How big MUST your home be?

A way that many communities try to increase their tax base is to deliberately target a higher-income population, and often a way to do this is to increase the minimum lot size required for a home, or other zoning and ordinance tricks to weed out lower-income populations. The problem, of course, is those communities end up segregating themselves economically and becoming more and more difficult for their young people to remain in the community as first-time homebuyers.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has examined this and other regulatory issues for years in their Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse (unsurprisingly, Waukesha was one of the examples they cited).

The May 2009 issue of Breakthroughs examines how developers are scaling back for affordability.

"According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in the past 20 years the median sized single-family home increased 617 square feet, while household size has steadily decreased since the 1940s."A developer, KB Home (one of nation's largest homebuilders) has created a two-bedroom home starting at 880 sq ft. Consider that City of Pewaukee's ordinance requires a minimum first-floor area of 1,200 sq ft for new homes. For homes of four or more bedrooms, the minimum total sq ft is 1,700. Can a scaled-back home by KB Home be built in Pewaukee? Or another Waukesha County community?

"KB chief Jeffrey Mezger says the mini-houses are a return to his industry's roots in post-World War II communities such as Levittown, N.Y., where 800 square feet was a typical home size. "Any time there's been an age of exuberance and then the economy turns," he says, "people get back to 'What do I need?' rather than 'What could I buy?'"

The Metropolitian Builders Association is already very concerned about the impact of zoning requirements, and in their Regional Housing Strategy, one of the recommendations is to "allow for housing with a minimum of 1,100 square feet and lot sizes at ¼ of an acre. " That wouldn't even allow KB Home or any other builders with a line of scaled-back homes to build some of their homes under those guidelines, but definitely a step in the right direction.

The proposal by the Waukesha County Affordable Housing Task Force for a Housing Trust Fund does not include any zoning changes or requirements. However, a Housing Trust Fund will not be, and cannot be, the whole answer to affordable housing in any community. Communities must re-evaluate their zoning ordinances, especially if they want their children to be able to buy homes in the community they grew up in. A recognition of those difficult economic times and the demand for affordable homes couldn't hurt, either.

In Defense of Rental Housing

One of my pet peeves has been the disproportionate focus on homeownership, both as a matter of federal policy (HUD's emphasis on homeownership, the number of homebuyer counseling agencies vs rental counseling agencies), and as a matter of local policy in the form of City of Waukesha's examination of the proportion of housing and deciding that they'd prefer a higher proportion of homeowners. The City of Waukesha is far from being alone in that.

The President of the National Multi-Housing Council did a stirring presentation to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors on April 28, 2009 on the need for rental housing. The presentation can be found here and the presentation plus the speech transcript can be found here .

The presentation makes four key points:

• America wants rental housing.


• America needs rental housing.


• Renters—be they affordable renters or lifestyle renters—are not second-class citizens.


• There is a growing disconnect between America's housing needs and its current housing policy.

This is something that suburban communities such as those in Metro Milwaukee area would be well-served to remember-that growth in the future includes a good range of rental housing options.

Why I Support a Waukesha Housing Trust Fund

Second in a continuing series of "interviews" of our endorsers, boosters, and volunteers. Next up is Becky Steffes, one of our hard-working volunteers who has done a tremendous amount of research on the various ways to fund our proposal.

I am involved with the Creating Communities Campaign because creating adequate affordable housing is not just a political nor an economic issue; it is a moral issue. A community which welcomes diversity of housing is one which embraces and protects all of its citizens. And I believe that it is in only by building such inclusive communities that Martin Luther King’s ‘arc of the moral universe’ will truly bend toward justice.