In simple words, affordable housing relates to household incomes and housing costs explains Maxwell Drever. Among the challenges faced by it are site challenges, workable designs andneighborhood coordination, competing policy, aims, and the risk of home rehabilitation.
This discussion on affordable housing puts forth the challenges faced in providing affordable housing to our community. Safe, sanitary, and affordable housing have been issues of public importance for quite some time now in the United States. This debate points out new ideas and strategies to overcome the obstacles to affordable housing. Here, Maxwell Drever discusses the responsibility of planners in encouraging affordable housing.
Widening difference in income and housing costs
It is not only a real estate market problem in expensive cities but is also present in small and medium cities, including some rural areas. There are numerous reasons for this gap. The continuous shift in income distribution is the primary cause.
A significant challenge of affordable housing is to provide adequate shelter for the growing poor in our nation. Earlier there used to be a poor minority and a more affluent minority, most of us being in the middle. Post the 1980s, we see vast numbers of the very poor and the very rich.
An Important aspect of affordable housing is that low-income families require the same amenities as higher-income families, including good schools, parks and libraries, safe streets, and public transportation. It is necessary to create a balanced neighborhood. Among various income groups and healthy public infrastructure, a community in its true sense of the term may develop, being quite different from those of limited incomes. Land costs play a significant part in the affordability of a home. To build an affordable home, expensive land costs are a considerable challenge explains Maxwell Drever.
How to deal with competitive objectives?
Government agencies sometimes mix objectives. In trying to control criminal activity, they fund affordable housing in a targeted area. It does support specifically designed projects to stabilize a space making it more attractive for economic development.
One more mixed objective is Developing Affordable Housing in Historic Districts. Ethically, you should be supportive of historic preservation. But high costs of rehabilitation and Historic preservation raises the question of spending precious public dollars. Rehabilitation is a gamble, particularly in a historic home. Working with historical commissions and unique materials adds to the budget working against affordability says Maxwell Drever.
Scattered site projects
There has been much development in scattered affordable housing projects in the last few decades. While the scattered-site approach has made immense strides, it provides significant obstacles to efficient growth. The costs of handling scattered sites, transportation costs, and also complex scheduling, pose an affordability challenge.
Challenges faced in older neighborhoods
Urban historic neighborhoods have plenty of challenges making newer affordable housing difficult in comparison, leading to infill housing lacking the scale of a typical subdivision, points out Maxwell Drever. Usually, when a community gets renewed, there are scattered sites. Ultimately, as a result, there is one house built here and one there.
Thus, you can say that affordable housing development, despite the community’s size or political situation, does present formidable challenges. By consistent and thoughtful planning, you may overcome problems of neighborhood cooperation, appropriate site design, and choice of construction materials. According to the principles of the American Planning Association and the American Institute of Certified Planners, planners must consciously work on the issue of affordable housing. Affordable housing helps poverty-stricken urban cities and the growing affluent suburbs to prosper into balanced communities.
