Jonathan Rose
President
Affordable Housing Development Corporation

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The Affordable Housing Development Corporation (AHDC) collaborates with cities, towns, villages and community development organizations (CDO's) to develop affordable housing and mixed use projects.

We try to create physical, financial, and social models that can be duplicated by others.

Our work is shaped by four principles that we think increase the ecological and cultural health of human settlements: environmental responsibility, diversity, right livelihood, and awareness of interdependence.

We believe that healthy developments emerge when municipalities and the private sector focus on values first, and view profit as only one of the many outcomes of their activities. AHDC chooses projects that help us and our host city or CDO to create a duplicable model of environmentally responsible development (ERD).

We focus on innovative solutions to issues that arise in the planning, design, financing, construction and ongoing operations of each project. Making projects profitable is as much a matter of course as paying our mortgage bills; it's built into the structure of the process, but is not what drives our vision. Just as we have never been a day late in any mortgage payment, so we have always made a return on our projects. We believe that this financial success flows from our attention to our principles of development.

Basing development on civic values is not new. For example, the traditional New England town center was formed by four buildings and a square – the town hall, which represented governance; the library, knowledge; the courthouse, the seat of justice; and the church, the spirit. The square itself represented the commons: community, a civil society, shared resources. When one came to the square, one was informed by these values through the presence of what were usually the finest buildings.

If the physical form of a city is its hardware, and the culture of a city is its software, there is a co-evolving relationship between the hardware and software of cities.

Today our cities are dominated by retail malls or large office buildings which represent materialism and the corporation. The co-evolving culture and civic typology that result are not healthful. We believe each community must identify its core values, and then organize itself around them.

Environmental Responsibility

The current western pattern of development and consumption when combined with the world's population growth is unsustainable. We do not see how our materialistic culture can be truly sustainable, although its environmental impact can be lessened. For example, all of our work includes the use of some fossil fuels. Compare the rate at which fossil fuels are formed with the rate at which our least energy-consumptive places use them, and it takes a lot of hubris to call what we build sustainable.

On the other hand, it is important to acknowledge that many of us are trying to make our work environmentally sound. We have thus chosen to use the phrase environmentally responsible development, or ERD, to express the kind of work we strive to do. It is still a bit presumptuous, but it indicates that we take environmental responsibility as a ground condition of our work.

Environmentally Responsible Development:

• acknowledges that the Earth, bioregions, metropolitan areas and our communities are nested, interdependent systems, and seeks to minimize harmful impacts to the whole.
  
  
• uses resources efficiently and then minimizes waste by using waste as resources (Bill McDonough describes this as "waste equals food").
  
  
• follows the form of natural systems, which are defined by their limits and strengthened by their connections.
  
  
• preserves and reintegrates natural systems.

In practice, environmentally responsible development begins by choosing the right place to build, and proceeds by being conscious about how we build and how its residents will live and work. The concrete steps towards environmentally responsible development are to:

• Choose the right location for developments–on or adjacent to already developed main streets or in other mixed-use areas, adjacent to train and bus lines, so that it will be possible to walk, bike or use mass transit. The first requirement for all AHDC's projects is that they be in a location that reduces a family's auto trips, such as within walking distance of mass transit, a main street or a community or school.
  
  
• Develop inside urban growth boundaries (UGB's) by building cities and villages with clear boundaries beyond which development does not sprawl. Infill and rehabilitation are crucial to revitalizing existing centers of development and preventing environmental destruction outside these areas. This both increases land values inside the UGB and provides for a contiguous ecosystem outside the UGB. This also preserves agricultural lands.
  
  
• Preserve natural connections inside and outside the UGB. The preservation of some natural land within cities in the form of parks and gardens is essential to making cities livable and attractive. Meanwhile, land outside of the UGB needs to remain in a contiguous natural state if it is to support a diverse and healthy ecology. Natural wildlife corridors, such as rivers, canyons and bays, should be preserved wherever possible.
  
  
• Re-use existing buildings, infrastructures and materials wherever possible. Once we have taken land from its natural state, we have an obligation to use it well. Renovation of existing buildings decreases sprawl and creates a continuum of culture. Using existing infrastructure saves money that would be spent on extending water, sewer, roads, etc. When new construction is a natural part of an expanding community, recycled building materials should be used as much as possible.

For example, in the Village of Irvington, New York, the 120-year old Burnham Building, which once housed Irvington's largest employer, has been vacant for several years. AHDC, the Village of Irvington and the Greyston Foundation are redeveloping the building into a 10,000 square foot public library, community meeting room and 24 units of low income housing above. The site is perfect for all these uses, on a busy main street, adjacent to bus lines and a train station. Using this building rather than building a new structure has many advantages: Low income housing is being built in a location where the residents won't need a car. Not only will they shop on Main Street, but store owners will be able to house workers locally. The infrastructure and building are being reused, saving the manufacture of new materials. The brick building has sufficient thermal mass to permit us to use the latest (and oldest) techniques for heating and cooling space in an energy efficient way. Providing housing for low income families in a community with a median income of $90,000 certainly increases diversity, allowing, for example, village employees, volunteer firefighters, ambulance corps and police officers, and teachers to live in the village.

An important benefit of re-using this building is that it revitalizes an important piece of the local history. The site was on the shore of the Hudson River (prior to landfill which extended the shoreline) and was a summer oystering camp for the local Native Americans. It was then settled by Dutch farmers in the 1600's, and was the location of Washington Irving's "Tales of the Sleepy Hollow." The Burnham Building was built during the industrial age to manufacture iron boilers and greenhouse frames. With the development of a state of the art library, the site will have been home to indigenous, agrarian, industrial and information cultures.

Diversity

Human settlements are complex adaptive systems which thrive when they are diverse, and stagnate and become vulnerable when they become monocultures. Current zoning and public policy in the USA have tended to create monocultures, separating residential zones from places of work and further separating residential zones into various housing types (multifamily, townhouse, single family, etc.). Unfortunately, this development pattern is following the flow of Western money, and is emerging in Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and many large cities. Healthy communities mix activities–residences, places of work, marketplaces, public places and centers for education and spiritual search. The various uses support each other (residents shop at local stores, office workers walk to work, children can walk from school to park or library, etc.) and minimize auto trips. A mix of uses also acts as a defense during economic swings that may affect a portion of the economy. Diversity increases when the size of component elements is smaller relative to the scale of the whole. We are always surprised that lending institutions prefer to lend to projects that have one large tenant rather than many small tenants. Time and time again we see large, single use buildings in bankruptcy because Walmart or IBM moved out and no-one moved in. Projects that are flexible enough to serve a wide variety of users have much higher lifetimes occupancy rates.

Communities are also strengthened by cultural diversity. We know that neighborhoods that are filled with predominantly one income group, whether very high or very low, tend to breed problems (although different types of problems). AHDC only develops projects that increase the diversity of the community in which we build. The remarkably obvious consequence of this practice is that we develop to fill unfilled needs, and therefore our projects usually have little competition. Thus, our projects have always been economically successful.

For example, as a result of the recession of the late 1980's, the city of Denver's downtown was in steep decline. In response, the city issued bonds to support retail development, but no retailers came. We felt the reason was that not enough people lived in the downtown, which was dominated by office buildings that emptied out at 5 PM. Working with the city, AHDC redeveloped a large department store in the center of the city into a mix of affordable housing, market rate housing, office and retail, creating a healthier mix of uses in the downtown. Following our economic and design model, 14 other mixed use projects have been completed–bringing residential population, changing the character of the city. The downtown retail now thrives because it is manifested in 14 unique, market-responsive projects rather than in one monocultural megamall.

Right Livelihood

How do we spend our work days? What is the quality of our lives, and the lives of those we work with? How does this impact our children, spouses and parents? Right livelihood should enhance the quality of the way we all live.

Development and community building should be planned so as to support the quality and content of our work life, and its seamless connection with our family life. The anomie felt by many Americans comes from the disconnection between how they live and what they believe.

Our economic development program should focus on livelihoods rather than jobs. A livelihood is a full, balanced life, part of which is meaningful work that supports needs, but that also supports a sustainable, holistic world view. Community design plays a significant role in creating livelihoods. The information age increasingly allows us to work where we live–whether we work with our hands or our minds. We now need to update our community plans to accommodate this shift. The more the economic activity of a community cycles within the community, the better is it able to sustain itself.

We recently worked on the design of the Carbondale Community School, a village organized around education and values. For example, the plan for the school has no classrooms for shop, music and art. Rather, it is an adjacent main street and town square, with artists live/work studios, to be rented at below-market rents in exchange for teaching time. Under this plan, students apprentice at a furniture makers rather than go to "shop;" they apprentice with artists and composers and software designers rather than go to art or music class. Housing and daycare affordable to school employees is within walking distance so that parents can be present in their children's lives.

In Santa Fe, New Mexico, we developed Second Street Studios, a series of squares surrounded by very flexible buildings, designed for living, working, selling and making. Our tenants include a glass blower, a salsa maker, a software designer, a yoga studio, a color separator, an art print maker, an art school–65 unique businesses. The owners of start up businesses often work day and night. If they can live where they work, the can reduce their rental expenses and commute time. We know this is conducive to success, because over seven years we have housed hundred of businesses, some of which have been with us since day one, but many of whom have moved on because they outgrew their spaces.

Awareness of Interdependence

In the creation of a viable development, ideas, resources and constraints must come from many participants. AHDC often works in public/private partnerships, with non-profit clients, and with community/business joint ventures, to gather input on a variety of viewpoints and needs. Moreover, we believe a development is healthier if it increases human interaction. The beauty of interdependence is that it increases the energy and information flows in a system, and thus its health. Finally, there is a spiritual dimension to enhancing our sense of interdependence, as it gives us a sense of the wholeness of life and consciousness.

The concept of interdependence unifies the three previous principles. Materials that are refuse when viewed linearly become resources when viewed cyclically. Industrialists and environmentalists, often antagonists, enhance each other when they work toward common goals. Livelihoods are intertwined; the way we live affects other people.

We are working with a collaboration of many groups to build a very large urban recycling mill in the South Bronx. Our team includes a local community development organization (Banana Kelly Community Improvement Association), an environmental group (the Natural Resources Defense Council), Scandinavian and English industrialists, the City of New York, the State of New York and others. The project is based on the concept of interdependence at all levels by virtue of its thoughtful re-use of currently isolated or discarded resources.

There is more fiber per acre in waste paper in New York than in an acre of Brazilian rain forest. Waste paper is New York City's largest export. Rather than export it, we plan to reuse it, keeping the jobs and income in the area. This way, economic development will stem from re-use of waste. Paper recycling is water intensive – the mill will use three million gallons of water a day, most of which will come by reusing the outfall of a nearby sewage treatment plant. The project is utilizing despoiled industrial land, an underused rail system, waste water, and unemployed South Bronx residents as inputs into a $400 million plan. Alone, each is a reject. Together, a sumptuous meal.

We can increase the elegance and integration of what we build by using design rather than materials, and information rather than energy. Our experience indicates that environmentally responsible development is financially feasible. Once we clarify the principles that organize our work, it becomes much simpler to know what and where to build, and when not to.

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