Final Report: 100 Great Ideas For Improving Housing Affordability
We’re thrilled to share the final report from the 100 Great Ideas: Housing Affordability campaign.
In November 2017, 2500 South Floridians participated in an online brainstorm called “100 Great Ideas” focused on sourcing top ideas to improve housing affordability in our region. Local non-profits and advocates helped facilitate the conversation and by the end of the week, locals generated over 250 unique solutions to this complex challenge.
In the final report, we’ve organized these ideas into ten overarching themes:
Innovate with Housing Strategies: Consider community land trusts, co-living, co-ops, mixed-use and mixed-income housing.
Consider the Greater Affordability Picture: Take other cost of living factors into consideration factors, including transit, health, utilities, wages, and emergency assistance opportunities.
Engage and Empower the Community in Decision-Making: Employ strategies that increase citizen participation and community oversight and aid in coordinating advocacy efforts.
Leverage Taxes: Introduce taxes that dually incentivize consistent occupancy and local ownership and generate tax revenue to fund affordable housing development.
Modify State and Local Policy: Update building and zoning codes as well as pricing mechanisms to increase affordable housing stock, decrease construction costs and decrease number of cost-burdened individuals.
Expand and Protect Funding: Create housing trust funds, leverage dollars and ensure that funds are used appropriately. Centralize information about funding, financing and advocacy opportunities.
Explore Sustainable and Affordable Building Materials: Permit building materials and methods that are environmentally friendly, climate resilient and reduce development timelines and costs.
Protect and Utilize Existing Resources: Preserve currently affordable units and take advantage of public land for public good.
Reduce Cost of Building and Preserving Properties: Lower construction costs, streamline permitting, and disincentivize land speculation.
Build Holistic Communities: Consider programs and initiatives that help build successful, connected, and inclusive communities.
There is no silver bullet that will solve our housing affordability crisis, but enacting many of these solutions together will seriously move the needle. Read the final report to check out the top themes and ideas and find a few you’re willing to throw your weight behind: www.radical.partners/100greatideas.
The release of this report coincides with the passing of City of Miami’s Miami Forever Bond, of which $100 million is earmarked for affordable housing, as well as the development stages of the Greater Miami and the Beaches resilience strategy. This report is a megaphone for the community’s voice, concerns, and priorities. Thank you to the following elected and community members and/or their staffs, who have met with us to review top solutions:
Daniella Levine Cava, Miami-Dade County Commissioner (District 8)
Bruno Barreiro, Miami-Dade County Commissioner (District 5)
Joe Martinez, Miami-Dade County Commissioner (District 11)
Sally Heyman, Miami-Dade County Commissioner (District 4)
Ken Russell, City of Miami Commissioner (District 2)
Jane Gilbert, City of Miami Chief Resilience Officer
Joseph Eisenberg, Planner II at the City of Miami
Alfredo Duran, Deputy Director of the City of Miami Community & Economic Development Department
Ryan Shedd, Planner II at the City of Miami
Vanessa Dornisch, Resilience Coordinator at Miami-Dade County
Maria Escorcia, Vice President, Relationship Manager South Florida, Global Philanthropy, JPMorgan Chase
We will continue to elevate ideas generated during the campaign and shared in the report. Please join the “100 Great Ideas” Facebook group to hear updates!
Thank you to our campaign sponsor, JPMorgan Chase & Co., who enabled us to launch this campaign as well as aggregate and share the voices of our community. In addition, many thanks to the incredible organizations who served as campaign guest hosts: Catalyst Miami, Community Justice Project, Engage Miami, Miami Homes For All, Miami-Dade NAACP, New Florida Majority, South Florida Community Development Coalition, South Florida Community Land Trust, University of Miami Office of Civic and Community Engagement, and United Way of Miami-Dade.