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A shortage of decent, affordable housing doesn’t just affect working families, it impacts the whole community. These articles document the real costs of the housing affordability problem, and highlight local efforts to handle it. |
Zoning People In, Not Out How local governments can encourage more affordable housing Sally Bornschein, former president of the Home Builders Association of the Grand Traverse Area Inc., has been watching home prices rise faster than middle-class incomes since the early 1990s. And it might surprise some people to hear that, despite her industry affiliation and the larger profits higher home prices bring, Ms. Bornschein thinks that is bad news.
Working Hard, Yet Living in a Hovel Unaffordable prices exclude working families from decent housing It wasn’t until after she had moved into her Habitat for Humanity home in Cedar, Mich., that Heidi Lindeman and her children realized just how difficult her previous living situation was—a basement apartment with windowless bedrooms and mold in the walls. She says that many of her friends put up with similar situations. The problem goes beyond living in a hovel; one-third of U.S. households spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing and utilities, leaving little for the family budget.
Mixing and Matching Affordable housing helps everyone, including well-off neighbors Corina Bilicki and her children love their new house in Benzonia. Across the street from a park and a block a half from the elementary school, it blends so well with the neighborhood that there’s no telling that it cost about half as much as the houses around it. And that’s exactly how Habitat for Humanity, which built and then sold the home, and other affordable housing groups think it should be.
Traverse Teamwork State agency, local nonprofit help developer do well while doing good Three years ago, three men sat down together for a cup of coffee and stood up with a plan to integrate attractive, affordable housing into one of Traverse City’s most desirable new downtown neighborhoods. The three-way partnership, between a state agency, a housing advocacy group, and a developer, has been enormously successful: The townhouses are sold and eight more households have found conveniently located, quality housing at an affordable price.
HomeStretch: Building and Selling, Affordably Innovative group helps working families live close to town For the past ten years HomeStretch, a non-profit organization in Traverse City, has been building modest houses and then selling them for about half the price that a typical home there goes for. It is easy to explain why HomeStretch does this; how it does it is a lesson in innovation, creative financing, and teamwork with developers, realtors, and government officials.
Working Families Pushed Out Of Town, Into Debt Long commutes no easy route to affordable homes Until this year, northern Michigan’s working families generally relied on inexpensive gasoline and their own time to compensate for not being able to afford homes closer to town. Commuters accepted a long drive — and less time for exercise, finger painting with their kids, or cooking and eating dinner as a family—because it meant they could afford a bigger house, where each kid could have a bedroom. Fast-rising transportation costs are now making the long distance drive no tradeoff at all
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