A weekly digest of current trends in housing and community development. The discussion examines topics from infrastructure to community fabric.
HUD Guidance on Using CDBG for Code Enforcement
(RECAP: HUD’s Notice CPD-14-16 provides guidance on using Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds for code enforcement activities. The Notice reiterates the provisions that allow CDBG to be used for code inspection and enforcement only if carried out in deteriorated or deteriorating areas in which code enforcement may be expected to arrest an area’s decline.)
As Boomers Age, Walkable Cities Become More Important
(RECAP: Seniors aren't going to walkable neighborhoods (in part because of high housing prices), so walkable neighborhoods will have to go to seniors. That’s why the lobbying powerhouse of the AARP is emerging as a key advocate for a built environment less oriented toward private automobiles.)
Private Money Successfully Fixing Public Housing
(RECAP: HUD is investing in an innovative tool designed to preserve access to long-term and quality affordable housing. The Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) allows public housing agencies access to the same private financing already available to private owners of affordable housing units.)
This Home Makes All Its Own Energy. Will We All Soon Be Living In One?
(RECAP: How close can we come to building affordable houses, on a mass scale, that produce as much energy as residents tend to consume during a given year? This goal reaches beyond the increasingly common motif of "greener" living. It's aimed at the far harder ideal of true sustainability.)
Opinions on Housing
The views and opinions expressed in Opinions on Housing are solely those of the original authors, and do not necessarily represent those of VHDA, our stakeholders or any/all contributors to this blog.
The Next Housing Crisis May Be Sooner Than You Think
(RECAP: More and more American households, especially middle- and working-class people, are having a harder time affording housing. It’s time to impose stricter underwriting standards and encourage the dense, mixed-use, more flexible housing options that the knowledge economy requires.)
FHA Policies Discourage Density
(RECAP: At a time when people are flocking to cities, federal policies still heavily promote single-family homes and make it harder for people to buy condos.)
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