal description of the group on C Street listen to the Terry Gross interview of Jeff Sharlet (Fresh Air, July i).

In the book The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, author Jeff Sharlet examines the power wielded by a secretive Christian group known as the Family, or the Fellowship.

Founded in 1935 in opposition to FDR's New Deal, the evangelical group's views on religion and politics are so singular that some other Christian-right organizations consider them heretical

The group also has a connection to a house in Washington, D.C., known as C Street. Owned by a foundation affiliated with the Family, C Street is officially registered as a church; in practice, it serves as a meeting place and residence for politicians like South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, Nevada Sen. John Ensign and Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn.

The Family, Sharlet writes, is responsible for founding the annual National Prayer Breakfast, a supposedly ecumenical — but implicitly Christian — event attended by the president, members of Congress and dignitaries from around the world. These foreign delegations are often led by top defense personnel, who use it as an opportunity to lobby the most influential people in Washington — and who repay the Family with access to their governments.

The group's approach to religion, Sharlet says, is based on "a sort of trickle-down fundamentalism," which holds that the wealthy and powerful, if they "can get their hearts right with God ... will dispense blessings to those underneath them."

Members of the group ardently support free markets, in which, they believe, God's will operates directly through Adam Smith's "invisible hand."

[Ron Beasley]

Really scary stuff. Thom Hartmann had Sharlet on his show on Wednesday and the podcast should be available today or Monday.

[geoff]

Scott Horton points to Sharlet's 2003 article in Harper's prior to his book on the group (it maybe behind the subscription wall I can't tell anymore):

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2003/03/0079525

[John Ballard]

I've been a Sharlet fan for some time. Here are three links for the interested reader.

http://hootsbuddy.blogspot.com/2005/10/irreligious-reporters-missed-it.html

(From my old blog four years ago)

And lately, June 29 and July 9:

http://killingthebuddha.com/mag/dogma/the-apocalypse-is-always-now/

http://killingthebuddha.com/mag/damnation/chosen/