Sustainable affordable housing: definition
Now and then I refer to ’sustainable affordable housing.’ Since the term implies more than its mere words state, it’s worth a definition.
Sustainable affordable housing
· Housing. The housing must be market-competitive quality that can blend in to its neighborhood. Thus we are explicitly excluding substandard locations, configurations, constructions, maintenance. Such ’structures’ — to use the Kenyan euphemism — may be ’shelter’ but are not housing.
· Affordable. The housing must be affordable for its target market. This means what the householder pays. Affordability must also continue throughout the expected life of the tenancy.
· Sustainable. Housing quality and housing affordability must continue over the housing’s expected useful life (typically 30-50+ years). This implies that the housing must take in enough cash flow to cover its expenditures, including capital expenditures.
This definition echoes its progenitors, such as the famous 1949 National Housing Act (link in .pdf) — thank you, Harry Truman!
If the newspaper had been right, housing policy would have been very different …
– established a goal of a ‘decent, safe, and sanitary‘ home for every American family:
But the above definition goes beyond Truman’s definition by its addition of the twin concepts of affordability and sustainability.
Affordability because in the long run, if it is not affordable, it is either unsustainable or no longer occupied by its original target population.
Sustainability because of the ribbon-cutting trap — affordable housing always looks good at completion, often looks terrible a few years later.
1955: Success!
1969: Success ??? We had to tear down some of the buildings to save the others …
1972: When it’s not sustainable, it is unsustainable, and it is not sustained ….
Under the Law of Economic Gravity, if it’s not sustainable, it will no longer be decent, safe, and sanitary; it will become the economically rational slum.
Much effort is expended making the physical space look good. A similar if not greater effort must be expended in making the economic environment work.
