April 20, 2017

Beyond Bricks and Sticks





A weekly digest of current trends in housing and community development. The discussion examines topics from infrastructure to community fabric.


Millennials Desire Affordable Homeownership In the Suburbs

RECAP: The idea that young adults value urban living and the flexibility of renting above all else is a misconception. The Los Angeles Times says that affordability is the main driver of decisions made by millennial households. Reports by Zillow and Harvard found that Millennials want to live in the suburbs, where homeownership makes more financial sense than renting an expensive apartment in an urban center. Nearly half of all millennial homeowners live in the suburbs, compared to 33 percent who live in the city. The idea was if millennials could afford to purchase a home, they would, and did so in low-cost markets like Birmingham, Detroit, Minneapolis and St. Louis.
https://www.probuilder.com/millennials-desire-affordable-homeownership-suburbs

L.A. Finally Has The Money To Fight Homelessness. Here's How Architecture Can Help The Cause

RECAP: In the last two elections, Los Angeles voters overwhelmingly supported both Proposition HHH and Measure H, which combined will permanently rehouse thousands of people living on L.A.’s streets and provide services to keep tens of thousands more from falling into homelessness in the first place. Lingering NIMBYism (Not In My Backyard) combined with soaring housing costs will make acting on the promise of Proposition HHH and Measure H a challenge. It is here where architecture may be able to provide some assistance. Together two USC professors developed “Homes for Hope” — a flexible, affordable and code-compliant solution for bridge housing.  This isn’t permanent supportive housing. It’s a steppingstone — a dignified place to get one’s bearings and stop the free fall.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/livable-city/la-ol-homeless-measure-h-architecture-nimby-20170310-story.html


In Chicago and Philadelphia, the Difference a Park Makes

RECAP: Occupying 21 acres in the middle of this city’s largest Mexican-American neighborhood, called Little Village, the park used to be a brownfield and illegal dump. Back then, the site leached toxins into hundreds of nearby basements. Sickened residents protested for years. The federal cleanup, finally completed in 2012, became the largest urban Superfund project in America. EPA’s Superfund program is responsible for cleaning up some of the nation’s most contaminated land and responding to environmental emergencies, oil spills and natural disasters. To protect public health and the environment, the Superfund program focuses on making a visible and lasting difference in communities, ensuring that people can live and work in healthy, vibrant places.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/12/arts/design/chicago-philadelphia-parks-rahm-emanuel.html?_r=3

Trulia gives pets the whole “pawspective” with new For Sale and Rental pawperty detail pages

RECAP: The cat is officially out of the bag! Just like their two-legged companions, pets want to live in a place that suits their individual lifestyle and sense of self. They want to put paws down close to their fur friends in a forever home. Finding the right home quickly and easily is crucial to living a long and happy life, for any species. Our goal at Trulia is to make finding a home easy and enjoyable, so we’re excited to announce the launch of for sale and rental listings for pets on Trulia. Trulia added neighborhood petmenities, like big climbing trees for cats and fire hydrants for dogs, so pets can easily get the scoop on how a pawperty’s neighborhood stacks up against the rest. Each petmentity is given a rating, so our feline friends can see that bird watching in a pawperty’s neighborhood is “above average,” or that the amount of “needy humans” in the area is “lowest,” cluing them in to so much more than just the home.
https://www.trulia.com/blog/tech/pet-listings-april-fools/#sthash.k7F6oZOY.dpuf

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