Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: making cohousing affordable RE: Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 252, Issue 21

[Sophie Rubin (yophiest]

Mac Thompson’s answer was great.

Local policies severely limit new housing, whether in number (eg only 1000
permits issued each year), zoning restrictions (eg you can only build 4
units/acre), discretionary committee (eg outright veto of a disliked
building or 'we want the facade to be more articulated,' adding to the
cost), or permit fees (eg pay park fees at $15k/unit before you start
building).

Cities see new community members (growth) as a liability rather than a
feature. New residents take parking spaces, use classroom seats, block
views and cause environmental hazards, so why make policy that is friendly
to them? And certainly they should be made to pay for the toll they will
take on infrastructure and facility usage. If that means they can’t afford
it, well, then, the city can’t afford them.

A change in mindset is required. Local policy creates a wall that is just
as effective as many physical ones. As long as we have that wall, there
will be a housing shortage. As long as we have a housing shortage,
affordability will be an issue.

This change is a really big ask, since it means politicians need to ignore
the preferences of current, voting residents in favor of non-voting future
residents.

Coda: Compared globally, the US had, by at least one measure
<https://www.lincolninst.edu/app/uploads/legacy-files/pubfiles/kallergis_wp18ak1.pdf>,
the most affordable metropolises when measured in 2015. So… no one has
really cracked this problem. More exceptional models for systemic housing
affordability can be found in Vienna and Tokyo.

Always happy to discuss this more if people have questions!




On Mon, Jan 27, 2025 at 15:02 b farris via Cohousing-L <
cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:

> Hi,Sophie;
> What systemic changes do you recommend?
> Izzy
>
> > On Jan 27, 2025, at 1:48 PM, Sophie Rubin <yophiest [at] gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I second Ty.
> >
> > Affordability for a wider range of folks is a widely shared value
>