Experts discuss affordable housing and transit

Panelists are optimistic

Steve Hawley, Oct 21, 09.

Experts from the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Public Policy Institute, the National Housing Trust, and Reconnecting America recently held a panel discussion in Washington, DC to discuss how to integrate housing and transportation policies, according to the National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) blog.

NARP sums up the problem nicely:

The qualities that make homes near transit lines desirable also drive up their prices, so the need for affordable housing accessible to transit is critical. As you get farther from the center of a city, housing gets less expensive, but transportation costs grow at a higher rate than the cost of a home drops.

One of the problems, the experts noted, is that transit-oriented development tends to attract higher-priced apartments and homes that many people cannot afford. Christopher Leinberger, a prominent sustainable developer, agreed with this assessment at the Texas Triangle conference that Houston Tomorrow co-hosted last month, saying that demand for transit-oriented development greatly exceeds supply. Zoning laws and ordinances also make it difficult to build walkable districts in most cities.

The panelists added that transit is vital to the booming retired population, as many of those individuals either cannot or do not want to drive. Without adequate transit options, their mobility will be severely limited. Marla Turner, Associate State Director for AARP Texas, talked about this issue at the Changing Directions town hall in May, also co-hosted by Houston Tomorrow. Turner told the audience, “The majority of [Harris County] seniors [over 60 years old] have to get rides from other people. ... We’re talking about health care reform, and we can’t even get people to their appointments.”

NARP says that the panel in Washington ended on a high note:

Despite the enormity of the challenge, a sense of progress emerged in the conference room. The Obama Administration was given high marks for its attention to these matters. The rapidly changing American demographic and urgent need for solutions to the energy and climate crises make the transition of the American lifestyle back to one based on more cohesive communities and more reliance on public transportation, particularly rail, all but inevitable.