Katherine Swenson is the VP of National Design Initiatives
at Enterprise Community Partners. She was winner of the Rose Architectural
Fellowship offered by Enterprise, and later opened community design center in
Charlottesville. She joined the Enterprise team to help grow the organization
that supported her.
Key points from her presentation:
- Enterprise has helped deliver a total of $6 billion in low-income housing projects, $3.5 billion of which went to the construction of 40,000 green home
- “I want to write a prescription for a healthy home” was a quote that Kate shared from Dr. Megan Sandel who worked with children from low-income communities.
- 30% of Americans are housing insecure (39.8 Million Households) and 50% are cost burdened by housing expenses - leaving only %20 of Americans fully housing secure.
- Enterprises slogan is “well designed homes made affordable, with connections to opportunities for a good life”. They strive to explore how housing can solve for more things. They function under that belief that good design is not specifically about style but the relevance to the context
- Housing and finance policies have had a great impact on the current housing situation in the US.
- During the redlining on neighborhoods in the 1930’s, neighborhood were evaluated through “neighborhood descriptors” that facilitated racism. “Negro Influence” was a common “detrimental influence” which made African American neighborhoods a target for disinvestment.
- More recently, forces such as gentrification and “slum lords” continue to further target minority and low-income neighborhoods
- The policies enacted by the federal government through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have a great influence on the design of low-income housing projects. Examples close to campus are the Alice Taylor Apartments which reflects the Housing Act of 1934 and the Mission Main Apartments which reflect the improvement in design quality mandated by HOPE IV (1992) as seen in the images below.
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- HUD yearly grants states $2.35 per resident as a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) that fund low-income housing projects
- Every year, each state creates a Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) which determines how the tax credit is spent to reflect the priorities of the state. Community developers apply for the credit, and investors can buy credits in return for equity in the project.
- An average low-income housing project is 70% funded through the LIHTC allocated by the QAP, and 30% by other sources such as cities, grants or philanthropist, each coming with their own requirements for the project.
- LIHTC rewards come after pre-development is over, therefore design costs are paid by the developer or other sources. This lack of funding is not an incentive to invest in high quality design. Enterprise works on prioritizing design in the pre-development phase because they believe that design excellence improves lives.
- Lack of maintenance of low-income housing due to lack of funding also greatly reduces the design quality of a development and the value of the investment made in low-income housing
- Enterprise focuses on the subjects of cultural and climate resistance and trauma
- In one of their projects which featured single room occupancy for chronically homeless individuals, after one year, they achieved a 98% rate for occupant housing stability because they invested in community focused design and support. The current average for stability rates is only 65%. Using a study of 5 major US cities, they determined that supportive housing saves the state $26,000 per year per person due to a reduction in the costs of ER visits and incarceration, proving that the over-all savings justifies the cheaper early investment in design.
- Enterprise is funded %50 by private philanthropy, %30 by Section 4 funding and 20% through earned income (financing)
One lingering thought from her presentation is that the mortgage
interest deduction on the federal income tax is practically a form of housing
aid, even if it is not administered through HUD or is tagged as “Low-Income”.