Affordable Housing Institute : US

As far as I can tell, the first efforts to create sustainable affordable housing arose in England in the tenth century, with the almshouses:

 

The first recorded Almshouse was founded by King Athelstan in York in the 10th century AD. The oldest charity still in existence is thought to be the Hospital of St. Oswald in Worcester, founded circa 990.

 

King Athelstan of Kent, died 100 years before William the Conqueror

 

In this, the almshouses merely extended the Christian charity of almsgiving (from Gregory of Nyssa, 335-390 AD).  As Wikipedia describes it:

 

Almshouses — so named — are a European Christian institution. Alms are, in the Christian tradition, monies or services donated to support the poor and indigent. Almshouses were established from the 10th century in Britain, to provide a place of residence for poor, old and distressed folk. The first recorded Almshouse was founded in York by King Athelstan, and the oldest still in existence is the Hospital of St. Oswald in Worcester, dating to circa 990.

 

From the beginning, the almshouse designers understood the core principles of affordability:

 

St John the Almsgiver, by Titian, San Giovanni Elemosinario, Venice

 

• Low cost, with very modest flats, typically one room or even a shared room.
• No hard debt, the housing being developed with a charitable donation.
• Affordable rents, sometimes free but often a modest sum (people value only what they pay for!) such as one English penny.
• Operating subsidy, usually the earnings from a founder’s endowment, or a church tithe or similar annual subscription.

 

The operating subsidy element is critical: the most indigent cannot even afford enough to cover minimal operating costs.  Capital subsidy alone will not do, there must be an income-earning endowment. 

 

A surviving example from the sixteenth century is in Rochester, as recorded in its plaque:

 

 

Richard Watts, Esq., by his will dated 22nd August, 1579, founded this charity for six poor travellers, who not being rogues or proctors, may receive gratis for one night, lodging, entertainment, and four pence each.  In testimony of his munificence, in honour of his memory, and inducement to his example, the charitable trustees of this city and borough have caused this stone to be renewed and inscribed: AD 1865.

 

The Rochester almshouse was essentially a very early single-room occupancy or rooming house, a row of cubicles or insulae with a common outhouse in the rear.

 

The Rochester almshouse (tolerantly bemused wife provided for scale)

 

The almshouse tradition spread all over England (a fine one remains at Wantage), and continued down the centuries.  The trend spread to Holland, and later to America (where they became known principally as poorhouses).  In England, by the late Victorian era, the rooms were apartments, as in this Canterbury example:

 

 

And they’re still going strong today. 

 

Some 2,600 almshouses continue to be operated in the United Kingdom providing 30,000 dwellings for 36,000 people.  In the Netherlands a number of hofjes are still functioning as accommodation for elder people (mostly women). The economics of almshouses takes the form of the provision of subsidised accommodation, often integrated with social care resources such as wardens.

 

HRH Prince of Wales, royal patron of the almshouses

 

The modern successors of almshouses are faith-based non-profit affordable housing owners in both England and America, such as:

 

• England: Cadbury, and especially Rowntree
• United States: Mercy Housing and National Church Residences. 

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