Biden administration focuses on converting commercial properties to residential use in new affordable housing steps
Biden administration focuses on converting commercial properties to residential use in new affordable housing steps
The Biden administration announced new steps Friday to ensure access to affordable housing, launching a slew of resources to convert high-vacancy commercial buildings to residential use.
This is great! I’m glad it includes provisions for changing zoning laws, that seems to be a major reason for housing shortage in many areas.
I was under the impression that commercial to residential is incredibly impractical because things like plumbing, electric, HVAC are all done very differently for resident and commercial needs.
This sounds good, but I am pretty sure it's prohibitively expensive and impossible in most cases.
Caveat: there was a huge thread on Reddit with engineers and architects talking about these types of plans. That's where I got my info, so I could be way off.
Sure, that's a factor that needs to be considered, but another factor that needs to be considered is the value of the land itself. You can build cheap housing out in the middle of nowhere all you want, but it doesn't matter how cheap it is if there are no jobs to pay for the housing and no services to get stuff like groceries conveniently.
Converting commercial properties to residential is certainly more expensive upfront, but it creates more housing where it actually is needed AND wanted, cities and suburbs.
You pretty much have to strip the interior ripping everything out for a modern office. So no your not of base. But they do turn old warehouses and buildings into apartments and lofts in cities fairly often though.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The Biden administration announced new steps Friday to ensure access to affordable housing, launching a slew of resources to convert high-vacancy commercial buildings to residential use.
The effort is an attempt to address what the administration says is a dearth of much-needed, affordably priced, conveniently located and energy-efficient homes.
As part of Friday’s announcement, the Department of Transportation will release new guidance on more than $35 billion in lending available for transportation-oriented development projects.
According to a fact sheet shared with CNN ahead of the announcement, the administration estimates the guidance “will increase housing supply, while encouraging state and local governments to improve their zoning, land use and transit-oriented development policies.”
“The pandemic really changed the patterns of how many Americans work and live and commute, and right now, across the country, we’re seeing decades-high levels of office vacancies in many downtowns, while at the same time, many of America’s cities and towns face a steep shortage of housing, and families are struggling to afford housing and transportation,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told reporters on a call previewing the announcement Thursday.
HUD will begin accepting applications for $85 million in funding through the Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing program, which makes money available for the development of adaptive reuse strategies and the financing of conversions.
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