What Did We Learn About Housing in 2019?
We love the team at Verdunity. Not only are they taking the Strong Towns vision and putting it into practice in some really inspiring ways, they also have a killer podcast and blog over at Go Cultivate! And they recently invited Strong Towns Senior Editor Daniel Herriges on as a guest to recap the good, the bad, and the ugly of housing news in 2019.
In this episode, Daniel chats with Verdunity's Jordan Clark about three important housing-related stories that got our attention in 2019, and what lessons we should take from each one. These include (to borrow their summary):
1. An emerging trend of (re)legalizing certain types of missing middle housing in some cities and states.
2. A peculiar story about a mixed-use project in San Bruno, CA, that was eventually killed after three years of concessions—and, more importantly, what it can teach us about the conflicting incentives that our desire to maintain control can create.
3. A fascinating new study on the impact that building new market-rate housing may have on freeing up affordable housing in the same city—and why we should think more ecologically about the ways that cities and housing markets work.
Check out this episode, then make sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
Top photo via Blake Wheeler.
Building affordable housing seems like a win for cities struggling in the Housing Trap. But between its top-down nature and the public subsidies it requires, affordable housing can actually make things worse.