Defining “Housing”

The Statesman recently published this article about a report which calls attention to the lack of affordable housing in Austin’s city center. By comparing the density of affordable housing (that is the number of affordable housing units per acre) between 1998 and 2008, the report concludes that nearly all affordable housing in central Austin has disappeared in the last ten years. One problem with the report, though, is that it defines “housing” only as “detached single-family units.”

The notion that the detached, single-family house is the only adequate model of housing is both preposterous and outdated. While I’ll concede that many of the multifamily buildings in central Austin probably don’t qualify as “affordable,” it’s no excuse not to include them in the study. Doing so is just as unrealistic as creating a different study that defines housing as only multifamily units. It is understandable that in such a study Austin’s outer suburbs would show a large deficit in affordable housing. Just as that study would be unfair to the suburbs, this study is unfair to the inner-city.

The way the study is reported by the Statesman, seems to take the position that single-family homes are the desirable form of housing for the city of Austin, and while I’m not suggesting that everyone should want to live in a downtown apartment or condo, I am suggesting that we as a city begin to reevaluate how we define housing. Condos are not right for everyone, but nor are single-family homes. The purpose of encouraging density in key areas around Austin is not to trivialize the importance of the white-picket-fence single-family home, nor the cultural values it represents, but to provide a different form of housing to appeal to a different demographic of the city’s population. In the coming years it is less important for Austin to decide on a particular style of housing that it will promote, and more important for the city to encourage the development of a variety of housing styles in which different tastes can be satisfied while adjusting to the unique conditions brought on by the high rate of population growth Austin has enjoyed for the past several decades.

It simply isn’t realistic to assume that the single-family home is the birthright or every American, or even that owning one is the ultimate goal of every Austinite. Affordable housing is an important and pressing issue for the city of Austin, but it won’t be solved by focusing on only one type of housing style. While I’m far from suggesting that we reinstitute the vertical ghettos of public housing popular in the 1950’s and 60’s, I am advocating a pragmatic, realistic and progressive approach to Austin’s affordable housing situation that respects the city’s middle and working class residents by acknowledging that, just like their wealthy counterparts, they might not see single family home ownership as the best solution to their housing needs.