A promoted advantage of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) is the fact that their very design creates partially affordable1 housing projects. These projects, with normally a majority of free market homes (but always a substantial number of them), are more acceptable in ‘better’ neighbourhoods. They are more likely to arrive without NIMBY protest battles. When partially affordable housing is situated in better neighbourhoods, it provides a better range of community resources for lower income residents who would normally find affordable housing only in poorer, resource-deprived neighbourhoods.2
However, ‘lift the hood’ on a successful partially affordable project such as the one linked below and you will see the major disadvantage of public private partnerships when staggering numbers of affordable homes are needed.
It’s a quick read, this good-news Chicago partially affordable project that has been recently completed. Note the number of partners involved to pull the project together. Consider especially the number of funding sources. These are the ones that agreed to provide funding. How many other charities, government agencies, etc. were approached but found no room in their budgets to support this project?
The number of partners and funding resources tells a story of delays necessary for the negotiations to bring a partially affordable housing project to fruition. To use an old expression, is this any way to run a railroad?
Over time, PPPs continue to demonstrate their inability to deliver the volume of housing needed to stem a housing crisis, particularly for those with the lowest incomes. Can the housing needs of a nation be left entirely to highly time-inefficient PPPs, regardless of the commendable mixed income housing projects that deliver access to ‘better’ neighbourhoods?
Read more in Multi-Housing News: Partially Affordable Community Opens Doors In Chicago
Footnotes
- What does ‘partially affordable’ mean? Terms such as ‘truly affordable’ or ‘workforce’ refer to the ability of an income-defined group of people to be able to afford a home. Partial affordability, by contrast, is the description of the income range within a housing project, only part of which is affordable to some people. Otherwise, the rest of the project is composed of free market homes, which are presumably unaffordable to a wide range of lower incomes which these days are considered to encompass the middle and lower classes.
- For a detailed exploration of the benefits of partially affordable projects, read more in RENTCafe: Two-Thirds Of Partially-Affordable Housing Is Built In Desirable Areas
