(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2022-12)
Delargy, Colin; Cena, Kortney; McFarlane, Clifton; Dominguez, Miriam; Waheed, Jullanar; Murphy, Ansley
Well known by now, and getting worse by the moment, is Atlanta’s affordable housing crisis. In the Atlanta case, as in “hot” markets all over the country, jurisdictions are trying to come up with strategies that might work. One such tried here and in other cities is to eliminate single family zoning. Early evidence in its usefulness for addressing affordability from Minneapolis, Seattle, and Portland, however, shows that strategy to be failing. It’s not producing density, the investment required is raising property values and taxes, the red hot “build to rent” markets are displacing neighborhoods, particularly Bipoc and low wealth neighborhoods. And its top-down approach is stripping communities of any input into the process. In short, this solutionist strategy does not work. In Atlanta, the city council decisively defeated it in December.
item_description: Well known by now, and getting worse by the moment, is Atlanta’s affordable housing crisis. In the Atlanta case, as in “hot” markets all over the country, jurisdictions are trying to come up with strategies that might work. One such tried here and in other cities is to eliminate single family zoning. Early evidence in its usefulness for addressing affordability from Minneapolis, Seattle, and Portland, however, shows that strategy to be failing. It’s not producing density, the investment required is raising property values and taxes, the red hot “build to rent” markets are displacing neighborhoods, particularly Bipoc and low wealth neighborhoods. And its top-down approach is stripping communities of any input into the process. In short, this solutionist strategy does not work. In Atlanta, the city council decisively defeated it in December.
Since we and others remain in a state of crisis, though, the context for this studio investigates strategies for what to do instead. These include coming up with the tools and resources to coordinate use of publicly and non-profit owned land; to maximize conservation of existing stock; and to concentrate densification in already dense areas like transit corridors and existing dense areas. For us, we will explore the potential for faith-based property owners to step up, using their land holdings as a way of underwriting the land cost element of an affordability-serving pro forma.
This studio explores the issues and ideas from an overview perspective. The studio worked with four faith-based organizations to go deep, developing case studies to further tease out the issues and opportunities. This work was guided by these organizations, possible by nearby affected communities as well. The work product includes both our overview and the findings from the individual case studies.
Students worked in group settings, applying their knowledge across the specializations of housing and community development, economic development, and urban design, along with associated regulatory and resource requirements.
The studio progressed from data assembly to analysis, to consideration of alternatives, to suggested courses of action, to a final report and presentation. Stakeholder organizations will review each stage of the work. Students utilized their skills in data management, analysis, communication, and presentation in a cross-disciplinary and community engaged process.