Rural
Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) facilitated discussions
between affordable housing providers and environmentalists as part
of a consensus-building project on affordable housing and sustainable
rural communities in California.
Representatives from environmental groups, including the Sierra
Club, Planning and Conservation League, Audubon Society, American
Farmland Trust and others, met with affordable housing advocates,
including representatives from Mercy Housing, California Coalition
for Rural Housing (CCRH), Community Housing Opportunities Corporation,
Community Housing Improvement Program and RCAC to discuss how they
could work together to alleviate problems traditionally encountered
in developing and maintaining affordable housing communities. CCRH,
the University of California at Davis, the California Department
of Housing and the U.S. Department of Agriculture sponsored the
working group.
"The group decided to develop a set of principles all of the
environmental and housing organizations could adopt," said
Hector Fernandez, former CCRH employee, now an RCAC evaluation specialist.
"The principles demonstrate why affordable housing is an environmental
issue and why it is important for all environmental groups to support
affordable housing measures.
Fernandez noted that many of the environmental group representatives
have taken that set of principles back to their organizations' boards
and policy committees to have it reviewed and to pass it on to their
memberships.
Karl Ory, an RCAC housing manager, facilitated the ongoing meetings.
"We found agreement around 'smart growth' ideas. We now have
environmentalists speaking up at city council meetings to back affordable
housing, and housing organizations are more sensitive to siting
and design issues. This is a historic accord with potentially far-reaching
benefits," he said.
The affordable housing and environmental groups reached the following
statement of agreement.
Why should environmentalists support quality affordable housing?
Today, environmentalism is evolving. Environmental protection is
no longer only about preserving open space, natural resources and
air and water quality, but about enhancing overall quality of life.
And at the heart of quality of life is the quality of our most immediate
habitat our homes and neighborhoods.
An environmentalism that concerns itself solely with the natural
environment overlooks the strong interconnection between the natural
and built environments. The location and design of the built environment,
especially residential development, and the persistence of housing
and neighborhood problems have a fundamental impact on the natural
environment, which environmentalists cannot and should not ignore.
Suburban sprawl is perhaps the most visible example of how development
patterns within the built environment affect the natural environment.
Poorly planned, sprawling subdivisions harm the environment by exhausting
open space and agricultural and natural lands; destroying plant
and animal habitats; increasing traffic congestion and air and water
pollution; straining water resources and sewage treatment capacity;
disrupting natural flood and fire cycles; and creating even more
demand for new highways, services, shopping and land.
Yet, sprawl continues, in large part, because of two factors: the
persistence of poor-quality housing and decaying infrastructure
in older cities, suburbs and small towns; and the lack of affordable
housing in more desirable locations. These factors are a major motivating
force for the out-migration of low- to middle-income families to
newer suburbs, edge cities and rural areas. Many families are moving
further away to find the affordable homes, lower crime rates, good
schools, quality local services and open space that most people
desire.
In some cases, new homes are being built far from jobs that concentrate
in strong economic markets with high housing costs. Long commute
times not only exacerbate air pollution problems and increase energy
consumption, but also weaken the social fabric of communities and
families.
In California, many groups are affected by the lack of quality,
affordable housing, but low- and moderate-income families are the
most vulnerable. Poor housing conditions and inadequate supplies
of affordable housing impact and, in turn, are impacted by the surrounding
environment.
Many lower-income families in existing communities pay well over
half of their limited incomes for housing, some of which is substandard.
Over-paying for housing leaves little disposable income for basic
health care and other necessities. Poor-quality housing increases
energy costs and consumption. It also poses physical threats to
occupants from structural defects, asbestos and lead-based paint,
faulty wiring and sewage contamination, while contributing to overall
neighborhood blight.
Families with limited housing options often live in neighborhoods
threatened with external environmental hazards, including high levels
of air and water pollutants and brownfields or vacant sites containing
toxic contaminants.
Increasingly, multiple families live in a single house or apartment
to be closer to work, services and social networks, which increases
traffic, parked cars and other impacts of overcrowding on neighborhoods.
In rural areas, agricultural workers too-often live in shoddy housing
conditions where soil, air and water are contaminated by dangerous
pesticides.
People without any housing at all find what shelter they can on
the streets, in public parks, along rivers or beaches or in other
make-shift accommodations not fit for human habitation or proper
waste disposal.
The environmental costs of not doing anything or doing too little
to address chronic shortages of quality, affordable housing in our
cities, suburbs and small towns are too great to neglect. In recognition
of the importance of affordable housing in protecting the natural
environment, a new alliance can be formed between environmentalists
and affordable housing developers and advocates around a common
set of goals. Community-based nonprofit developers, in particular,
have a social vision and are committed to providing high-quality,
services-enriched housing for lower-income families that promotes
resident self-sufficiency and community sustainability.
To limit the impetus for continued sprawl, environmentalists and
affordable housing developers and advocates should together call
for a policy of reinvestment in older cities, suburbs and small
towns. Reinvestment should include repair and construction of critical
infrastructure and development of affordable housing to revitalize
older communities into vibrant, mixed-income communities that are
more attractive to existing and prospective residents. Affordable
housing developers have historically focused their efforts on rebuilding
aging neighborhoods, thereby easing the pressure to develop in new
areas.
Environmentalists, affordable housing developers and advocates
should work together to promote "green" developments on
in-fill sites in existing cities, suburbs, and small towns and to
promote compact, mixed-use, mixed-income developments in areas planned
for new growth. Affordable housing developers are elders in creating
innovative, energy-efficient, cost-saving designs that use recyclable
and low-impact materials, and in building pedestrian- and transit-oriented
communities with onsite open space for use by residents and, in
some cases, the general public. Local governments and property owners
should be encouraged to dedicate vacant and under-utilized sites
to such developers for adaptive re-use and construction of affordable
housing.
Environmentalists, affordable housing developers and advocates
should collaborate in growth management efforts. Urban growth boundaries
and other local growth control measures must take into account the
need for families of all income ranges to live in decent and affordable
housing within the communities of their choice. Proper zoning, land
approvals, expedited processing, fee concessions and subsidies are
needed to increase the certainty and affordability of projects.
Affordable housing developers and environmentalists desire to build
sustainable communities that are economically viable, have a high
quality of life and preserve open countryside on the periphery.
Environmentalists, affordable housing developers and advocates
should promote a jobs-housing balance that links affordable housing
provision to job sites and transit stations and rewards communities
adding affordable housing to job-rich areas or employers to housing-rich
areas. In rural areas, building quality affordable housing in existing
communities near farms, resorts and other job centers will preserve
the economic base of these communities, while preserving rural land,
values and ways of life.
Environmentalists, affordable housing developers and advocates
should work together to promote reduction and clean up of environmental
hazards threatening residents and neighborhoods and for decent,
healthful, affordable housing for agricultural workers.
Finally, environmentalists, affordable housing developers and advocates
must join together in a commitment to social equity and must work
for the inclusion of lower-income families in new and existing communities.
Affordable housing promotes economic integration. Environmentalists
can be valuable partners in efforts to achieve community acceptance,
meet local regulations, and gain funding and political support for
affordable housing that builds a just society and contributes to
environmental protection. Likewise, affordable housing providers
can be valuable partners in supporting new parks, natural resource
protection, agricultural land preservation, public transit and other
environmental and community assets.
This agreement was produced by the Affordable Housing and Environment
Working Committee of the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Rural
Communities Project with partial funding from the Great Valley Center.
Pacific Mountain Network News (November 2000)
Newsletter of the Rural Community Assistance Corporation, dedicated
to improving the quality of life for rural communities.
www.rcac.org
RCAC is a major resource for the rural west.
Our core services include technical assistance and financing for
affordable housing, environmental infrastructure and community facilities.
In 1996 the U.S. Treasury certified RCAC as a Community Development
Financial Institution (CDFI). RCAC believes rural citizens can better
control their own future by creating healthy and sustainable communities.
