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It is not hard to design a building to be
affordable. It is a matter of a careful selection of materials, low
cost land, and a low cost building process. That is the easy
part. Here is the hard part:
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to design it in such a way that it can be acceptable to a community,
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to be located in an area that serves the transportation needs of its
residents
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to have operating costs, including energy and maintenance costs
affordable for the long term,
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and finding low cost labour and building processes.
The last ingredient necessary it is a committed developer who cares for the well-being of the residents
as much as gaining personal profit.
Lots of homes are being built. Nearly all are for the mid to high
end market because that is where the profits are to be made. It is
not that we are against making a profit in developing housing, but it is
that the private sector, despite government promises, are not delivering
affordable housing. Government and the
private sector must work together to create the conditions for
affordability. A good place to start is to ensure that the true cost
of land at the edge of a city is factored into the cost of
production. Also, paying for affordable housing should be part of
the cost of housing that is not affordable, a disincentive as it were to
serve only those with wealth. Socialism? Not
really. It is simply a recognition that poverty housing is a result
of a development process that does not recognize the true social, much
less the environmental costs of serving only one segment of the society. |
