Converting Garages into Housing

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Brown ◽  
Vinit Mukhija ◽  
Donald Shoup
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Parking Permits ◽  
Residential Parking ◽  
Housing Units

Cities have a large supply of garages that could be converted into affordable housing in single-family neighborhoods, but minimum parking requirements prevent converting most of these garages into apartments. We examine how cities can relax off-street parking requirements for houses with converted garages. In Residential Parking Permit Districts, cities can limit the number of on-street parking permits allowed at any address with a second unit. This policy can remove on-street parking congestion as a reason for neighbors to oppose garage conversions, double the potential number of housing units in single-family neighborhoods, and increase the supply of safe, affordable housing.

scholarly journals Residential parking permits and parking supply

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 33-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jos van Ommeren ◽  
Jesper de Groote ◽  
Giuliano Mingardo
Keyword(s):  
Parking Permits ◽  
Residential Parking

scholarly journals Comfort within Budget: Assessing the Cost-Effectiveness of Envelope Improvements in Single-Family Affordable Housing

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3054
Author(s):  
Renata Tubelo ◽  
Lucelia Rodrigues ◽  
Mark Gillott ◽  
May Zune
Keyword(s):  
Cost Effectiveness ◽  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Thermal Conditions ◽  
Building Envelope ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Housing Type ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Impact

In Brazil, the delivery of homes for low-inc ome households is dictated by costs rather than performance. Issues such as the impact of climate change, affordability of operational energy use, and lack of energy security are not taken into account, even though they can severely impact the occupants. In this work, the authors evaluated the thermal performance of two affordable houses as-built and after the integration of envelope improvements. A new replicable method to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of these improvements was proposed. The case study houses comprise the most common affordable housing type delivered widely across Brazil and a proposition of a better affordable housing solution, built in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil, integrating passive design strategies to increase thermal comfort. The findings reveal a potential for improving indoor thermal conditions by up to 76% and 73%, respectively, if costs are not a concern, and 40% and 45% with a cost increase of 12% and 9% if a comfort criterion of 20–25 °C was considered. Equations to estimate costs of improvements in affordable housing were developed. The authors concluded that there is a great scope for building envelope optimisation, and that this is still possible without significant impact on budget.

Millennial ‘YIMBYs’ and boomer ‘NIMBYs’: Generational views on housing affordability in the United States

2020 ◽  
pp. 003802612091612
Author(s):  
Max Holleran
Keyword(s):  
Baby Boomers ◽  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Rental Housing ◽  
The United States ◽  
Housing Affordability ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Market Rate ◽  
Job Opportunities ◽  
Housing Costs

This article examines housing activism in five American cities using interviews with millennial-age housing activists, seeking more apartment development, and baby boomers who are members of neighbourhood groups that oppose growth. Many of the groups supporting growth have banded together under the banner of the ‘Yes in My Backyard’ (YIMBY) movement which seeks fewer zoning laws and pushes for market-rate rental housing. In desirable cities with thriving job opportunities, housing costs are pricing out not only low-income renters but also the middle class. The millennial activists sampled blame baby boomers for the lack of affordable housing because of resistance to higher density construction in neighbourhoods with single-family homes (characterising these people as having a ‘Not in My Backyard’ [NIMBY] mindset). The research shows that boomers and millennials not only disagree over urban growth but also more fundamental questions of what makes a liveable city.

scholarly journals Green Affordable Housing: Cost-Benefit Analysis for Zoning Incentives

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (22) ◽  
pp. 6269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armin Jeddi Yeganeh ◽  
Andrew Patton McCoy ◽  
Steve Hankey
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Spillover Effects ◽  
Housing Cost ◽  
Listing Service ◽  
Transaction Prices ◽  
Market Rate ◽  
Housing Units

In the year 2017, about 89% of the total energy consumed in the US was produced using non-renewable energy sources, and about 43% of tenant households were cost burdened. Local governments are in a unique position to facilitate green affordable housing, that could reduce cost burdens, environmental degradation, and environmental injustice. Nonetheless, limited studies have made progress on the costs and benefits of green affordable housing, to guide decision-making, particularly in small communities. This study investigates density bonus options for green affordable housing by analyzing construction costs, transaction prices, and spillover effects of green certifications and affordable housing units. The authors employ pooled cross-sectional construction cost and price data from 422 Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) projects and 11,016 Multiple Listing Service (MLS) transactions in Virginia. Using hedonic regression analyses controlling for mediating factors, the study finds that the new construction of market-rate green certified houses is associated with small upfront costs, but large and statistically significant price premiums. In addition, the construction of market-rate green certified houses has large and statistically significant spillover effects on existing non-certified houses. Existing non-certified affordable housing units show small and often insignificant negative price impacts on the transaction prices of surrounding properties. The study concludes that the magnitude of social benefits associated with green building justifies the local provision of voluntary programs for green affordable housing, where housing is expensive relative to its basic cost of production.

A multiobjective optimization model for locating affordable housing investments while maximizing accessibility to jobs by public transportation

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 490-510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qing Zhong ◽  
Alex Karner ◽  
Michael Kuby ◽  
Aaron Golub
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Public Transportation ◽  
Dispersion Model ◽  
Spatial Interaction ◽  
Location Model ◽  
Upper And Lower Bounds ◽  
Light Rail ◽  
Transit Accessibility ◽  
Housing Units

This paper develops a new optimal location model for siting affordable housing units to maximize the accessibility of low-income workers to appropriate jobs by public transportation. Transit-accessible housing allows disadvantaged populations to reduce their reliance on automobiles, which can lead to savings on transportation-related expenditures. The housing location model developed here maximizes transit accessibility while reducing the clustering of affordable housing units in space. Accessibility is maximized using a high-resolution space-time metric of public transit accessibility, originally developed for service equity analysis. The second objective disperses subsidized housing projects across space using a new minimax dispersion model based on spatial interaction principles. The multiobjective model trades off accessibility maximization and affordable housing dispersion, subject to upper and lower bounds on the land acquisition and construction budget. The model is tested using data for Tempe, AZ including actual data for vacant parcels, travel times by light rail and bus, and the location of low-wage jobs. This model or similar variants could provide insightful spatial decision support to affordable-housing providers or tax-credit administrators, facilitating the design of flexible strategies that address multiple social goals.

scholarly journals Green Affordable Housing: Implications of Costs and Benefits for Municipal Incentives

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armin Jeddi Yeganeh ◽  
Andrew Patton McCoy ◽  
Steve Hankey
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Spillover Effects ◽  
Listing Service ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Construction Costs ◽  
Market Rate ◽  
Housing Units

In the year 2017, about 89 percent of the total energy consumed in the US was produced using non-renewable energy sources, and about 43 percent of tenant households were cost-burdened. Local governments are in a unique position to facilitate green affordable housing that could reduce cost burdens, environmental degradation, and environmental injustice. Nonetheless, limited studies have made progress on costs and benefits of green affordable housing to guide decision-making, particularly in small communities. This study investigates density bonus options for green affordable housing by analyzing construction costs, sale prices, and spillover effects for green certifications and affordable housing units. The authors employ construction costs and sale data from 422 Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) projects and 11,418 Multiple Listing Service (MLS) transactions in Virginia. Using hedonic regression analyses controlling for mediating factors, we find that the new construction of market-rate green certified houses is associated with small upfront costs but large and statistically significant price premiums. The construction of market-rate green certified houses has large and statistically significant spillover effects on existing non-certified houses. Existing non-certified affordable housing units show small and statistically insignificant negative price impacts on transactions of surrounding properties. The magnitude of social benefits associated with green building justifies the local provision of voluntary programs for green affordable housing where housing is expensive relative to its basic costs of production to promote sustainable development.

scholarly journals The low-income single-family house and the effectiveness of architects in affecting affordability

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron Dulaney
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Low Income ◽  
The United States ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Actual Effectiveness ◽  
Family Housing ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
House Design ◽  
Family House

Architects are increasingly engaged in efforts to provide affordable, owner-occupied housing in the United States. Yet architects’ roles in broadly addressing affordable housing remain marginal as was anecdotally evident by the absence of architects at a recent university-sponsored affordable housing workshop. Apparently, the potential contributions of architects in “the development of innovative approaches and best practices” related to affordable, owner-occupied housing is not always valued to housing policymakers and planners such as those who organized this workshop. This paper speculatively explores the gap between the potential value of architects and their actual effectiveness at realizing widespread relevancy, innovation, and change in improving the quality and attainability of affordable, owner occupied housing and how this gap may contribute to the undervaluation and marginalization of architects’ efforts to address affordable housing needs in the United States. Case studies of several recent U.S. house design competitions exemplify these gaps. Potential strategies for closing these gaps and thus appreciating the value of architects’ efforts in this endeavor are identified.To become central in providing much-needed affordable, owner-occupied housing, architects must make the value of their potential contributions evident. This requires a clear definition of design goals, a rigorous assessment of built projects, and the thorough dissemination of findings and methodologies. Architects must engage those fields to which they have, in the U.S., long relinquished affordable, single-family housing. Architects must demonstrate that qualitative design improvements are not just possible within the frameworks and agendas of those other fields but that good design will better enable the achievement of those extra-disciplinary goals.

Sharon M. Keigher (ed.). Housing Risks and Homelessness Among the Urban Elderly. New York: Haworth Press, 1991, pp. 156.

1995 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 604-606
Author(s):  
François Renaud
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Federal Funding ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Urban Elderly ◽  
Economic Context ◽  
Single Room ◽  
Gradual Disappearance ◽  
Sudden Decrease ◽  
Housing Units

ABSTRACTThis book reports on a survey conducted in Chicago, in 1988, among homeless seniors and elderly whose housing situations were considered to be precarious. The first part of this work establishes the socio-economic context which resulted in the development of this problem among the homeless, while the second part deals with the results of the survey and the third tackles the problem of the gradual disappearance of affordable housing – e.g., the single-room occupancy (S.R.O.) hotel. Through this book we learn that the decrease in the number of affordable housing units, such as public housing, during the '80s plays a central role in the emergence of the phenomenon of homelessness among the elderly. It should be remembered that Canada became partly familiar with this situation as of January 1994, with the removal of federal funding for the construction of new social-housing units. In addition, the results of the survey informs us that homeless seniors are often without shelter on a temporary basis. This can be attributed to specific episodes in their lives resulting primarily from situations like an eviction, a fire in a previous dwelling, loss of social support or a sudden decrease in revenue (robbery, loss of a spouse). Housing Risks and Homelessness Among the Urban Elderly is a simple book that sheds light on a fringe phenomenon which, as yet, is not well-known.

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