Affordable Housing

A multifaceted £100 billion infrastructure modernization plan for the UK was announced this week by Treasury Minister Danny Alexander. The opposition Labour party is objecting to the timeline for the investments, which aren't due to start until 2015.

June 27, 2013 - BBC News

Homeownership is slipping out of reach for many Americans, caused largely by the lack of affordable housing inventory. There is a solution to the inventory shortage that many buyers, advocates and policymakers are overlooking: Manufactured Housing.

June 27, 2013 - Rooflines

A looming $205 million budget shortfall due to sequester-related federal funding cuts have the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) preparing to make drastic cuts to staff and programs.

June 13, 2013 - Crain's New York Business

In Seattle, and elsewhere, city leaders are struggling to maintain the supply of affordable housing in close proximity to transit stations. Rising rents in areas near stops are displacing lower-income residents.

June 12, 2013 - The Wall Street Journal

Seeking to standardize what is considered an ad hoc and inconsistent approach to allowing extra density in downtown developments, Austin's city council will consider a new bonus program later this month.

June 4, 2013 - Austin American-Statesman

The mayors of Canada's 22 largest municipalities are pushing the federal government to extend a subsidy program used to assist 600,000 low-income households that is due to expire next year.

June 3, 2013 - The Globe and Mail

With little fanfare, a rental housing crisis has gripped Canada. 42 per cent of young adults live with their parents and hundreds of thousands are on affordable housing waiting lists. It's time for Ottawa to step in, argues Denise Balkissoon.

May 23, 2013 - The Globe and Mail

A proposal in President Obama's 2014 budget would allow housing authorities to tighten requirements for residents and set time limits. Housing agencies hope the changes will trim waiting lists, but opponents see more affordable housing as the answer.

May 7, 2013 - The Wall Street Journal

The rising interest in urban living has meant a growing shortage of affordable housing in cities across the country. Roger Lewis proposes a new approach to help solve the crisis: building workforce housing funded by the public sector.

May 6, 2013 - The Washington Post

Inga Saffron reports on the redevelopment of a 19th-century brick mill into workforce housing in Philadelphia's South Kensington neighborhood; a project that proves virtue need not come at the expense of profit for one Philadelphia-based developer.

April 16, 2013 - philly.com

On Friday, the D.C. Housing Authority mercifully closed its insultingly long public housing waiting list. With the average rent at $1,759/month for a one-bedroom apartment, the need for affordable housing in the city is tremendous.

April 14, 2013 - The Washington Post

D.C.'s decade of prosperity and growth has been accompanied by a wave of development and displacement that is now threatening to submerge its inner-ring suburbs. Robert McCartney examines the consequences.

April 6, 2013 - The Washington Post

Public housing models in the U.S. are becoming more community-oriented and taking varying demographics into account during the design process. Engagement with the street, the neighborhood, and social services are creating new design typologies.

March 29, 2013 - Architectural Record

The certainly won't win any design awards, but new multi-family residential buildings erected by Hasidic developers in Brooklyn show that it's possible to build spacious and cheap housing in New York for families small and large.

March 28, 2013 - The New York Observer

Affordable rental housing is scarce in the US, especially among low income people, finds a new report by the Bipartisan Policy Center. As "the housing demand of Baby Boomers and their children starts to converge," the problem will only get worse.

February 27, 2013 - The Atlantic Cities

A new report calls into question who's benefiting from the Bloomberg administration’s plan to build or preserve 165,000 affordable housing units in the city. Are federal guidelines to blame for 'affordable' units being too costly?

February 21, 2013 - The New York Times

Could Vienna's century of experience in creating housing that is both affordable and attractive offers lessons for how the U.S. can address its growing affordability crisis? In the Austrian capital, more regulation, not less, leads to cheaper rents.

February 1, 2013 - Governing

Advocates of inclusionary zoning have something to smile about. A new report from the Rand Corporation confirms that the housing produced by these zoning policies does in fact create or preserve affordable housing in areas of low poverty.

January 24, 2013 - Shelterforce Online

Today, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the winner of a competition to build a micro-apartment pilot project in Manhattan. Consisting of 55 micro-units measuring between 250 and 375 square feet, the project will utilize modular construction.

January 22, 2013 - The New York Observer

As waves of gentrification sweep through the poor and middle class neighborhoods of New York City's outer boroughs, Stephen Smith argues that conservative, and outdated, zoning codes are to blame for the unequal balance between supply and demand.

January 16, 2013 - The Atlantic Cities