Navigate Affordable Housing Partners’ Post

While it hurts my soul that teacher’s don’t make enough to purchase market rate housing, perhaps there is a lesson here. While local governments and school districts may be cash poor, they could be land rich. Instead of selling said land or letting it sit, what about adapting a university or military model and have housing for all currently employed teachers? This article references owned homeownership, which is fantastic but I wonder about the stability.

Expensive housing was tough on educators...REALLY?! Are Janitors next?! Why it matters: This is a rough story about the position many educators find themselves in when they live in areas where housing costs place a strain on their ability to make ends meet as they work to educate our next generation. This seems like a problem that can be tackled from both sides: Develop affordable/subsidized housing programs for public service employees like teachers, firefighters and police officers and/or pay them more. https://lnkd.in/gTQKYs4t

Alhambra Elementary School District is selling surplus land to the City of Phoenix, AZ USA to create affordable housing, following the example of nearby Isaac School District No. 5. The sale allows the district to address two important issues: community need and declining enrollment. For the Isaac transaction, the Phoenix IDA utilized tax-exempt bonds and low-income housing tax credits to fund the purchase on behalf of UMOM New Day Centers for an affordable housing development. The Alhambra plans are to sell the land for use as affordable rentals that target families by having an overrepresentation of three- and four-bedroom units. Though the project is still in the very early stages, it could include between 60 and 240 units, depending on whether the land can be rezoned for higher-density development. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/ghubmqyz

The Novato Unified School District is exploring options to support their teacher staff. In response to housing challenges in our area, they are considering the development of workforce housing in Novato. The initiative aims to provide affordable housing options, potentially helping staff members live closer to their workplace. https://lnkd.in/gdDSFF2b From the article: "If the district moves forward on a site this fall, the actual project could take five to eight years to complete, said Derek Knell, staff housing development director for the Novato Unified School District. Knell said the district has nearly completed a new staff survey asking employees about their housing needs, income restrictions and commuting situations to gauge their interest in a potential workforce housing project. “We have close to 30% of our workforce expected to retire in the next five years,” said Knell. “It’s going to be very difficult to bring in young people to come to work for us, given the cost of living here.” Eric Lucan, who represents Novato on the Marin Board of Supervisors, said he stopped by the committee to listen and learn about the project. ”We know that we’re in a housing crisis in Marin and throughout the state,” Lucan said after the meeting. “I think this is a really innovative option of looking at how do we help to address the housing crisis, but specifically for our teachers, right here in Novato.” **** What do you think about this idea? #WorkforceHousing #NovatoUnified #SupportingStaff #CommunityFirst

Affordable Housing Resources As I indicated in an earlier post, I am continuing my research into affordable housing. The more I get into this, the more complicated it becomes. At the same time, there is a growing sense of urgency that I share with many of you as the situation is getting worse, rather than better. That is not to say we are not making progress and contributing to the solution, but that the need for affordable, decent housing is growing faster than we can deliver new product. Since many of you are interested in the topic, I assembled a list of industry resources that you can use to explore the affordable housing crisis for yourself. The link takes you to a resource page I am developing at: https://lnkd.in/g3skaDhG This page allows you to tap directly into the growing body of knowledge and free resources that are available to to help us develop scalable solutions. Please note, this is still a work in progress and I will be adding more resources. You might want to bookmark it as I haven't added it to my navigation. Have fun exploring this critically important but often overlooked area of real estate.

Many people have difficulty distinguishing between "millions," "billions," and "trillions." Professional politicians take advantage of that by making sweeping proclamations that sound grand but are, in fact, puny. Case in point. The headline of this article sounds like big news ("Opening of $23.6 Million Affordable and Supportive Housing Development") until you read on to find that only 42 units were built (at $561k per unit). Indeed, President Biden often confuses "millions," "billions," and "trillions" in his speeches (sometimes in the same sentence) but many people just can't see how little "millions" are compared with "trillions." And here's the kicker. With $35 trillion in national debt and almost $200 trillion in unfunded liabilities, at some point we'll start hearing the term "quadrillion" (a thousand trillion) in our daily news reporting, making the discussion even more confusing. From the piece: "Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the opening of Apartments at the Lyceum, a $23.6 million project that transformed a historic former school, the St. John Kanty Lyceum, in East Buffalo into 42 energy-efficient affordable apartments and a community service hub. The project brings much-needed affordable housing to the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood of East Buffalo, including 12 units of supportive housing set aside for formerly homeless survivors of domestic violence." https://lnkd.in/eAy6-DgJ

At long last! I couldn’t more excited to share The People’s Guide to UCSB’s Housing Crisis, created by the UCSB Blum Center Student Leadership Team. We began this project because we recognized that UCSB students, while being incredibly lucky to live in such a beautiful place, also face serious barriers to finding affordable housing. This problem plays out in Isla Vista, where enrollment increases without sufficient student housing forces students to live in houses with twelve of their friends, pay exorbitant rent prices for subpar amenities, convert garages into bedrooms, and sleep in vehicles in order to be close to campus. The university proposed Munger Hall nearly ten years ago. The project, with windowless dorms and a lack of natural light, was widely-regarded as a housing experiment, and received major pushback from the campus community and beyond. The notoriously-nicknamed “Dormzilla” was quietly taken off planning documents this fall, leaving the campus community completely in the dark regarding the University’s next steps to provide urgently needed student housing.    This guide is rooted in the UCSB student housing experience; created by students, for students, as a means to educate, mobilize, and to demand better from our university. Our own experiences as UCSB students and IV residents form the very DNA of this guide. You don’t need to be an expert in housing policy or an esteemed academic to resonate with this work; every UCSB student has lived it.  This People’s Guide has been in the works for over a year now, and to finally share and promote it feels a little unreal. I hope it is used as a framework for discussing the UCSB housing crisis, and as a jumping-off point for the university to move forward with future housing construction. 

In Western states, the dual challenges of housing shortages and evolving perspectives on managing vast tracts of state-owned lands earmarked primarily for public school funding have emerged. In certain regions, there is a growing recognition among state leaders that these lands present an opportunity to encourage development, addressing the pressing need for more affordable housing. 🏡🌲 #HousingShortage #StateOwnedLands #AffordableHousing #LandDevelopment #PublicSchoolFunding #HousingSolutions

As cities nationwide grapple with the growing crisis of affordable housing, the need for innovative solutions is urgent. Particularly in cities hosting higher education institutions, fostering city-university partnerships emerges as a critical avenue to align housing goals to meet the local housing needs of students, staff and faculty residents, and long-term residents alike. https://lnkd.in/eg9Y-jZa

This article covers so many concepts my head was spinning...affordable housing, cooperation between many local entities to get it up and running, equity building for cottage residents, truly affordable apartment rent, Ignite students involved in the construction, special allocation for Bentonville school employees, the list goes on and on. This will be interesting to watch evolve. #tobuyorsellcallmichelle