HUD’s new strategy for TOD

Mixed-income housing

Jon Boyd, Jul 01, 10.

Shaun Donovan, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary announced his “strategy of the month” on his web site. The strategy, which he calls, “Mixed-income housing near transit,” strives to cut household expenses for low-income families by creating affordable housing near transit.

[T]he Center for Transit-Oriented Development has released the report, Mixed-Income Housing Near Transit: Increasing Affordability with Location Efficiency. The report outlines the benefits of locating mixed-income housing within transit-oriented developments (TODs), and also highlights strategies for overcoming obstacles to its development.

Policies and regulations at different levels of government facilitate building housing types for people who drive as their principal mode of transportation. Land and structures for parking cars, for example, increase the cost of housing. An urban building with 100 apartments would cost between $20,000-$40,000, the Center for Transit-Oriented Development report says, based on a garage parking requirement of two spaces per apartment.

The Center for Transit-Oriented Development also suggests local incentives for transit-oriented development, inclusionary zoning, linking low-income housing tax credits to TOD developments, value-capture, land-banking, and tax-increment investment.

Texas law allows for the creation of Tax Increment Reinvestment Zones (TIRZ), and Houston has several, including the Midtown Management District. Houston Tomorrow has just begun work on a health impact assessment, in partnership with Texas Southern University and Baylor College of Medicine, to look at the potential health benefits of transit-oriented development along Houston’s 5 new light rail lines to give suggestions for local decision makers to implement policies to encourage and allow TOD.

(Image Credit: Foundation Communities)