08/06/2019
A little paper I wrote Outline Proposal
August 5, 2019
Live Elevated!
(Hopefully the Wasatch Front kick off of solution oriented sustainable affordable dwellings)
Transitional, permanent, personal micro housing predicated on leasing unused airspace from current single story commercial property owners. Affordable Housing Utah
Turnkey custom integrative micro housing targeted for today's urban evolution and challenges.
Designed and scaled to provide affordable, flexible micro housing to the entire spectrum of under-served residents. This includes the homeless but not exclusively, the goal is to provide an affordable housing option for all who are challenged by maintaining a secure residence. NPR Report
This concept paper proposes to research, prepare and evaluate a comprehensive design and feasibility study that establishes the viability of forming a public / private partnership to rapidly deploy affordable housing using a non destructive cooperative acquisition approach on (above) existing land as a sustainable urban component. It is time to act!
1. Establish Physical Feasibility
Land acquisition concept
1. Lease the airspace above single story self storage properties from facility owners to allow construction of a second level (third?) above their units in return for lease income. This residential asset will be constructed essentially at no cost to the property owner, limiting the cost, timeline and impact of land acquisition, as well as mitigating some of the regulatory, zoning and neighborhood obstacles to affordable units. Access to each use will be exclusive. Rooftop “greenbelt” would comprise 25% of residential component. Holding structure should be creatively structured (long term lease (99 years?)) to allow maximum flexibility in terms of vesting title in the units (including sale to residents).
2. If the general format is deemed to be viable, structure an active agreement with relevant governmental entities and staff to facilitate the expeditious rezoning, plan review, permitting, deployment and management of these units.
3. Evaluate residential delivery alternatives to provide the most effective life cycle cost. (Example: Existing modular building companies, trailer or RV manufacturers, shipping container vendors, and similar can be approached about supplying units on a lease basis. Inclusion of off grid features to limit utility connection fees, etc.)
4. Perform a comprehensive social network overview and formulate a plan to augment the benefits of affordable housing to make it safe and workable for all residents and citizens.
Additional elements of this process will include demolition, landscape and hardscape construction, zoning review and adjustment, possible infrastructure expansion. There may be a public transportation component. Further, coordination with public agencies to ensure that public safety concerns are addressed and or mitigated and that a maximum number of potential citizens are included. This may include designing the resident mix and or the inclusion of resident managers or some other control, occupancy or management criteria. For all units and projects, ongoing property management and fully engaged life counseling will be a permanent element of this plan
2. Resources
The resources component of this plan will evaluate all possible funding options committed or available to implement the final program. Capital from grants, crowd sourcing, private investment, institutional sources, foundations charities and public sources added to revenue from future residents will be combined to accomplish the goal of affordable universal housing. Insofar as possible, this should be economically viable or else it is unlikely to achieve its goal. Current Cost to Society
Opportunity Overview
Cities, businesses and residents are faced with new challenges from years of sporadic and random development (often now outdated) and systemic resistance that offers limited affordable housing options. Regardless of the reasons, virtually every community has citizens living with inadequate shelter. The social cost of chronic homelessness is staggering in health, law enforcement and social services. Virtually every part of society that interacts with homelessness pays an enormous price. This proposal does not attempt to address the root causes of this displacement and exclusion, although to ultimately succeed these must be resolved. This proposals goal is a solution using resources already committed to their resolution as quickly as possible. Housing now!
Current urban design practices are not addressing sufficient housing for everyone primarily due to historical trajectory and the economics of redevelopment but mostly due to the lack of a comprehensive plan to provide access to sufficient decent housing to individuals with limited resources as a stated goal with a commitment and a time line.
Once older lower cost housing is demolished to make way for replacement units, even “affordable” housing with subsidies aren’t sufficient to accommodate the displaced residents and place undue burdens on developers. As neighborhoods upscale, former residents are left without options. At best, a percentage of new units is allocated as affordable (typically 20%) meaning that 80% of replacement stock is out of reach of displaced residents. The redeveloped housing is affordable to a shrinking percentage of residents. Redeveloped housing often leaves the rental market in the form of unit sales or re-enters the rental market at many times the rent of previous units. http://mentalfloss.com/article/81296/average-cost-one-bedroom-apartments-50-major-us-cities
Virtually all communities have general plans that attempt to address the lack of affordable housing. All effective efforts need continued support. This acquisition concept is proposed in order to synergize the energy, capital and momentum to achieve the goal of supplying the total of affordable dwelling units required in the shortest possible time.
Media reports that the Wasatch Front is lacking more than 30,000 affordable housing units. If this proposal can deliver 5,000 units per year, it will still take 6 years with 1 year study and run up to alleviate the current problem. That is 7 years of suffering for society, most especially those without shelter. This plan is for permanent housing, not temporary group shelters and would not affect the efficacy of those ongoing efforts (which may also serve as feeders for these homes). State by State Status
The silver-lining, To some extent the capital to enable this solution is already committed. There have been and are underwriting sources in the form of grants, purpose focused funds and loans solely for these redevelopment activities and specifically for addressing homelessness from national, state and local governments and agencies, from charities, non profits, foundations, corporations. All of these resources can be identified and all applicable funding programs should be evaluated and if appropriate included in the total to minimize any additional costs to the community. In some and possibly many cases, there are already sufficient resources available, especially if the enormous cost of real estate is mitigated or reduced with approaches such as this.
Steps
To begin, Live Elevated needs to assign the capital necessary to:
(At every stage preference will be given to consultants that are able to provide a part of their contract as pro bono, given the nature of the task)
1 Identify and engage the professional researchers and analysts that can quantify and verify the hypothesis used as the basis of this plan. After, a legal review of the acquisition formula, this step will include engineering, cost estimating, RFP’s and all elements of the structural requirements of the plan.
Next, inclusion of all entities that currently have a mandate or interest in resolving the issues of displacement, housing shortages, chronic or situational homelessness, income inequality, substance abuse and crime. Having all of the informed and involved parties is imperative. The result of this process is to determine the viability of a statewide zoning and regulatory amendment that would allow this system and to prepare such a document.
2. Establish the resources that can be marshaled and brought to bear to effect a holistic, thorough and committed program to resolve these defects in our communities centered on the new paradigm of adequate housing for all of our residents.
3. Create a board of Governors from the existing stakeholders who will structure an operating entity from existing groups to implement the final proposals including staffing the operating functions to begin contracting with property owners, working with city officials and developing client lists in conjunction with outreach entities and organizations.
Additionally
Ongoing focus groups must develop viable inclusive criteria to address the actual population in need or at risk. There has to be a way to include everyone or else we can’t accomplish the stated goal. Decision makers designated by the Board of Governors will establish departments to implement design, marketing, project management, and operations. Some of the design work will need to be prepared by or approved by licensed Architect(s) and or engineer(s). Implementation and installation work shall be performed under the supervision of General Contractor(s). Property Management will be performed by real estate property management company(ies) working closely with social network agencies both private and public.
Step
Not only will these proposed units supply housing where none currently exist, they will replace substandard and non legal current “housing” that has been utilized by current city (non)residents. This includes storage units, garages, abandoned dwellings, storefronts, vehicles, temporary structures, tents, vacant lots, sidewalks, private property etc.
Each of these represent health and public safety hazards as well as a degraded and demeaning status to the individuals using them. It also makes it extremely difficult for the inhabitants to improve their situation due to the absence of basic human requirements and tools of connection.
While it may not be possible to determine the total in life, fire, safety costs currently borne by the community from inadequate shelter, it should suffice to say that if housing reduces these costs, the solution could generate substantial taxpayer savings.
It is worth noting that some individuals may not be capable of independent living but it should be easier to identify these folks and steer them to appropriate accommodations (incarceration, in patient treatment, group homes, etc.)
A lift, not a handout
The dwellings proposed by this concept, while providing the basics dictated for human dignity are not extravagant. The basic unit would be approximately 10 feet by 20 feet and consist of a studio apartment with kitchen and bath.
Slightly larger units for families could include loft area for sleeping or two side by side units (20X20) without a second kitchen. Total delivered and set up costs could be as low as
$ 20,000 per single unit. With greenbelt factored in its about $ 75.00 psf.
These units are envisioned as modular and can be site built or manufactured offsite. National average$64,575 - $86,100(861 square feet with a footprint of 24'x35') a range of $ 75.00 to $ 100.00.
Live elevated is planned as a home not just a “place to crash”. As much as a safe secure residence, it represents the potential to translate long term into a sense of belonging and identity. It provides an address for services, school, employment, volunteer work or other forms of community service or involvement or for meeting the needs of the formerly “houseless”. This approach has been a proven success. Supportive Housing
Focus should be personalized not institutionalized It may provide realistic options for our growing senior population.
You can start here or finish here.
See how drastically rent prices can vary depending on where you choose to live.
