Developing Smaller, Livable Rental Housing

My first thought through high school was to become an architect designing houses and buildings. I had the drafting equipment, had placed at the IIT drafting contest, and was good at drawing a straight line. In high school they taught us how to frame houses when it still had such shops as wood working and house framing. My next trigger to this desire was reading Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead.” A novel about an unconventional architect named Howard Roark who struggles against conformity.

Paths do change when something impacts them. One of which was Vietnam and enlisting in the USMC. Not too much struggling against conformity there. One conforms when the force to conform is present 24 hours a day. The other thing occurring while I was in college. Employment opportunities disappeared when I became a junior in college. So off to a Business Degree with minor in math. In Supply Chain and systems supporting such I excelled. We did visit the Frank Lloyd Wright builds while living in Wisconsin. Sigh . . . Maybe the next go around?

I find designing homes for people to be interesting, hence these two articles by other authors.

“Housing crisis affecting Phoenix area, ASU reports show,” ASU News

Housing shortage

According to the ASU research report, Arizona is short 270,000 housing units, and there are only 26 rentals available for every 100 extremely low-income households.

Associate Director of Research at Arizona State University Allison Cook-Davis reports the main challenges developers cited were building costs, zoning issues and opposition from neighbors.

“Land, construction and labor costs have continued to rise, and developers are struggling to finance projects. Developers must compete with each other over land and large developers can pay more, leaving small developers at a disadvantage.”

Smaller projects can struggle to find general contractors, and developers in rural areas have to bring in workers from far away.

According to the ASU research report, Arizona is short 270,000 housing units. As far as affordability? There are only 26 rentals available for every 100 extremely low-income households.

Jessica Swarner, Copper Courier reports on a story she wrote in a newsletter for Phoenix renters,

“Rent Check PHX.”

It too is published by the Copper Courier,

Here’s a fact not surprising anyone: Phoenix does not have enough housing for everyone who lives here. The lack of which is keeping housing prices painfully high. 

But here’s something you may not have known:

Downtown Phoenix has too much office space, with 23% of it currently sitting vacant. 

A new report from The Pew Charitable Trusts (a nonpartisan nonprofit) and Gensler (an international architecture and design firm), asks a simple question:

What if we converted that empty office space into co-living apartments? An outcome creating small, private rooms with shared bathrooms, kitchens, and living space. 

Office space can be difficult logistically to convert into traditional apartments, but the report’s authors argue that co-living apartments could be an easier and more cost-effective transition.  One rendition:

In the report’s model, renters pay $850 a month for a 160-square-foot furnished bedroom. That may sound like a terrible deal—but the rent includes the shared spaces, access to a fitness center, daily cleaning of common spaces, 24-hour security, and all utilities, including internet.

One thing it wouldn’t include, though, is any on-site parking—a fact many Phoenicians may balk at. Part of what makes the model more cost-effective is the fact that it could be built while bypassing the city’s typical parking requirements. The idea is that if people are living downtown closer to public transit and in a more walkable, bikeable area, there’s less of a need for them to have cars. 

The intended market for these micro apartments is people who make $20,000 to $40,000 a year, but it could appeal to a broader range of renters.

Tushar Kansal, senior officer with The Pew Charitable Trusts’ housing policy initiative, told me that he envisions this model working well for many types of people.

“It could be nurses, teachers, seniors who are on fixed income and can no longer maintain the house that they used to live in.” He said. “Or, it could be students or recent college graduates. It could be your new arrivals to Phoenix.”

While we tend to think of this type of living structure as only for college students—I know I do–it actually used to be more widespread. The report states that this type of single-room occupancy housing was quite common in cities in the mid-20th century. 

Tushar Kansal saying, cities started trying to eliminate this housing in the 1960s and ‘70s.

“The idea was that a lot of these forms of housing . . . had fallen into disrepair, and we just want to get rid of these. And if we get rid of these, we will be able to get rid of the people who rely on this form of housing, in other words, poor people. But as a result, what we have done—all of us as a society— was rid ourselves of a housing option a lot of people need.” 

Tushar said he has not lived in co-living apartments like these, but he says he could picture himself having done so in his early 20s after he graduated from college, adding . . . 

“My first room was an apartment without a window,” he said. “And so this option provides a very nice opportunity for folks to live in a modern, well-maintained apartment that has amenities nearby . . . and a view of the city.”

Now that this research has been done, Kansal said, it’s passed on to public officials, developers, nonprofits, and more, with the hope that a public-private partnership could make this a reality.