Pulling Out All The Stops For Affordable Housing
One of the most common questions we get when we tell people we’re building an agrihood is whether we’ll have any affordable housing. To that question, the answer is a resounding ‘Yes!’ We know that if supplying affordable housing were easy, it would be vastly more common. However, we believe that our participatory design process gives us a unique advantage. Affordable housing is nothing more than a complex problem to be solved, and through our participatory design events, we have access to hundreds of problem solvers.
It all starts with breaking the problem of affordable housing into its component parts, allowing us to identify leverage points where we can intervene to make housing more affordable. In this blog post, I’ll share some ideas we’ve come across or come up with, and in our upcoming design events, we’ll crowdsource even more concepts.
Leverage Points in Housing Affordability
To understand and address affordability, we consider six major components:
Cost to Produce Housing – Materials, labor, planning, and financing all contribute to the overall price.
Increase Supply of Housing – Expanding options such as multifamily units and alternative construction techniques.
Prospective Homebuyer Readiness – Ensuring buyers are financially prepared through credit repair, down payment assistance, and financial literacy programs.
Homeowner Income – Providing opportunities for additional income to support mortgage payments.
Homeowner Expenses – Reducing ongoing costs like energy, maintenance, and property taxes.
Long-Term Affordability – Implementing systems that keep homes affordable over time.
Each of these components decomposes into subcomponents that we’ll explore below. Together, they provide an opportunity for what we’ve dubbed “Composite Affordability.”
Ideas for Making Housing More Affordable
Reducing the Cost of Building
Sweat equity programs where residents help build their own homes.
Community participation in horizontal development (roads, utilities, etc.).
Modular and volumetric construction methods.
Allowing investors to fund Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) on properties.
Smaller homes with reduced square footage for both building and land use.
Alternative housing types such as shipping container homes, common wall housing, vertical housing, and subterranean homes.
Utilizing shared garages instead of individual garages.
Incorporating earthen materials and simple home designs to reduce costs.
Increasing Housing Supply
Encouraging multifamily developments.
Promoting vertical and common-wall housing to maximize land efficiency.
Allowing smaller lot sizes to increase density while preserving green space.
Enhancing Homebuyer Readiness
Credit repair programs to improve mortgage eligibility.
Down payment assistance and down payment layaway programs.
Community-based co-signer programs where neighbors can invest in each other’s homes.
Supporting Homeowners’ Financial Stability
HOA-sponsored home repair classes to reduce maintenance costs.
Employment opportunities within or near the community.
Programs to bridge the gap between current housing costs and the 30% income affordability goal.
Mortgage assistance programs where the HOA funds a portion of mortgage payments or above principal payments in exchange for equity.
Long-Term Affordability Measures
Community land trusts to keep land costs low over time.
HOA-imposed resale fees to fund future affordability initiatives.
HOA bans on home sales to private equity investors.
A commitment to producing more affordable housing offsite to support regional affordability.
Affordability for Renters
A rental program where tenants can apply extra payments toward home equity.
Structured pathways for renters to transition into homeownership.
Five-year lease requirements to stabilize prices and prevent rent shocks.
Innovative Financing Models
A co-signer program where community homeowners can gain equity by supporting new buyers.
Home equity investment programs where homeowners share appreciation with the community.
Down payment assistance programs funded by community investments.
The Outlook for Affordability
Housing affordability has been a tough nut to crack and will require pulling out all the stops if we hope to crack it! We don’t think there will be a silver bullet but there may be the opportunity for a silver buckshot approach where we see success in leveraging a diverse range of strategies along with engaging the broader community in problem-solving. Through our upcoming design events, we’ll continue to refine and expand these ideas, ensuring that affordability is built into the very fabric of our community.
Stay tuned for updates and opportunities to participate in the discussion. If you have ideas, we’d love to hear from you!
Disclaimer: This article was drafted by Sabastian Hunt with AI-assisted enhancements via editing.