AFFORDABLE HOUSING: PRESERVING A WAY OF LIFE

Like many, we're concerned about the Vineyard's diminished supply of affordable housing and its effect on both the quality of peoples' lives and the strength of our community. We think the problem can be solved; it's only lack of will and imagination that precludes it.

Sepiessa

In a book called "Changing Places", author Richard Moe of The National Preservation Trust says, "Communities can be shaped by choice or . . . by chance. We can keep accepting the kind of communities we get, or we can insist on getting the kind of communities we want." We believe in insisting.

For many years we have been working to create successful affordable housing models that people can see, experience, and - we hope - emulate. We have done at least five significant affordable housing projects, and it has become a primary emphasis at SMC. Read more about one of them, our Sepiessa project.

When real estate is as pricey as it currently is on the Vineyard, deep subsidies are necessary. Without them, two things happen: there is very little affordable housing activity and the activity that there is produces shoddy housing that communities find un-acceptable and occupants find to be distinctly un-affordable, due to high maintenance and energy costs, and un-healthy, due to poor construction practice. This is what we don't want, and this is why we've used several types of subsidies in our work to show that affordable housing can be fine housing that respects both the community and the occupants. Affordable housing should be identical to luxury housing: just smaller, less detailed, and differently financed. Learn more about our work on subsidies here.

As a company, we think the best things we can do to help solve the housing crisis are:

1) Develop multi-unit projects (as many units as possible of either single family detached or multi-family attached or a combination of the two, either new or renovation) that combine production housing techniques, economies of scale, and a variety of subsidies and creative financing techniques;

Island Cohousing Neighborhood

2) Search for highly visible small renovation projects and small-scale new projects to provide a variety of scattered-site model types. These must be even more deeply subsidized because there are no economies of scale and often no market units to share cost; and
3) Be active in the public arena to promote housing solutions. We are intensely involved in the Island Affordable Housing Fund, the Regional Housing Authority, town affordable housing committees, and a variety of initiatives like the Business Initiative for Housing Solutions.

Our most ambitious project to date was Island Cohousing (see the Fine Homebuilding Houses article and Vineyard Style article). Cohousing is a Danish housing concept developed in the 1970's. Cohousing communities are neighborhoods consisting of 12 to 35 households. Houses (attached, detached, or a combination of the two) are tightly clustered and the automobile is relegated to the perimeter. There are extensive shared community facilities, usually anchored by a Common House where residents share a few meals a week, where guests can stay, and where a variety of activities take place. The Common House is not only a community hub; it provides space not needed on a daily basis, thereby allowing individual homes to be smaller. Another fundamental principle of cohousing is that the future residents are the developers (or at least the client). They make the decisions as a group, and the process of doing so creates community bonds. For more on Cohousing.

In 1996 a small group of interested households hired South Mountain to conduct a land search, facilitate the development of the group, and develop, design, and build a cohousing community. Together we created a deliberate neighborhood of 16 houses and a variety of common facilities which was occupied in the spring of 2000 by an exceptionally diverse group of year round Islanders, young and old. Tight clustering allowed us to keep 85 percent of the land in permanent open space. A strong environmental program influenced the design and construction of both site and houses. Three SMC employees live there.

The group was committed to accommodating income diversity and providing desperately needed affordable housing. Roughly half the houses were subsidized in two ways:
• Light subsidies achieved by internal price structuring which shifted a higher percentage of the shared costs (development and design costs, infrastructure, and common facilities) to the larger houses; and
• Deep subsidies from a combination of cash fundraising and reduced mortgage rates from our two public-spirited banks.

The first method kept the price low for smaller houses; the second allowed four of the houses to be sold to qualified buyers who made less than 80% of median local income at a price they could afford (these four have limited equity deed restrictions designed to maintain perpetual affordability). Several houses are rented at affordable year round rates. Diverse income levels have been served and the majority of the residents now have housing of a quality they couldn't otherwise have on the Vineyard.

Along with internal and external subsidies, other significant cost control mechanisms we used are:
• Repetitive design and minimal customization (production building methods);
• South Mountain's new shop and office shared infrastructure costs (road, power, etc.);
• Sold several lots from the original 50 acre piece to reduce land costs;
• Reduced rates for SMC design and construction services.

We are actively pursuing other, similar projects to be a part of our future work mix.