Housing anew:

An Attainable, Scalable, Sustainable and Fast  Solution to California’s Housing Crisis

Housing_anew is centered on the housing question, and is based on a collaboration between the City of San Diego’s Development and Planning services, the Housing Subcommittee of the Strategic Roundtable of the Economic Development Corporation (EDC), and non-profit organizations, such as Catholic Charities, that find themselves in need for “Average Medium Income” housing units. Typologically, these alternatives focus on addressing the scale of urban infill multifamily (four story buildings at 150-200 units per acre), but also the “missing middle” (10-15 detached units in lots of 0.3-0.5 of an acre); with 100% of the units serving Average Medium Income levels.

The purpose of the Housing_anew project is to demonstrate how partnerships between private and public entities can provide radically new solutions towards solving the current challenges posed by the lack of obtainable housing in our local community, and effectively respond to the city, state and national housing crisis. Regionally, one of Southern California’s most pressing need is to provide fit housing for people who are earning from 80%- 120% of AMI (Area Medium Income) and seniors. Numerous national studies have shown that the lives of those in these income brackets are determined, in both positive and negative ways by their zip code. The lack of affordable housing is perhaps the single most contributing factor to this form of social injustice and racial inequity.

In an effort to solve the affordability crisis in San Diego, Housing_anew proposes to research and design an innovative, modular, prefabricated prototype for an urban infill site that will aim to be significantly lower in construction costs and can be replicated to minimize the time it takes to bring housing to the market.