Archinect - News

Rowan Moore: UK architects should look elsewhere for council housing inspiration

2024-11-25T17:59:00-05:00

In Britain, as our government has promised, we’re going to have a “council housing revolution”, the building of as yet unknown numbers of homes at genuinely affordable rents, a return to policies of 50 and more years ago in order to address the well-known housing crisis. Which is welcome. Luckily there are, close at hand, outstanding examples of how this might be done, in cities and countries on the continent of Europe.

Moore points to Vienna, the city known for its ambitious development model for social housing, and Barcelona as two examples of what he says is a healthy "willingness to experiment" to be applied back home in the UK. The new Labour Party government has promised to usher in a "revolution" in council housing to deliver the up to 100,000 new homes needed per year to match current needs that have been made worse for years by bad policies and a lack of funding.

The same set of issues are plaguing efforts back across the pond in New York City, where Moore's American counterpart Michael Kimmelman recently considered some "radical" alternatives being pursued as part of NYCHA's complicated new plans.

Considering the next Trump administration’s impact on housing in California

2024-11-22T11:56:00-05:00

As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to reenter the White House, California housing advocates are bracing for how a second term could impact the state’s notoriously high home prices, rents and rates of homelessness. This time around, that’s changed, and Trump has recognized housing affordability is a problem, said Matthew Schwartz, executive director of the policy organization the California Housing Partnership.

Democrats were also pushing a housing-heavy agenda during the campaign. Trump's return to the White House comes as the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies reports many cities across the Golden State are missing their marks where it comes to planning an adequate housing supply that matches the expanding crisis.

Trump has vocally supported the call for massive tent cities for unhoused citizens, vowing at the same time to issue tariffs, deport undocumented immigrants, open federal land to housing development, cut government assistance programs, and relax zoning restrictions, among several other countervailing ideas that could cancel out progress on what became one of the 2024 election's most significant issues.

NYC forms task force to search for housing opportunities on gov't owned land

2024-08-26T14:53:00-04:00

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has announced the formation of a new multi-agency task force aimed at finding city-owned land and properties that can be redeveloped in the interest of putting an end to its greatest housing crisis in more than 50 years.

According to amNewYork, the new City Housing Activation Task Force is operating under a directive to “review all land under the ownership and control of the city or of other participating and cooperating agencies and entities … to identify potential sites for housing development and to determine if such sites could be used to further housing production … without disruption to critical operations."

Former NYCEDC President Maria Torres-Springer is leading the task force. It expands on the 'City of Yes for Housing Opportunity’ proposal that was launched by the Adams administration in September of 2023.

NYT: Rising insurance costs impinging on affordable development efforts nationwide

2024-06-12T17:50:00-04:00

Less attention, though, has been paid to rental housing, particularly for low and moderate income people. Unlike market-rate apartment developers, those building multifamily projects financed by subsidies and tax credits do not have the ability to simply pass on those higher insurance costs to tenants, since they are limited by government guidelines as to how much rent they can collect.

The Times points out, many “low-income areas tend to be more prone to flooding and other catastrophic damage” – meaning that resilient design strategies often have to be added to the list of considerations for architects and their clients (as the ASLA’s most recent industry survey proves). The article quotes another conducted last year by the National Leased Housing Association as finding “nearly one-third” of all affordable housing developers nationally reporting insurance increases of 25% or more between 2022 and 2023.

Brookings research gives Los Angeles communities guidance for future ADU implementation

2024-05-02T18:02:00-04:00

New research published recently by the Brookings Institution has provided details of how local government in Los Angeles can galvanize a newfound abundance of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) through policy changes in order to combat an ongoing housing crisis currently affecting more than one million Angelenos.

Authors Jenny Schuetz and Eve Devens state: “The Los Angeles region offers a useful setting to explore the prospects of affordable ADUs. Four jurisdictions within the region have developed affordable ADU pilot programs. One program, the city of Los Angeles’ LA ADU Accelerator Program, offers operating subsidies for existing ADUs, while the other three offer development subsidies as well as vouchers to cover operating costs.”

This research can be used to bolster architects’ so-called “toolkit” of affordable housing solutions in conjunction with the recent Harvard Center for Housing joint study that compared the strengths and failures of California’s policies with those in othe...

Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies publishes research on the state-by-state effectiveness of ADU policies

2023-11-10T18:36:00-05:00

The publication of a new research paper from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University has provided policymakers with a useful nationwide assessment of different state-level policies regarding Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) in the United States.

The paper centers on two markets – New Hampshire and Portland, Oregon – as a means of comparing measured and more aggressive approaches (the latter having already been long-established as a national model).

Researchers were seeking to combat the “self-reinforcing negative cycle” that is born out of patchwork regulations and has made market conditions even more challenging to their production. The results offer proof, according to the authors, that “robust changes can have dramatic impacts.”

Related on Archinect: A possible future for ADUs and its growing 'familiarity factor'. Image courtesy of Abodu.

Comparisons of the failures of different approaches to by-right approvals in creating new housing in the New England states i...

Los Angeles gets a new Deputy Mayor of Housing

2023-02-03T08:30:00-05:00

New LA Mayor Karen Bass has elevated current City Planning Commissioner Jenna Hornstock to a newly-created post as the Deputy Mayor of Housing, according to the city's announcement on Wednesday afternoon.

The appointment aligns with Bass’ comprehensive shakeup of the city’s existing multifaceted housing apparatus. It will create an office that is accountable for efforts to address the dual crises of affordability and homelessness that have become hot-button political issues for Angelenos over the past decade.

Honstock comes to the position with experience as the acting Deputy Director of Planning and Land Use for the Southern California Association of Governments and was a former aide on the Housing and Business team of former Mayor James Hahn. According to her Linkedin page, she is also the current board of advisors member for the Urban Land Institute and holds an MPP in Urban Economic Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Related on Archinect: Political disorder is...

White House announces All In initiative on homelessness nationwide

2022-12-23T15:15:00-05:00

In an effort to combat the crisis of homelessness nationwide, the Biden-Harris Administration has announced its new All In: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and Homelessness aimed at the "bold but achievable goal" of reducing the country’s unhoused population by 25% by the year 2025.

The plan expands on a slate of "proven" evidence-based strategies (including, most especially, the so-called "Housing First" model) and will allow states to set their own goals within the timeframe and use the White House’s blueprint as a guideline.

"My plan offers a roadmap for not only getting people into housing but also ensuring that they have access to the support, services, and income that allow them to thrive," President Biden said at the announcement. "It is a plan that is grounded in the best evidence and aims to improve equity and strengthen collaboration at all levels."

According to the White House and the D...

Chicago unveils first city framework plan in more than 50 years and seeks public input

2022-08-02T09:00:00-04:00

Chicago has unveiled a draft of its first citywide framework plan since 1966, charting how the city intends to become more equitable and resilient. The plan, titled We Will Chicago, is led by neighborhood stakeholders, artists, community partners, and city agencies. Having launched in 2020, the draft framework is now seeking public feedback before completion and presentation to the Chicago Plan Commission in early 2023.

The framework describes itself as “the first planning process in the City’s history that acknowledges the past as much as the future.” To that end, the plan seeks to address systemic declines which have arisen from previous plans, policies, and market forces, including structural racism, poverty, depopulation, and health disparities. The plan also seeks to enable the city to “survive, adapt, and rebound in the face of chronic stresses and acute shocks like climate change and pandemics.”

The We Will Chicago framework consists of eight pillars

The draft plan consists o...

US Federal Reserve to weigh climate change risks in making financial policies

2019-11-14T18:54:00-05:00

The U.S. central bank signaled on Friday it may be getting ready to join international peers in incorporating climate change risk into its assessments of financial stability, and may even take it into account when setting monetary policy.

Despite the Trump administration's unabashed rejection of climate science, the United States Federal Reserve is moving in the opposite direction.

The shift could impact how America's central bank assesses financial metrics like interest rates and how entities like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac make decisions regarding which mortgages to acquire.

President Trump targets preservation, zoning, and rent control regulations

2019-06-26T09:29:00-04:00

President Donald Trump issued an executive order that establishes a White House Council focused on "eliminating regulatory barriers to affordable housing." The council is to be chaired by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson.

The order reads: "These regulatory barriers include: overly restrictive zoning and growth management controls; rent controls; cumbersome building and rehabilitation codes; excessive energy and water efficiency mandates; unreasonable maximum-density allowances; historic preservation requirements; overly burdensome wetland or environmental regulations; outdated manufactured-housing regulations and restrictions; undue parking requirements; cumbersome and time-consuming permitting and review procedures; tax policies that discourage investment or reinvestment; overly complex labor requirements; and inordinate impact or developer fees."

The order adds, "These regulatory barriers increase the costs associated with development, and, as a result, d...

Examining the Housing Crisis—a book and a film

2017-09-01T15:46:00-04:00

Housing has instead become one of the primary drivers of global capitalism, through commodification and financialization, making its function as real estate more important than its use as lived, space. It is the result of spatial developments being market-driven. Madden and Marcuse: “housing is not produced and distributed for dwelling at all,” but “as a commodity to enrich the few.”

The German documentary City for Sale that came out last year and the recently released book In Defense of Housing are the perfect match for anyone who wants to learn about the broken nature of housing markets, the crisis currently happening in all big cities worldwide.

City for Sale consists of interviews taken over a course of 4 years, where the author, Andreas Wilcke, accompanies real estate agents and investors during their daily routine and films tenants struggling to cope with the situation, providing the viewers with an opportunity to experience the turnaround of a whole city virtually at first hand.

In Defense of Housing by David Madden and Peter Marcuse, too, is full of examples from both sides of the story, where personal property are examined as both categories–shelter, safety, identity for the general population versus investment and a supplemental source of income for the lucky few. The book also demonstrates examples of numerous cities and countries, detailing destructi...

What U.S. cities can learn from Vienna's urban housing policy

2017-07-26T14:39:00-04:00

This is a two-part series on housing policy in Vienna and how it could be a model for progressive housing policy in Seattle, where I live, or other American cities struggling with affordable housing. The first part is an overview of financing and subsidies. Part two, coming tomorrow, looks in detail at how zoning and development supports housing affordability.

Mike Eliason, passivhaus designer with Seattle-based Patano Studio, penned an insightful two-part commentary for City Observatory, looking at issues of financing, zoning, affordability, sustainability, and quality of life in a side-by-side comparison of Vienna and Seattle.

Victory for affordable housing as UK court throws out 'insane' government policy

2015-08-08T01:36:00-04:00

the government’s recent planning policy – which could have resulted in property developers dodging up to £1bn in affordable housing payments – has been definitively quashed following a High Court ruling. [...] the “vacant building credit” let developers convert empty buildings into housing without making the usual Section 106 contributions for affordable homes.[...] The ruling was described as a “victory for common sense [that] will help generate more affordable homes in London”