Beaumont's Affordable Housing Plan

Problem: Lack of Affordable Housing

 At Beaumont, Texas's City Council Meeting on February 15, 2022, the city identified the need for more affordable housing. While there are currently 22 low-income housing apartment complexes in Beaumont, there is an extensive waiting list of roughly 8,000 people looking to rent affordable housing. Due to this high demand for affordable housing, Beaumont is seeking to address this issue. Fortunately, two developers have proposed new affordable housing units in the city. While there are mixed opinions among the city council over the proposed  location and possible traffic, affordable housing is necessary for Beaumont . By looking to three cities that have addressed the need for affordable housing, such as Austin, Houston, and New York City, Beaumont could then follow in these solution cities’ footsteps and gain the ability to provide future low-income renters with affordable housing options by encouraging developers with building incentives, collaborating with housing organizations and encouraging innovative housing construction.

   The city of Austin  is currently following a strategic housing  blueprint that envisions the creation of 60,000 affordable homes over the course of 10-years at the cost of roughly 6.4 billion dollars. Over the past few years, Austin has created many new homes not only from this blueprint but through the Housing Bonus Program, which permits developers to build more units if they agree to make a portion of them available for low-income renters. By collaborating with these programs and funding this blueprint, Austin has preserved well-located multi-family apartments for long-term affordability, and created more affordable housing options.

  Houston initially sought to reduce the growing homeless population but they discovered that the main contributing factor to the homeless population in the area was high rent prices and a lack of affordable homes. So, Houston devised the Housing First plan to assist in the transition of homeless people to homes and utilized funds from the CARES act to construct more affordable homes in the area.  By using funds to build more affordable units and establishing programs to aid the homeless, the city reduced the prices of rents through fair market competition while simultaneously reducing the homeless population due to low rental rates.

Possible Solution- Option 3: New York, New York method

   New York City is currently following New York state’s idea to develop more affordable housing units through innovative construction and developer incentives. In an effort to reduce pollution and emissions, New York has developed programs to encourage creative and innovative construction such as mass timber framing, and construction utilizing 3D printing which would ultimately reduce the cost of rent for future tenets as well as construction costs. Under New York State's RetrofitNY, a $30 million program, there will be incentives to developers who construct affordable housing units using new technology and a creative design. This program not only provides an environmentally friendly option but also allows city developers to push back some old regulations that prevented the development of more homes.

3D printed home in New York which costs less than 6,000 dollars to print.

https://www.builderonline.com/building/structure-durability/sq4d-inc-builds-worlds-largest-permitted-3d-printed-home-in-calverton-n-y_o