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Los Angeles must rezone to accommodate an additional quarter-million new homes by mid-October after state housing regulators rejected the city’s long-term plan for growth.
If city leaders do not fix the housing plan or complete the rezoning by the new deadline, they could lose access to billions of dollars in affordable housing grants, officials with the state Department of Housing and Community Development said in a letter this week.
— LA Times
Los Angeles County had previously planned to add exactly 10% of the new mandate in the form of housing specifically for the homeless by the year 2025. It has also given some additional leeway to homeowners wishing to install ADUs, which can play a crucial role in meeting the state’s pressing... View full entry
The Nevada Housing Division announced Wednesday that $300.7 million will go to the development of affordable housing projects in the state. The money makes up 87% of Nevada’s 2021 tax-exempt bonding authority and is the highest amount earmarked for state-led affordable housing developments since the inception of the state’s tax-exempt private activity bond (PAB) program, according to Department of Business and Industry Director Terry Reynolds. — 8 News Now
The program aims to facilitate public and private sector collaboration in financing eligible affordable housing projects. There are currently 14 below-market-rate projects under construction located in Reno, Las Vegas, and North Las Vegas that will bring 2,898 residences by early 2024, with nine... View full entry
People living in San Francisco may be given the opportunity to vote on a proposal to tax vacant homes in the city. The proposal, filed with city officials this month, seeks to address a chronic shortage of housing in San Francisco by encouraging landlords to either rent or sell vacant units... View full entry
Dave Chappelle threatened to pull his various business ventures from his hometown of Yellow Springs, Ohio, if the village council went ahead with a plan to build — wait for it — more affordable housing in the area. — Rolling Stone
Dave Chappelle has turned into quite the evil troll in recent years over other hot-button issues which now extend into a proposed multi-family development project in his Dayton-area hometown. Chappelle owns several small businesses in the area under a holding company called Iron Table, which he... View full entry
Following four days of widespread scorn after attempting to block a new state law allowing duplexes on single-family lots by declaring itself a “mountain-lion habitat,” the wealthy Silicon Valley enclave of Woodside has backed down.
At the end of a town emergency Town Council meeting Sunday night, almost all of which was held in closed session to discuss potential litigation, city officials announced they would begin accepting applications for new duplexes.
— LA Times
Woodside’s tired attempt at circumventing two of the most important and proactive laws in favor of affordable housing in recent memory drew an incredible amount of ire online before being withdrawn Sunday night following a letter from Attorney General Rob Bonta warning the town that “there is... View full entry
Writing about Twin Parks in 1973, The Times’s former architecture critic, Paul Goldberger, speculated that the project might “turn out to be important in the history of housing design.” [...] design, however compassionate, can mean only so much against the obstacles that make up the housing problem today.”
The calculus is the same half a century later. But the South Bronx isn’t. Gradually, it has been remade. Progress isn’t impossible, it’s a process.
— The New York Times
Both observed South Bronx developments, 1490 Southern Boulevard and a transformation of the Lambert Houses, are seen as examples of high-quality and effective public housing that offers residents more than just desultory amenities. The Times critic broke down the new-ish developments by... View full entry
The well-heeled Silicon Valley suburb of Woodside has come up with a novel way to block plans that would potentially bring in more affordable housing: Declare itself Cougar Town.
Last week, officials in the enclave of 5,500 people announced that all of Woodside was exempt from a new state housing law that allows for duplex development on single-family home lots. The reason? The entire town is habitat for potentially endangered mountain lions.
— The LA Times
The move is potentially foreshadowing of the ways in which local governments in California will, as predicted before Governor Gavin Newsome signed S.B. 9 into law in September, attempt to brush off the state’s efforts to mandate zoning that would engender an increase in multi-family residential... View full entry
Last month, we reported on two stories that demonstrate the range of architectural start-ups emerging to address a lack of housing in the USA and further afield. One example came from established leaders in the industry, with Bjarke Ingels unveiling details of Nabr, his “people-first housing... View full entry
The fight for affordable housing in New York City has come to one of Lower Manhattan’s most important developments in recent memory. An online petition organized by the New York Review of Architecture and Citygroup has been circulating that appears to call for a 75% increase in the number of... View full entry
The Urban Investment Group within Goldman Sachs Asset Management announced that it closed a $75 million investment with the National Affordable Housing Trust (NAHT) to establish the Black Developers Initiative Affordable Housing Fund, which will finance high-quality affordable housing across the country sponsored by Black-led developers — GlobeSt.com
Six organizations in San Francisco, Georgia, New York and Dallas received the capital grants for community and affordable housing projects. Two of the projects work to address housing disparities, while the rest touch on topics surrounding the issues at the core of the $130 billion financial... View full entry
The City of Chicago has selected Team Pioneros, a one hundred percent Latino project team, led by Chicago-based practice JGMA, Park Row Development with All Construction Group, to redevelop the historic Pioneer Bank Building in Humboldt Park. The $53.9 million project will restore the vacant... View full entry
A consortium of private developers recently closed on a $600 million loan to complete renovations and infrastructure upgrades across a 1,673-unit NYCHA public housing portfolio. Boulevard Together Developer LLC, a joint venture with The Hudson Companies, Property Resources Corporation, and Duvernay + Brooks, is undertaking the refurbishment of a total of 29 buildings in East New York. — New York Yimby
The properties include the Boulevard Houses, Fiorentino Plaza, and the Belmont-Sutter Area Houses. This project is being facilitated through the NYCHA’s Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) initiative, in which selected developments receive needed renovations, along with expanded... View full entry
In December, developers closed on $30.3 million in financing for the first phase of Arverne East, a master-planned community and revitalization project within a 116-acre oceanfront site in the Arverne and Edgemere neighborhoods in Queens’ Rockaway Peninsula. Led by real estate firms L+M... View full entry
One Virginia family received the keys to their new 3D-printed home in time for Christmas. The home is Habitat for Humanity's first 3D-printed home in the nation, according to a Habitat news release. Janet V. Green, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg, told CNN it partnered with Alquist, a 3D printing company, earlier this year to begin the process. Alquist's crew printed the house. — CNN
The milestone was marked by a ribbon-cutting ceremony on December 21st. The 1,200-square-foot house has three bedrooms, two full baths, and the concrete portion of the structure was printed in 12 hours. The home was built for April Stringfield, who purchased the home through Habitat for... View full entry
Even as smaller projects are stuck in limbo due to market uncertainties and astronomical construction costs, the city’s colossal multi-phased projects like those at Treasure Island, Mission Rock, Pier 70 and Power Station will steam full speed ahead. Streets are being laid out, sidewalks poured, trees planted, streetlights installed and buildings are sprouting from the ground. — The San Francisco Chronicle
The city is currently in the process of transforming Treasure Island, the artificial holm named after the Robert Louis Stevenson novel and created for the 1939 World’s Fair, into an 8,000-unit residential neighborhood with below-market housing and retail amenities that is anticipated to host a... View full entry