Affordable Housing Roundtable

Anne Aurelia Fritzel

Deaken Boggs

Madison Area Community Land Trust

Lisa Bryer

Rob Call

Andrew Gast-Bray, Ph.D., AICP, CNU (virtual)

Planning Director - Monongalia County Planning Commission, WV, USA

Salvador Herrera (Host)

CEO, founding partner, Urbanistica, Mexico

Tenzin Jamtsho (Host)

Director of Administration and Finance at Druk Gyalpo's Institute (formerly the Royal Academy), Bhutan

Michael Kolber, AICP, PP

Director of Planning, BRS Inc. 

Immediate past chair, International Division

Nicolas Maggio (Host)

President & CEO, Foro de Vivienda Sustentabilidad y Energía, Argentina 

Alejandra Marin

University of Illinois at Chicago 

Candida Neal 

Luna Nuansa Iaman

Fulbright Student, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota

Anthony P. Mercantante, P.P. AICP, 

Township Administrator. Middletown, New Jersey 

Olivia Parry

Margarita Saldana

Urban planner, San Antonio Development Authority

Bishwapriya Sanyal, Ph.D  (virtual)

Professor, Director of MIT SPURS/Humphrey Program, USA

Luck Seaberg

Community and economic development field specialist, Iowa State University

Krishna K. Shrivastava, AICP (virtual)

Principle, Founder, LIKAplan, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Sky Tallman

Urban Planner, Urban Atelier

Jing Zhang, AICP (Host)

Morgantown Monongalia MPO 

Chair, APA International Division

Transcreation of the Term “affordable housing”

• Throughout the world, it is expected that the meaning and the connotation of the term will vary based on the context of politics, culture, economics, and the natural environment. 

• Alternative terms: social housing, economical housing, popular housing, fair housing, sustainable housing. Housing that is accessible to lower income levels. 

• Commonly accepted definition: Housing where people spend no more than 30% of their income on rent/mortgage, insurance, utilities, and taxes. 

• The term is broad; people hear and see the niche they are interested in. 

Latin America

• Most housing stocks in Latin America (especially Central America and South America) have qualitative deficiencies, such as safety, heating/cooling, layout, and utility/infrastructure. 

• In many cases, affordable housing means what the government builds or is trying to build. 

• Colombia has a policy that makes residents making less than 90% of the minimum wage qualify for subsidized housing. 

Missing Population 

• Subsidizing low-middle-class housing only addresses one piece of the puzzle of housing issues. Other population segments require attention, including people living in substandard housing, and people who do not have credit to apply for a mortgage. 

• In high-income areas, the middle is not a good place to be. 

Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing

• Naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH) refers to unsubsidized rental housing that remains affordable due to factors other than government programs. 

Expiring Affordability Covenants

• Multiple challenges appear at the end of the covenants, which made affordable housing possible in the first place, including: 

  • Housing repair and renovation 

  • Market speculation

  • Owner buy back

Abandoned Houses in Mexico

• Mexico has nearly 5 million affordable housing units (government-built) that are abandoned because

  • The location is far away from the economic/job center. 

  • Lack of transportation. 

  • Lack of community amenities. 

• Those housing structures are usually 1,200 sq for a household of five. The parking garage is often bigger than the housing itself. Those housing developments are a mimic of American suburban development. 

• Financial institutions usually continue to get payment from the abandoned homes as the mortgage payment often came from the employee of the resident. Canceling the payment needs to go through a long bureaucratic process. 

Transportation and Economic Opportunities

• Transportation and economic opportunities play vital roles in providing housing that is truly sustainable and affordable. 

• Transportation costs should be factored into the affordability equation. 

• Economic opportunities/jobs keep people in their homes and communities. 

• Affordable housing discussion should include small-scale commercial to instigate economic/entrepreneurial activities. 

Community Land Trust (CLT)

• CLT is not the silver bullet for all problems, but it is a useful tool that planners should consider. 

• On a high level, it means de-commodifying housing. At the planner's level, it means permanently making the land affordable for housing. CLT owns the land and the homeowner owns the house. 

• Housing types and density can change over time to meet community-shifting needs. 

• CLT for affordable housing is financially and labor intensive. It is most effective when used by entities specialized in affordable housing development. 

• Enabling factors include close collaboration among all levels of government from municipality to state. 

• Great examples are in Burlington, VT, Rochester, MN, and Madison, WI. 

Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Index

• GNH has 4 pillars: “Sustainable socio-economic development”, “Preservation and promotion of culture”, “Environmental conservation”, and “Good governance”. (source: https://www.gnhcentrebhutan.org/the-4-pillars-of-gnh/) 

• Housing used to be developed organically in the countryside. Recent trends include the younger population moving to urban areas which increase housing needs. 

• Four housing challenges are: scarcity of land, access to capital, cost of construction, and lack of housing data. 

Multigenerational Housing

• New Jersey’s law allows senior homeowners (65+) to rent out part of their home. 

Factors affecting housing affordability (Menti allows only 12 options )

• The most relevant factors selected by attendees: Financing, location, access to land, zoning, social integration, sustainability & resilience, 

  • Less relevant factors selected by attendees: Planning. Design.  

Commodity vs Human Rights

• Shifting away from viewing housing solely as a commodity and recognizing affordable housing as a fundamental human right.

Photos. We are collecting photos of affordable housing from all over the world. If you have any photos to share, please send them to Jing. The photos will be posted on the photo hub. 

Stories. Develop a component of the website to share housing practitioner’s stories. Finding inspiration from diverse regions and countries, even when practices from elsewhere may not perfectly align with our local context, can be inspiring.

Let's carry on with our roundtable discussion, inviting everyone to openly share their experiences in a genuine manner (straightforward and humane).