Affordable Housing

In the 1990s, most public argument about suburban expansion was pretty simple. Environmentalists argued that sprawl increased pollution, while their opponents responded by invoking the free market.   Environmentalists and other sprawl critics (including myself) responded that sprawl is the result less of the free market than of government subsidy and regulation.  Recently I have started to notice hints of a not-so-libertarian argument for sprawl: that pro-sprawl government policies such as highway construction open up real estate for development, and thus make housing affordable. 

October 25, 2012 - Michael Lewyn

A new initiative launched by Mayor Bloomberg to tackle New York City's need for affordable housing through the construction of microunits is attracting hostility from advocates and local leaders for neglecting the needs of large, poor families.

October 22, 2012 - The New York Times

Does density cause higher housing prices? Can the private market supply low-income housing? What will it take to maintain housing affordability in successful, growing cities? Dan Bertolet seeks an answer to these questions in a piece for Citytank.

October 22, 2012 - Citytank

In the next 20 years, the D.C. area is expected to have nearly 3 million job openings. With the resulting demand for new, diverse and more affordable housing outpacing supply, some fear that the city’s housing deficit will derail its robust economy.

October 19, 2012 - Greater Greater Washington

Jeff Jamawat looks at the promise of a nuanced approach to tax reform being tested in 17 local jurisdictions in Pennsylvania to head off the spiral of rising prices and displacement instigated by the construction of transit infrastructure.

October 18, 2012 - Smart Growth Network: National Conversation Blog

A new report argues that city-owned lands must be leveraged to increase D.C.'s stock of affordable housing, and indicts Mayor Gray's administration for not doing enough to keep up with increasing demand.

October 13, 2012 - Greater Greater Washington

Boasting some of the highest housing prices in the country, and rising, San Francisco is in desperate need of affordable housing. This November, the city's voters will have a chance to try to remedy the situation with two ballot measures.

October 5, 2012 - Next American City

A protest last week through downtown Los Angeles was meant to raise awareness of local activists' concerns that Los Angeles County Metro is displacing working class people and small businesses as it develops land adjacent to its stations.

September 17, 2012 - KPCC

Citing a lack of affordable housing, a Manhattan Community Board has sent architecture's hot young firm, Denmark-base Bjarke Ingels Group (aka BIG), back to the drawing board to amend the design for their premier New York project.

September 13, 2012 - The New York Observer

Moving families from segregated, high poverty neighborhoods, into desegregated "areas of opportunity" has multiple effects. Housing mobility programs help revitalize communities and improve the physical and mental health of families involved.

September 6, 2012 - Shelterforce Magazine

Often times, the community development field and health philanthropy have worked in the same neighborhoods, but separately. This is changing, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) Marjorie Paloma told Shelterforce how.

August 28, 2012 - Shelterforce Magazine

Is the return of the factory town the solution to jump-start new housing construction? Myron Curzan and Janet Lowenthal propose a plan for developing housing that caters specifically to workers stuck in between affordable and median housing.

August 8, 2012 - Urban Land

For a city of its size, London and its skyline are notoriously flat. Now, as the city struggles to expand its housing stock to meet the needs of it surging population, increasingly taller solutions are being prescribed, concerning some.

July 29, 2012 - The Global Urbanist

Simon Clark and Chris Spillane document the illegal, and often squalid, housing that can be found only three miles from the gleaming Olympic Stadium.

July 27, 2012 - Bloomberg

A recent paper by Harvard economists Daniel Shoag and Peter Ganong titled, Why Has Regional Convergence in the U.S. Stopped? indicates that land development regulations tend to increase housing costs, which contributes to inequality by excluding lower-income households from more economically productive urban regions. Does this means that planners are guilty of increasing income inequality?

July 26, 2012 - Todd Litman

A so-called "eco-friendly" apartment complex complete with solar panels that derives more than 90% of its energy needs from coal? China struggles to take sustainable development seriously.

July 21, 2012 - USA Today

Have you ever thought those teensy 400 square foot NYC apartments were just too darn big? If so, you and Mayor Bloomberg have something in common, as yesterday the city launched an initiative to develop a new model of tiny, but affordable, housing.

July 10, 2012 - The New York Observer

Mixed-income housing - infusing affordable housing with market-rate units - is relying more on incentives and subsidies, than mandates, to stimulate development.

June 21, 2012 - Urban Land

This past week, the Cato Institute and Next American City played host to an energetic discussion of the role of housing and development policy in controlling the supply of affordable housing in American cities.

June 17, 2012 - Cato Institute

With Los Angeles embarking on the "largest transit expansion in the United States," a new report looks at ways the city can preserve critical affordable housing in areas ripe for transit-oriented economic development.

June 13, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns