Can “Urban Homesteading” Help Cities Fight the Housing Crisis?
A boarded-up row house in Baltimore, similar to those used in an urban homesteading project. (Original image source: Paul Sableman on Flickr.)
In this episode of Upzoned, host Abby Newsham is joined by Edward Erfurt, Strong Towns’ director of community action, to discuss the Strong Towns take on “urban homesteading,” where cities sell derelict houses to people for $1 in exchange for a promise to renovate the property and live there for a period of time.
ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES
“Can Selling Off Homes for $1 Solve Urban Blight?” by Rowan Bridge, BBC (October 2024).
Abby Newsham is the cohost of the Upzoned podcast. Abby is an urban design and planning consultant at Multistudio in Kansas City, Missouri. In her own community, she works to advance bottom-up strategies that enhance both private development and the public realm, and facilitates the ad-hoc Kansas City chapter of the Incremental Development Alliance. When she’s not geeking out over cities, Abby is an avid urban mountain biker (because: potholes), audiobook and podcast junkie, amateur rock climber, and guitarist. You can connect with Abby on Twitter at @abbykatkc.