Re: Pioneering/Building in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods/Gentrification | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: dlmandel (dlmandelpacbell.net) | |
Date: Sun, 5 Apr 2009 23:34:44 -0700 (PDT) |
We built in 1993-94, during the previous housing market depression -- nowhere near the scope of the current one, but some of our experiences may be instructive. And the site we acquired was in a low-income, rather run-down urban neighborhood. Here are a few brief observations, some tangentially related to your question: 1. It was a huge challenge that the best numbers we could wring out of a friendly appraiser were lower than our construction costs. (For building purposes, we were our own developer, so we had to cover them somehow.) 2. This caused us to skimp more than we wanted on materials (for which we're paying today, with more rotting trim than there should be), extra common space wishes and reserves. Most of us never got the full promised (modest) return on our early investment. (That our builder filed for bankruptcy before paying us some money he owed didn't help either.) 3. That we got it built was (among other things) thanks to the fact that we were in a targeted "redevelopment area," so the housing authority was able to use tax increment funds to make small "appraisal gap" loans to each buyer that are due only upon sale or cash-out refinance. 4. Low and moderate income people qualified for silent second "affordability" loans that enabled them to join us. 5. And geography made the rest eligible for decent state Housing Finance Agency loans, which otherwise carried limited income eligibility and/or first time buyer restrictions. 6. We were concerned from the start about gentrification, and our arrival caused some tensions (abetted by misinformation) early on with longtime residents who saw it becoming less and less likely that their kids could afford to live in the neighborhood. 7. Our concern was mixed. When housing is an "investment" as well as a home, self-interest sometimes pulls people in the opposite direction, and our benefactors in the housing authority certainly seemed to consider gentrification a good thing. Some of us were very disappointed that they were undermotivated to enforce contracts to maintain even the minimal affordability that was supposed to last for 30 years for the six "low-income" units. 8. While the area is still a mix of new, upscale houses, dilapidated older ones and low-rent apartments, subsequent years saw a huge increase in the desirability of living in the city's central core, of which we are a part. We were, in a sense, pioneers who accelerated the trent, but our role was just a small part. Measured as a rise in property values, gentrification occurred around us -- tempered in the past year, of course, but prices are still a lot higher than when we built. 9. As an advocate of affordability, I'm much more skeptical now of the arrangements we tried so hard to put in place. If you seriously want to maintain affordability and avoid contributing to gentrification, find mechanisms outside the market that keep housing from being just another commodity. Community land trusts can maintain affordability in perpetuity, as can limited equity co-ops. Work with established nonprofit housing developers to use these tools if you can. And work for a society in which they'll become the rule, not the incredibly difficult exception. David Mandel Southside Park Cohousing, Sacramento --- On Sun, 4/5/09, David Heimann <heimann [at] theworld.com> wrote: From: David Heimann <heimann [at] theworld.com> Subject: [C-L]_ Pioneering/Building in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods/Gentrification To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org Date: Sunday, April 5, 2009, 2:08 PM On Fri, 3 Apr 2009 cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org wrote: > Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2009 21:38:33 GMT > From: "Cora Roelofs" <corar2000 [at] netzero.com> > Subject: [C-L]_ Pioneering/Building in Disadvantaged > Neighborhoods/Gentrification > To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org > Message-ID: <20090401.173833.17281.0 [at] webmail04.dca.untd.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 > > We're in the site search and working with a development partner. I was wondering about any experiences related to developing cohousing in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. > I know that Swan's Market played a role in the re-development of downtown Oakland and I'm curious about others' experience with their site selection process and predicting the future of a neighborhood without high housing prices. There are lots of comments that could be brought out about the social issues, but I'm specifically interested in the development and economic issues. And perhaps leaving aside the current crazy real estate situtation. Specifically, can we sell units for what they cost to build in a place where housing prices for other types of housing (even nice housing) are relatively low? Won't the bank look at our housing prices and compare them to "comparable" units in the area and find them too high? Won't prospective cohousers do the same? This is even if we get cheap land, since construction costs seem still to be high. > I guess I'd be interested in general comments as well about cohousers "moving in" to poor neighborhoods where most of the cohousers are not poor themselves. And I'm thinking this is a gentrification question as well -- the upsides and the downsides of increasing the average value of housing in a poor neighborhood. > Cora > Stony Brook Cohousing > forming and search in and around Jamaica Plain, MA _________________________________________________________________ Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at: http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
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Pioneering/Building in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods/Gentrification Cora Roelofs, April 1 2009
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Pioneering/Building in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods/Gentrification David Heimann, April 5 2009
- Re: Pioneering/Building in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods/Gentrification dlmandel, April 5 2009
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Pioneering/Building in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods/Gentrification David Heimann, April 5 2009
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Re: Pioneering/Building in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods/Gentrification peggyjo8592, April 5 2009
- Re: Pioneering/Building in DisadvantagedNeighborhoods/Gentrification Joanie Connors, April 6 2009
- Re: Pioneering/Building in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods/Gentrification Raines Cohen, April 7 2009
- Re: Pioneering/Building in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods/Gentrification Fred H Olson, April 6 2009
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