Affordable Housing is a Priority Concern for City Planners
When employees can’t find affordable housing (YVHA, 2023, p. 3):
- Workforce declines or cannot grow to meet demand
- Businesses are at risk of leaving the area or failing
In addition, social service agencies can fail to meet local needs:
- Municipalities may begin to experience a shortage of teachers, nurses, police, and service industry workers
- Nonprofits have reduced hours and services because they can’t hire workers
Owners Sharing Living Space Should Be Exempted From Some Regulations
Fair housing laws are important and necessary, however, they shouldn’t apply to every housing situation. Certainly someone renting a self-contained unit across town should be prevented from making a prejudiced renter selection. However, renting a room in one’s house is a different matter. Airbnb rentals are one way around this, but this platform is set up for short term rentals. ICmatch is one way to meet long-term demand for non-conventional rental situations. It makes use of the existing housing stock in the following ways:
- Vulnerable elderly homeowners can find people they feel they can trust.
- People who don’t rent at all, because they don’t trust renters to care for their property, can select renter characteristics.
- With a framing of community rather than purely transactional rentals, people don’t have to open their semi-private spaces to people whose values may clash with theirs.
- Property owners can make more flexible and unconventional arrangements, such as accepting partial payment in building maintenance or upgrade.
Community Types Sought as Affordable Housing
Many single young adults have explored the following options for affordable housing.
Two of the family-oriented community types also focus on affordability.
See the Community Types page for other housing that may be sought as affordable housing.
Rental housing: search tips page, which includes options for work trade for housing and how to set up a shared rental house.