Affordable Housing Challenges and Recommendations

Around the world, the cost of housing continues to rise faster than income growth. The attainability of affordable housing is increasingly important, and the factors impacting access vary from country to country, city to city. We are focused on research that underpins our design solutions for affordable housing, now and in the coming future. Our goal in sharing this evolving research platform is to provide the background and case precedents that can swing the pendulum to inclusive solutions. We looked at the underlying challenges for affordable housing and focused on how we can support communities to improve a number of issues, from occupant health and well-being, social stability, and further on the urban scale, issues of increased traffic and negative environmental impacts related to urban sprawl.

This research provides an overview of four major aspects of realizing affordable housing. Included is a summary of issues related to land acquisition, financing, design & construction, as well as program delivery related to eligibility. The last chapters provide a set of case studies and recommendations to stakeholders, from the government to the private sector. There are no single shoe-horned solutions for affordable housing, but there are many innovations worldwide that benefit from a cross-fertilization of practice and precedent. 

This summary of research topics is meant as an ongoing “whiteboard’’ of collected information that benefits from participation from the public, policymakers and industry experts. We welcome feedback and input to our research by sending an email to imola@womoarchitects.com.