A ‘pricy’ affordable housing project has Portland, Oregon’s mayor Ted Wheeler on the defensive after blessing an unusual construction technique. The unusual? The building will be the tallest in America that is constructed of cross-laminated lumber. And the pricy? For all the huffing and puffing against his choice, ‘pricy’ is a slippery term for at least two reasons.
First, what is pricy to build, then lasts a hundred years, can be considered inexpensive. Mayor Wheeler’s justifications for choosing this project primarily address the benefit of long term economy.
But the mayor’s choice shines a light on second, perhaps even more important reason, one which over the years has needlessly crippled housing projects. In the financing and construction of much affordable housing, there has been a persistent prejudice in social attitudes towards those who need housing assistance. Wealthy folks deserve quality design, quality construction, quality materials. Those who need housing assistance are ‘not entitled’ to quality of any kind. It simply does not befit their station in life.
Over and over again, housing authorities have crippled their own projects by choosing unimaginative, sometimes brutal design, then skimped on both building materials and construction techniques. When buildings rapidly deteriorate, the blame is placed on poor tenants, who do not appreciate how much has been done for those who are entitled to so little.
The latest and most horrific example of this thinking has been the near universal attitude of British housing authorities faced with upscale protests of their ugly social housing towers. Independently across the country, councils across the country chose to cover over their design mistakes by cladding their buildings in dangerous, substandard building materials. One result: London’s deadly Grenfell Tower fire that killed so many people.
It should be long past time to carefully think through long term housing projects, approving neither pennywise and pound foolish designs, nor those which are self-fulfilling prophesies: particularly those poor government decisions which result in poor construction which begets poor management who blame their failures on poor tenants.
Read more at oregonlive.com: Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler defends decision to invest in pricey affordable housing complex
