Friday, September 5, 2014

SLO: County Needs Affordable Housing - Part II

Introduction: Creating truly Affordable Housing in SLO requires a full-court press. This means that every form of affordable housing must be pursued and implemented. One form of affordable housing is what I like to call "Affordable Green Micro-Housing". It has already been done here in SLO County, around our country, and around the world. It consists of homes primarily in the 200 to 400 square foot range (10 x 20 feet = 200 square feet; 20 x 20 feet = 400 square feet) - that is, bigger than an old-fashioned dorm room with a bathroom and kitchenette, but not by much.

The Need to Attract Affordable Housing: The city of San Luis Obispo works hard to attract businesses to move to SLO. However, it appears to do little to create city policies that would allow those who work here to also live here. This would require policies that promote so-called "workforce housing". "Workforce housing" is a nice word for "Low low low low Income housing". We have many workers in the hospitality / service / tourism / retail industry that cannot afford to live in SLO (or often, anywhere at all - thus, remaining employed and homeless). 


In my opinion, the city of SLO has a moral obligation to allow policies that create low income housing to match the employers that it recruits to move their business here. These would include low per-unit fees for "micro-housing" development and more permitting for high density in-fill within the city, as well as "homesharing" and granny unit development.

*****RESOURCE: TINY HOUSE BUILD.COM 

Web Site (Tiny House Friendly Map of the United States)
According to the "Tiny House Friendly" map of the US, no municipalities in SLO county are shown on the map - not a surprise. Also, much of the current trend in "tiny homes" involves those with high incomes that want to live a simpler, less resource intensive lifestyle. That is, they can afford the "McMansion" but choose to live in a "tiny home".

*****RESOURCE: TENT CAMPS TO TINY HOUSE VILLAGES - A HISTORY
Please consider buying this book: Tent City Urbanism: From Self-Organized Camps to Tiny House Villages by Andrew Heben. It is available for around $16 from Amazon, and you can find it by clicking here. Yes, indeed, there is a "Tiny House" Movement in this country, and I hope we can do some of this in SLO County.
First, let's  take a look at the many different implementations that of "tiny home villages" that are out there now.