These publicly funded homes for the poor cost $1.2 million each to build

In the heart of D.C., along a narrow street in the affluent Adams Morgan neighborhood, a scaffolding rises above the sidewalk near increasingly expensive homes.

The 52-unit building under construction will house people making far below the area’s median income. Half will be newly released from incarceration.

But the building’s development cost is enough to make the neighborhood’s wealthier residents blink: $1.2 million per apartment.

That tab will be picked up in large part by taxpayers, most of whom could not afford to live in such a place. It’s an example of a trend in expensive cities across the nation, including San Francisco and Chicago, where costs to house the poor are approaching and at times exceeding $1 million per unit — resulting in fewer affordable housing units being built at a time of urgent need, housing experts say.

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