California County to Subsidize Homeowners That Install ADUs

ADUs (Auxiliary Dwelling Units) in Solano County, CA are being looked at to help ease the Affordable Housing situation. ADUs come in many forms from onsite built homes to tiny houses, converted shipping containers all the way to modular ADUs.

Solano County supervisors clearly support using $2 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars to fund a subsidized auxiliary dwelling unit program to create more affordable housing options in the unincorporated area.

Although the program details are still being worked out – with a host of suggestions made to staff at Tuesday’s meeting – the concept is to provide between $40,000 and $75,000 to property owners to place prefabricated studio, two-bedroom and three-bedroom homes as secondary dwellings at their home sites.

The size of the units could be less than 500 square feet up to 1,200 square feet. The funding would pay for up to 30 units.

The ADUs are meant to provide additional housing options for lower-income residents.

ADA-friendly Auxiliary Dwelling Unit

A proposed tier system by which the subsidy amount would increase for property owners who are willing to accept greater deed restrictions, such as keeping rents down for extended periods of time, and for choosing dwellings that have more senior- and disability-friendly options.

Qualifying for the subsidy also would be based, in part, on income levels.

If the property is sold before the term of the agreement is completed, then a 6.6% annual fee would be charged on the remaining grant or loan amount so the county can recoup some of its costs.

This appears to be a great solution to the affordable housing crisis but 30 housing units in a county next to Sacramento seems like just a drop in the bucket. 

We can do better.

 

Habitat For Humanity's Newest Affordable Home Only Slighter Larger Than a Tiny House

Dorsey Village has two new residents and a pair of freshly completed, adorable kinda-tiny homes. Situated at the bottom of New Hope Drive’s steep hill in the Athens Georgia Area Habitat for Humanity-built community, the houses represent a new model of affordable housing suited for Athens-Clarke County’s unique challenges.

Habitat leadership and volunteers, private builders and other contributors to the project joined Mayor Kelly Girtz and the public on Apr. 26 to dedicate the houses. In addition to hosting open houses, homeowners Faye Hill, a retired housekeeper at Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital, and veteran Nicholas Floyd were presented with their keys. 

“It’s my very first home. This is a very, very special day for me,” Hill said. “I’ve been blessed.”

He and Floyd’s new houses are unique in multiple ways. Not only are they among the few Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) homes sold in Athens-Clarke County, they mark one potential solution to the lack of affordable housing plaguing Athens.

Limited land resources and soaring rents on traditionally-sized houses leave Athens’ working class without homeownership options, said Habitat’s executive director, Spencer Frye, who is also a state representative. He and his colleagues designed the project to take advantage of a loophole in Athens’ zoning policy: Homes in single-family neighborhoods must be at least 1,000 square feet, but those in multifamily zones have a minimum of 600 square feet, allowing for “kinda tiny” homes. Thus, 190 and 195 New Hope Drive are each between 700 and 800 square feet—more than the 500 square feet or less in truly tiny homes, but significantly smaller and more efficient than traditional homes.

“I really wanted to show two things. Number one: We can build small houses, and they look good, and they feel good. Number two: We should be able to choose our own sizes and get rid of these policies that stop smart development from happening,” Frye said.

Habitat has advocated ridding Athens of its zoning policies, which Frye considers vestiges of segregation, for years. Girtz’s task force on the subject, the Inclusionary Housing Working Group, is making progress. Just last month, the first phase of their effort to develop inclusionary zoning was unanimously passed by the Athens-Clarke County Commission. The amendment implements rewards for developers of multi-family residential projects who have units designated for affordable housing. 

“Getting a mayor and commission that understands the importance of the work that we’re doing and is willing to take the steps to look at the codes that preclude cost manageable housing in this community has been a lifetime achievement for me,” Frye said. “The inclusionary zoning rule they just passed—we asked them to do that almost 20 years ago. We finally got people elected that could do it. That’s why I’m so excited.”

Girtz attested to his pleasure at kinda-tiny homes in his speech at the dedication. He said the Inclusionary Housing Group is currently working on the second phase, which involves unique models like tiny homes and how to incorporate them into single-family neighborhoods. Code updates could be completed by late 2022.

“We really need to bring as many tools to the table as possible to increase opportunities,” Girtz said. “I’m glad to see Habitat innovating and finding some different models for residential life in Athens.”

Though the project yielded two charming, environmentally sustainable and fully functioning homes, construction was not smooth sailing. COVID-19 and supply chain hiccups caused significant delays. And because of Habitat’s global policy of no volunteers on-site in response to COVID-19, the homes were finished by private builders. 

CLICK HERE to read the entire Flagpole article

Will the Lack of Affordable Housing Force Large Companies to Rethink Relocating?

At the height of COVID-19, working from home was a great alternative for millions of workers in office situations. With the freedom of not having to fight traffic every day, paying for daycare, and being able to spend more time with the family, many decided that living within driving distance of the office wasn’t necessary. 

Welcome to the exodus from overcrowded cities with the sky-high cost of living to country life sometimes hundreds or even a thousand miles from the office and the world of working from home.

However, things have recently happened that are making the entire work-from-home option not so good. First, many companies have begun telling their employees to return to work in the office as evidenced by Elon Musk announcing he wanted his office employees back at their desks. 

The other thing that happened is something almost nobody expected. Companies began leaving states with high taxes and wages and moving to other areas that offered better benefits to them. Good, sound business decisions. Now those new areas are rapidly becoming very expensive for their employees’ housing needs as both the exodus to new areas was massive and now rising costs of home prices and the new interest rates are hurting the average office worker and middle manager.

Amazon’s HQ2 new headquarters in Crystal City just outside DC could become a prime (pardon the pun) example of bringing too much to an area. It is estimated that Amazon will employ 25,000 within 8 years. The problem is it will drive up rents and housing costs and make it difficult for lower-income residents to afford to stay in the county unless thousands of new units are added to alleviate the pressure on the market, which requires more subsidized housing units while the existing affordable housing will be used by Amazon workers.

The bottom line is where will the displaced people, forced to move out of their homes by rapidly increasing rents, go? The jobs many hold now will not be what big companies like Amazon will need. They are going to bring in a lot of employees with IT and technology skills that can afford to pay those higher rents while the people displaced have to live further away from their current jobs.

Only a fraction of new housing in Arlington County, VA is geared for ‘workforce’ budgets. Analysts have estimated the county’s shortage of affordable housing at tens of thousands of homes, condominiums, or apartments as Amazon will require other tech companies to relocate to Crystal City to service it.

This is happening in just about every city. It’s time for drastic measures to help create enough affordable as well for sheltering the homeless. We’re the USA and we can do it. The questions are when will we begin doing it and who will do it?

An Oregon Rotary Club is Building a Reputation as Tiny Home Builders

When the topic of homelessness comes up in Medford, OR, most people in town think of Hope Village, a Medford transitional living site run by the shelter and housing group Rogue Retreat. Hope Village has 34 tiny houses already. Each one is designed to pair up with another house, forming miniature duplexes.

They’re not professional home builders, but volunteers from the Medford Rogue Rotary Club are putting the finishing touches on four tiny houses for homeless people to be added to Hope Village.

“For us non-contractor-type people, this was a big project,” club member Rick Clark said Thursday as those around him painted trim and siding, cut wood and drilled front porch floorboards into place. “We’re all hackers and do-it-yourselfers at home.”

Rotary members started building the four tiny houses back in February without knowing exactly how long it would take.

One of the most amazing things about these four homes is the expertise these backyard builders bring to the project. They’re building them with people in mind instead of just having a factory build them where these four homes would have just part of the production line.

The amateurs have had some help from the pros.

Andy Batzer of Medford-based construction company JB Steel drew up plans for the tiny houses. Bill Thorndike of Medford Fabrication donated the use of a warehouse-sized building so the volunteers could build while protected from the weather. The building comes equipped with a crane the volunteers used to lift roofing materials into place.

To make sure the roofs don’t leak, a pro is installing flashing to direct water away from joints.

Companies donated materials or provided discounts, and the volunteers pitched in some of their own supplies along with their time.

All the cooperation means the Rotary club has spent about $20,000 to build all four tiny houses, rather than the $90,000 to $100,000 it would normally cost, Clark said.

Each house is well insulated and comes with wiring so a person living there can run a heater. Solar panels power the low energy-use basics such as lights and cellphone charging. A loft provides storage, and windows in the small living room/bedroom area let in the sunlight.

The tiny houses don’t have bathrooms or kitchens, but Hope Village has shared facilities for cooking, bathrooms, showering, and laundry.

Terre Haute Council Approves Tiny House Homeless Veteran’s Village

More cities across the country are amending their zoning codes to allow smaller homes within their city limits for sheltering the homeless. 

The Terre Haute, Indiana, Board of Zoning Appeals approved changes to allow the construction of six tiny homes to be constructed at 2134 N. 23rd St. The dwellings, targeted for homeless veterans, would also use property to the north along Maple Avenue as a park area and as possible expansion ground in the future.

Tiny houses for homeless veterans expanding in KC

The zoning appeals board Wednesday approved a variance sought by the Terre Haute Area Association of Realtors to allow the tiny homes to be 360 square feet, down from the required 512-square-foot minimum, and allowed the homes to be 15 feet wide instead of a minimum of 23 feet wide.

The homes will be 15 feet wide by 24 feet long (360 square feet) with a 15-foot- by 6-foot covered porch.

CLICK HERE to read the entire Tribune-Star article

California Should Try Rewards, Not Mandates to Encourage Affordable Housing Developers

The old adage of the carrot or the stick has never been more accurate than what is happening in affordable housing in California. One important approach to meeting this need is to induce developers to include affordable units in market-rate multifamily housing developments.

Such policies are commonly called “inclusionary zoning.” It takes two forms:

• mandates requiring the inclusion of such deed-restricted units that must be offered to eligible households at below-market rents, often for 55 years or more, in any new development; or

• voluntary incentives rewarding the inclusion of such units with increased density allowances (more apartments in a given development), reduced or eliminated parking requirements, and other offsets for the reduced revenue a project can generate when including affordable units. 

Recent evidence from Los Angeles suggests that voluntary incentives foster increased production of affordable housing, while mandates alone increase the cost of producing housing, dampening both market-rate and affordable housing production.

CLICK HERE to read the entire opinion report in the Desert Sun

200 More Units of Affordable Housing Officially Opens in Atlanta

 

Atlanta’s newest affordable house community was officially opened along the Atlanta BeltLine. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and Atlanta BeltLine President and CEO Clyde Higgs cut the ribbon Wednesday morning on Parkside.

The complex features 1, 2, and 3 bedroom floor plans, a fitness center, and a playground. Rent reportedly ranges from around $700 to $1,500 a month.

Earlier this month, Mayor Dickens convened his Affordable Housing Strike Force announcing the city will invest an additional $58.7 million in the development of housing, preventing evictions and addressing homelessness. The mayor said it is the city’s largest-ever single-year housing investment.

CLICK HERE to read the entire FOX5 article