Affordable housing benefits everyone

Prairie View - Eugene, Oregon
By Randy Nishimura
and Erik Bishoff

Each month, Eugene’s chapter of the American Institute of Architects invites architects, associates and students to meet and explore the ways that design and community intersect.

A recent presentation and discussion on low-income housing drew double the usual number of participants, including several students from the University of Oregon’s School of Architecture and Allied Arts. Thanks to a handful of truly enterprising nonprofit leaders, the quality of affordable housing in Eugene and Springfield is something the whole community can take pride in.

A trio of experts spoke: Jim McCoy, development director of the Housing & Community Services Agency of Lane County; Susan Ban, executive director of ShelterCare and vice president of the Metro Affordable Housing Corporation; and Terry McDonald, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul. They described their respective agencies’ unique approaches to the challenges of developing low-income and affordable housing in our community.

Royal Building - Springfield, OR
Affordable and mixed-income projects such as St. Vincent de Paul’s Royal Building in downtown Springfield, Metro Affordable Housing Corp.’s WestTown in downtown Eugene and the forthcoming West Eugene Prairie View Housing Project are examples of what good design can do for a neighborhood.

Each of these developments gives back to the community. By integrating commercial space, shared green areas, live/work units and attractive design, and by bringing the surrounding infrastructure up to date, everyone benefits. Housing is provided to those in need, neighbors benefit from shared amenities, and local businesses gain an increased customer base. This has especially been true for projects located downtown, conveniently near public transportation, retail shops and services.

Developing these projects was not without challenges. Despite the fact that our community espouses inclusivity, neighboring property owners initially resisted some low-income housing developments. Yes, this community wants low-income and affordable housing, but it would be naïve to believe that it has always enthusiastically supported and invited affordable housing into all of its neighborhoods.

It is a testament to the tenacity of the projects’ supporters that the Eugene and Springfield developments have been realized at all. Their high quality is a big reason, and evidence of the skills of the design teams that have been involved. It is certainly attributable to the creativity of the developers. Since the completion of the most outstanding projects, there has been greater acceptance of affordable and mixed-income housing because of the quality of their design and the amenities they provide.

WestTown on 8th Avenue - Eugene, OR
That being said, statistics paint a fairly grim picture. While it was not a surprise to hear at the presentation that Eugene and Springfield rents are high and affordable housing is scarce, it was surprising to find how quickly trends are accelerating in the wrong direction. Over the past 20 years, market-rate housing costs have increased at twice the rate of local wages. Combine these trends with a large student population filling low-rent housing every fall, and you end up with low rental vacancy rates and inflated rents across the board.

Additionally, there are fewer subsidies, tax credits or bond programs available to organizations wishing to provide affordable housing than there were in years past. Those financing programs that are available are complex to administer and demand the kind of experience and savvy that only agencies such as HACSA, St. Vincent de Paul and Metro Housing possess.

Eugene and Springfield are not meeting the demands for affordable housing. More and more residents are finding themselves burdened by high rent, spending more than 30 percent of their incomes on housing.

So where to go from here?

Local designers and professionals made their own concerns and interests known: More affordable housing must be integrated into our community because the demand is here now. The developments would ideally be located close to places of employment. They would incorporate multiple uses, such as retail and other commercial space, live/work arrangements, green areas and housing units of various types.

They would be readily accessible by public transit. They would be constructed following principles of sustainable design. Above all, new low-income and affordable housing would be attractive, ennobling places to live for those who would call them home.

Affordable housing demands are at an all-time high, so the challenge is plainly there for us to meet head on.
-----
Randy Nishimura, AIA, is a member of the American Institute of Architects, Southwestern Oregon Chapter, board of directors and current chairman of its program committee. Erik Bishoff is a master’s of architecture candidate at the University of Oregon school of Architecture and Allied Arts.

For More Information:

---

Green Communities: The Royal Building - GreenCommunitiesOnline.org
Metropolitan Affordable Housing Corp. - MetroAffordableHousing.org
Affordable housing benefits everyone - Eugene Register Guard
Prairie View Housing - PIVOT Architecture

The American Flophouse Revisited (Research)

The following notes are derived from The HOME House Project : the future of affordable housing, by David J. Brown and Designing for the Homeless: Architecture that Works, by Sam Davis.

The idea of shelter is as core to America’s understanding of freedom and citizenship as are the rights defined within the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Even so, we as a country do not observe shelter, even in its most basic form, as a right afforded to everyone. This lack of support occurs at all levels, be it federal, state, city, or social, further exacerbating the issue of homelessness in America. We wish to find out what causes homelessness, who are the homeless, and how can architecture help?

What causes homelessness?
- Destruction of post-war housing projects
- Labor mobility
- Pursuit of jobs
- Movement to non-union states
- Outsourced labor
- Shortage of affordable housing
- Increasing gap between minimum wage and a living wage
- Growing population
- Gentrification of downtowns
- Longer lifespan of chronically ill
- Dwindling number of mental health facilities
- Weakening family ties
- Drug epidemic

Who does the design of shelter matter to?
- The homeless
- Those who work with them
- The neighboring community
- Society at large

Emergency short-stay shelter is a critical first step, but there is also a need for transitional housing for those who can return to the market economy, and permanent housing with support services for those who cannot.

How can architecture help?
1. Create facilities that sustain the dignity of those who have fallen on hard times
2. Well designed facilities can encourage those who are usually reluctant to seek services
- Many homeless have had previous experiences in other oppressive facilities such as prison or mental-health centers
3. Can help to manage modest budgets to create safe and welcoming places
4. Can play a critical role in overcoming communities’ reluctance to homeless facilities
- In order to be successful, homeless facilities must be:
- situated in residential and commercial areas
- near public transportation
- near jobs, social services, and schools
- The consensus among social workers is that the more remote the facility, the less effective it will be
5. Help policymakers and general public understand that it costs more to care for a homeless family in a shelter than in permanent housing, and that building permanent supportive housing for mentally ill homeless pays for itself through the reduction in services.
6. Create choice for the homeless

Choice and self-determination are the cornerstones of dignity; giving a homeless person a diversity of spaces within a single facility aids in restoring this dignity

Who are the homeless?
- 40% are families, the fastest growing segment of the homeless population. These are single parents, often young women and their children.
- 22% are employed. Some of these homeless earn minimum wage while others earn substantially more.
- 10% of homeless are seniors, but their numbers are steadily growing. Their reliance on fixed incomes limits their accessibility to market-rate housing, while many have no income at all and also suffer from poor health.
- 10 to 25% are continually homeless
- 10% live in rural communities
- 30% of the homeless are substance abusers. For some substance abuse contributed to their homelessness, while other began using in response to the despair of being homeless
- 30% of the homeless have some form of mental illness, including depression. These people are also some of the most resistant to using shelter facilities - those who distrust authority, cannot abide by rules, and feel threatened by group living

This last group, those resistant to traditional methods of facility treatment, is who we want to focus on for our design project.

Despark Hotel

I discovered the Despark Hotel while searching for information on Historic Flophouse design and Japanese Capsule Hotels. These appear to be concrete sewage pipes converted into minimalist hotel rooms. An ingenious use of recycled materials but I'm not sure how secure I would feel sleeping in a giant cylandar with only a small portal for light when the door is closed.

Babel Fish Translation:

Reopening
With the season opening on May those park hotel starts 4 as a new form of hospitality equipment in the public area already 2007 into its third season.
As offer to everyday life refugees, culture travelers, cyclists... or those the one little distance to the daily surrounding field and a new "inspirative" environment to individual horizon the extension search, would like to offer those park hotel with its on substantial reduced luxury, temporary, comfortable, uncomplicated at home.

All love and until soon.
Gunda Wiesner and Andreas's bunch

(I love Babel-fish-type translation... always good for a chuckle)

For more information:
Despark Hotel - Official Website