In spite of affordable housing being an urgent crisis in many nations, there remain major, perhaps unavoidable, delays in approving property development, whether it includes affordable housing or not.
Zoning negotiations, environmental assessments, site remediation, NIMBY challenges and other holdups stretch approvals by months or years.
One alternative to holding land or buildings empty and unused during the lengthy planning process has been dubbed ‘meanwhile’ space. As in a community-minded developer exclaiming, “This project is dragging on forever. So, meanwhile what can we usefully do with the property?”
Yes, ‘meanwhile’ space is only temporary, but as Paris has been discovering, it can make for a vibrant social scene, as well as temporary housing for homeless people.
Read more in The Guardian: The rise of the ‘meanwhile space’: how empty properties are finding second lives
