This week Build a Better Burb launches a five-part series exploring affordable housing and accessory apartments – with a new article posted each week. The series begins with a Q&A with Douglas S. Massey, Princeton University professor and lead author of Climbing Mount Laurel: The Struggle for Affordable Housing and Social Mobility in an American Suburb. He makes the wise and succinct point – based on his acclaimed research – that “The key to affordable housing is not to concentrate it and to build and maintain it so that it blends in.”
The need for affordable housing is a major concern across the country: how best to design it; how to incorporate it into communities so that it strengthens them; how to add backyard and other accessory units into the overall mix of options. Developing a greater mix of affordable solutions is an economic development priority in particular on Long Island – where Build a Better Burb’s publisher, the Rauch Foundation, is located.
Each of the upcoming articles will look at a creative take on the topic, revealing the thinking and designs behind some of the most appealing solutions anywhere – ones that demonstrate how attractive affordable housing can be, if impressively conceived and designed, no matter its size or cost. The series will also build on previous related Build a Better Burb articles such as these:
Proposal for Accessory Housing in Levittown from original Build a Better Burb Competition (Be Bold Contest)
Adapting the First Ring Suburbs to Today’s Family: Increasing Density in Levittown
Accessory Dwelling: Increase Density & Opportunity
In-laws, Outlaws, and Granny Flats
In-Laws, Outlaws & Granny Flats
Triumph over Fear (Q&A with Paul Pontieri)
Triumph Over Fear: Q&A with Paul Pontieri, Mayor of the Village of Patchogue, NY
Articles in this Series
M Station Housing
Mixed-Use Mueller
Grödians Affordable Housing
Integrated ADUs
BE PART OF THE CONVERSATION
Follow @betterburb