Local Public Design Design to Reshape Local Public Policies

20 September 2012 Tourcoing, France

HOUSING ASSISTANCE Community Building and Shared Responsibility

Eduardo Staszowski Desis Lab | Parsons The New School for Design | NYC

IMPROVING

2

3

Structural holes …develop design strategies to bridge information gaps and narrow areas of disconnection within a social setting, where needed information is not shared due to structural limitations?

Tacit knowledge …make use of participatory design methods to observe and engage citizens in order to reveal the subjective knowledge of individuals and communities?

Heterarchies …flatten hierarchy by creating collaborative networks that generate more opportunities for heterogeneous collaboration?

HOW MIGHT WE…?

Source: Srinivas, N. and Staszowski E.

4

Course: IDC Interface | Home Services | Fall 10 | Students: Micah Spears, Rachel Happ and Chantelle Fuoco

5

…public services could be designed to trigger, orient, support, and scale promising cases of bottom-up social innovation?

…promising social innovations could then become powerful and positive drivers of public innovation?

WHAT IF…

6

Designing Services for Housing

7

During the 1970’s and 1980’s, neighborhoods across New York City experienced wholesale blight and abandonment and the City became NYC’s largest landlord, taking ownership of over 100,000 units of in rem properties.

NYC HOUSING YESTERDAY

Photo: Teresa Zabala/The New York Times

8

By the late 1990’s, New York City experienced a renaissance bringing many neighborhoods back from the brink.

NYC HOUSING YESTERDAY

Source: HPD Photo Archive

9

New York City has had an overall net vacancy rental rate of less than 5% since 1974—the legal definition of a housing emergency. As shown below, vacancy rates among low cost units continue to be significantly below this threshold, while the luxury sector has consistently experienced health vacancy rates above 5%.

NYC HOUSING TODAY

* Rent levels represent monthly contract rent in real 2008 dollars; Source: 2002, 2005, 2008 Housing and Vacancy Survey (U. S. Census Bureau)

10

As the city prospered through the early 2000’s, the stock of in rem housing diminished to less than 1,000 properties midway through the decade. As such, the city had to seek new land, stock and financing strategies to leverage the market and expand the affordable housing stock.

NYC HOUSING TODAY

Source: HPD Performance Metrics Represents total unit count in Occupied and Vacant buildings in the DPM Workload

11

BUT WHAT IS AFFORDABLE HOUSING?

Source: Center for Urban Pedagogy (h6p://envisioningdevelopment.net/affordable‐housing) 

12

“It’s housing that families in certain income categories can occupy for 30% or less of their income.”

But, rent burden is not evenly distributed across income categories. 50% of New York City residents pay more than 30% of their income in rent and 30% pay more than 50% of their income in rent.

This government definition determines which families are eligible to benefit from different affordable housing programs according to different income categories and …

“30% of $1 million is very different from 30% of $20,000!”

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Source: Center for Urban Pedagogy and HPD. 

13

Source: Center for Urban Pedagogy (h6p://envisioningdevelopment.net/affordable‐housing) 

14

Source: Center for Urban Pedagogy (h6p://envisioningdevelopment.net/affordable‐housing) 

15

Source: New York Magazine 

16

Today, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) is the largest municipal developer of affordable housing in the nation.

Quality: HPD code inspectors respond to complaints regarding housing conditions, such as the availability of heat and hot water.

Availability: In 2004, HPD launched the New Housing Marketplace Plan, the most extensive affordable housing development plan in the country to create or preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing.

Affordability: HPD administers the country’s fourth largest Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program to provide a rental subsidy to over 32,000 low income households.

NYC HPD - MISSION

17

With the support of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Cultural Innovation Fund 2012, Public and Collaborative: Designing Services for Housing is a 2-year initiative the NYC Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) and the Public Policy Lab (PPL) to explore innovative ways to improve services related to city-supported affordable housing development and preservation.

http://nyc.pubcollab.org

OUR PROJECT

Source: Center for Urban Pedagogy and HPD. 

18

Fellowships: How-to-Guide and Pilots Implementation

Knowledge Sharing Platform: How-to-Guide, Open Lectures and Un-conference (Year 2)

Academic work: Courses, Papers and Dissertations

PROJECT STRUCTURE

1. Design | 2. Pilot | 3. Evaluate

19

The crash in the market in late 2008 changed the landscape of affordable housing:

NYC HPD - CHALLENGES

2004-2008 2008-Today Challenges •  Rising rents and sales prices

•  Displacement of tenants •  Increasing levels of market rate

development •  Diminishing availability of land

•  Financial distress in multi-family stock •  Diminishing availability and increased cost of

credit •  Falling private investment •  Rising foreclosures •  Increasing signs of physical deterioration

Opportunities/Tools •  Cross-subsidizing mixed income housing

•  Inclusionary zoning •  Rezoning under-utilized land

•  Reclaiming formerly assisted stock •  Preserving existing stock •  Investing in new communities

Source: HPD

20

More foreclosures

HOUSING/ECONOMIC CRISIS

Source: George Galster (Wayne State University) | “After the Crisis: Housing Policy and Finance in the US and UK” Conference. The New School (9/14/12)

Less Homeowners

Lower Property Maintenance

Potential Abandonment More Crime

Less local retail and employment

Lower Quality of Residential and

Economic Life in LMI Communities

21

1.  The housing market in New York is extremely complex to navigate especially in the field of affordable housing. Going through the many government programs and services can be a serious challenge, even for housing and development professionals and community organizations.

2.  The creation of resident-based services and collaborative efforts of residents living in the buildings with investments leveraged by HPD could have a transformative impact in underserved neighborhoods promoting social and economic integration and contributing to the overall success and preservation of the investment.

DESIGN OPPORTUNITIES

22

Innovative networks can be activated when government, tenants, landlords, developers and community groups become partners in designing and providing services for affordable housing.

OUR HYPOTHESIS

23

Source: The Young Foundation/NESTA (2007)

Services and the City | Spring 12 | Faculty: Lara Penin | Students: Judit Boros, Matteo D’Amanzo, Harriette Kim and Molly Oberholtzer

24

Public and Collaborative Services | Spring 12 | Faculty: Ezio Manzini and Eduardo Staszowski | Students: Janet Lorbberecht, Nelson Lo and Jennifer Meyer

25

OUR DESIGN SCENARIO FROM BUILDINGS TO COMMUNITIES: A vision of how HPD might evolve to meet new realities and challenges

•  A series of complimentary innovations proposed across the arc of the HPD’s services

•  Builds on HPD’s history of successful collaboration with private developers and community partners

•  Illustrates the mutual benefit of increased participation in HPD’s services for both the agency and its constituents

26

PILOT PROPOSALS 1.  Development of targeted local

marketing strategies that improve eligibility among communities of greatest need.

2.  Integration of social media as a platform for efficient customer service and supportive community-networking before, during, and after lease-up.

3.  Affordable housing kiosks or “street teams” that activate local networks and connect with potential applicants not reached by other marketing channels.

27

Kiosk

PILOT PROPOSALS 4. Toolkit that provides information,

increases transparency, and aligns expectations for affordable housing applicants and those who assist them.

5. Tools, training, and support for community partners or “sherpas” who assist with marketing and guide housing seekers through the application process.

28

Applicant Toolkit

1.  Co-production: reform vs. devolvement

2.  Right for experimentation: a call for space

3.  Whose voice gets represented

4.  Role of design

PRELIMINARY REFLECTIONS

29

1.  Understand the challenges of service delivery to current and potential users;

2.  Enable residents’ involvement in the design and delivery of local services;

3.  Generate ideas, rapidly prototype and test proposed solutions to gain insight into what works and what doesn’t;

4.  Facilitate strategic conversations among stakeholders.

DESIGN ROLE 1

30

1.  Process Facilitator: generate a dialogue with the community, observe local level practices and knowledge sharing, promote networks and synergies among citizens and other stakeholders

2.  Information and Cross-Cultural Broker: inform the community, translate and visualize complex ideas;

3.  Input Gatherer: map and collect information on local level practices;

4.  Visioning Catalyst: design scenarios of social innovation and prototype ideas.

DESIGN ROLE 2

Source: Staszowski E. (2011).

31

staszowe@newschool.edu http://desis.parsons.edu

@desisparsons

Merci!

The views expressed in this presentaLon do not necessarily reflect the official posiLons or policies of HPD or the City of New York