What does affordable housing look like?

[caption id="attachment_541" align="aligncenter" width="700" caption="Petaluma Avenue Homes"][/caption] When I was in architecture school at Washington State University, architect Michael Pyatok came to do a lecture on affordable housing and mentioned that he had experienced comments in public hearings that his proposed project "didn't look like affordable housing" - and this was perceived as a bad thing by the commenter.  That's a poor reflection on our society - when design for poor people (the people who have the least means and face the most social inequity) should be inferior.  Luckily that was almost 20 years ago and a lot has changed in the arena of affordable housing.

I'm proud to be a participant in Washington State's affordable housing industry during a period of time when HUD is making significant structural changes through it's Sustainable Communities Initiative.  Finally, the silos of our federal government are being dismantled to recognize the synergies between housing, the environment, and transportation systems.  And the possibility for education and food (nutrition) to be added to that mix is even more revolutionary (for government, not reality).

Washington State is home/host to an amazing annual conference called Housing Washington.  It brings together 700-800 people that work to create and manage affordable housing in the state - bankers, developers, social service providers, housing authorities, attorneys, government entities, and of course a handful of architects. (I'm sure I missed someone in there).  http://www.wshfc.org/conf/

And cohousing can be a part of that solution.  As a board member for the Cohousing Association of the United States, I have been chairing the Affordable Cohousing Task Group.  We are developing/implementing an advocacy plan that will reach out to allied organizations and policy makers to share how cohousing can be a solution to creating healthy mixed-income neighborhoods that provide moderate income families with positive role models for achieving financial independence. 

The photo pictured above is a Petaluma Avenue Homes, a 45 unit cohousing-inspired community developed by Affordable Housing Associates in Sebastapol, CA.  The rental community was designed by McCamant & Durrett Architects - the architects who coined the term cohousing and introduced cohousing to North America after extensively researching it Denmark.  Petaluma Avenue Homes is a great example of how cohousing principles can inform the physical design to be an armature for building community.  It doesn't hurt that the architects convinced the developer to provide funding for a community facilitator to help develop community norms and structure during the first 2 years of occupancy. 

This will be one of many examples Mike and I will share during our presentation tomorrow at the 2010 Housing Washington Conference entitled Affordable Cohousing - Making it Work for Low Income Families.  Please come by and say hi!  To see what other sessions are being offered, visit http://www.wshfc.org/conf/HW2010.Glance.pdf.

Bakhita Gardens - Affordable Housing in Belltown

[caption id="attachment_424" align="alignleft" width="700" caption="Sunshades at Bakhita Gardens "][/caption] The Housing Development Consortium organized a tour of Bakhita Gardens at 2^nd & Bell.  The project was designed by our friends at Environmental Works and accommodates two transitional housing programs for homeless women.  The project was well planned – with ingenuity and creativity to provide daylight common spaces and a strong sense of community while still providing security and supervision.  The sun-shading seemed to be effective given that the building had no air conditioning even in the common areas.  And the material selection was durable, dignified, and beautiful.  I appreciate living in a city and state where affordable housing is funded to the level it is and that there is a community of skilled architects who create a high caliber of projects.  Contractor was Walsh Construction, Catholic Housing Services was development consultant, and Swenson Say Faget provided structural engineering.

Schemata Workshop has been a member of the Housing Development Consortium (HDC) for a few years and we appreciate the tours and educational programs they sponsor as a way to keep abreast of what's happening in the affordable housing community.  Another resource we have appreciated in that regard is the Housing Washington conference that occurs each fall (Oct 19-20, 2010).  This annual conference draws 700-800 attendees from across the state (as well as a handful of out-of-staters who want to learn from what we are doing here) - ranging from housing authorities, non-profit developers, bankers, contractors, social service providers, property/asset  management companies, tax credit syndicates, and architects.  Mike and I will be doing a presentation at this year's conference (Tuesday 1:30) entitled Affordable Cohousing: Making it Work for Low-Income Families.

Ron Sims rocks the house!

[caption id="attachment_261" align="alignleft" width="700" caption="Grace with HUD Deputy Secretary Ron Sims"][/caption]

Ever since attending the InterIM CDA's Gala Luncheon on Friday, I can't stop talking about Ron Sims.  He's a passionate and charismatic speaker.  As the son of a preacher, he could deliver a talk with the same fervor and presence. 

But even more impressive is that as Deputy Secretary at HUD he's making some exciting changes.  He's decentralized power so that District offices are empowered to make decisions.  He understands the interrelationship of poverty, housing, transportation, environment, healthy food, and health...and has forged powerful collaborations with other departments and agencies to create new programs that might actually help poor people realize the American Dream.

The first of these programs is called Sustainable Communities.  HUD, EPA, and DOT have joined forces to issue a produce a grant that will address not only housing, but sustainability, and transportation - woo hoo!  The reason why this excites me is that low/moderate income people have very few choices about the type, condition, and location of their housing.  As a middle income American, it's easy to sit back and judge those who don't buy organic produce, live in a new "green" condo, and drive a prius as not being concerned about the environment.  However, consider for a moment, if you had to choose to buy a head of broccoli (forget it even being organic) or a full meal deal at McDonald's for your two kids (example courtesy of the movie Food, Inc.).  Yes, the choices are clear...when you have lots of choices. 

One of the other reasons I was excited to hear Deputy Secretary Sims is that as he was describing the synergy of having various departments collaborate on funding projects from the standpoint that our tax dollars are able to go farther, it was clear to me that mixed income, intergenerational cohousing communities are an exemplary model of the sustainable communities for which he was advocating.

Since it's introduction to the US almost 20 years ago, cohousing has been a fairly middle income phenomena.  While the founding members of most cohousing communities start of with ideals of social justice and ethnic/income diversity, the resulting communities have tended to be fairly white and middle class.  And because those living in cohousing tend to hold high regard to social justice, they often feel guilty and resent not being more inclusive.  But hopefully the demographics of those living in cohousing will see a major change in the next decade.

As a board member of The Cohousing Association of the US, I am chairing a Task Group that is developing an advocacy plan to help policy makers, builders, and planners understand the potential cohousing has for creating sustainable mixed income communities that are close to transit, close to jobs, and close to daily services.  We are just in the early stages of this work, but come next June when we convene in Washington DC for our National Cohousing Conference we will be ready to walk to the Hill with our allies and talk with informed leaders such as Ron about how cohousing can be one alternative for creating communities that will empower low and moderate income families to succeed in a life of financial independence.

Hey, if Ron Sims can dream big...why can't I?