What happens when a real estate company asks kids to describe how they think of home? Home is a place for memories and family -- not so much a material space, but more of a place created in the mind. Why do we think this is interesting?
As Carol Lloyd writes in this San Francisco Chronicle piece about the findings of the contest, the connection between home and homeownership usually goes unquestioned -- the assumption is that whatever the problem, homeownership is the answer. (This attitude is apparent in the design of the poster Coldwell Banker targeted to elementary school students, where individual houses are prominently featured and an apartment building is cropped out of the frame.) Similarly, rental housing gets neglected in policy and people who live in rentals are framed in the media being as less than fully American.
When the question comes around to what's green, the answer is clear: those who live in rental housing tend to use less energy, generate less trash, and have shorter commutes to work than their counterparts in single family homes. So why not build rentals that have the same benefits as single-family homes? A rental that's well-built, quiet, and has easy access to the outdoors should be every bit as appealing as a brand new house on the suburban fringe.
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Comments (2)
yes but you could build the same units more affordably (ie less profits for a company or local gov't) and offer them at low interest rates for people to buy then they wouldn't be wasting their money on rent. lots of apartments are condo-izing, but they often are too expensive for the residents to buy in.
investing in your own home builds your wealth. i live in an affordable condo. it is subsidized by the developer marketing luxury homes in the same development (www.laspalmasviejas.com). even though the price will never rise in the same way that conventional housing will (gov't limits yearly increase in value), the home must stay affordable for 99 years. I can give this to my son if I die. He will have a home and not have to rent. All the money that you pay in, you reap the rewards. Rental units are for others - capitalist landlords! - to profit from. there have been some major bloody revolutions in the last century to prove that people do not like to pay rent to rich people! humans seem to prefer having a say in how they live :) too bad none of the revolutions quite worked out in quite the way the people hoped for!
i think there is a semantics issue here: when you describe the green benefits of "rental housing" what you are actually describing is the density (apartments/townhouses vs. single-family homes on large lots) of the housing than whether the occupant is an owner or renter. here in new york city most homeowners are also apartment dwellers. conversely, throughout the country many single-family homes are occupied by renters.